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The
Inconvenient Truth about Drug Addiction in America
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The savage drug wars taking place in Mexico especially
on the northern border with America, has brought into
sharp focus the growing menace of the drug trade to
the United States. It should also focus attention on
the American appetite for drugs, what is fueling that
appetite, and how on the demand side that appetite can
be curbed.
The inconvenient truth that many would not wish to admit
is that we are a nation of drug addicts. In terms of
expenditure on illicit drugs and on the illegal use
of legal drugs (as in prescription medications) no other
nation on the face of the earth can outspend. America
singularly is responsible for the promotion and maintenance
and survival of the multi-billion dollar drug trade
across the globe. This is the inconvenient truth that
we would rather deny.
On her recent trip to Mexico, Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton spoke to the truth of America's relationship
to the drug trade. She asserted that the US demand for
illegal drugs and the illegal trade in guns that attends
it, is largely responsible for the drug war that is
now being waged in Mexico. There is the strong fear
that it will not be long before this violence spills
over into American cities.
No one can deny the accuracy of Mrs. Clinton's remarks.
She was not only brave in making it, but spoke the truth
about a matter about which many Americans would prefer
to live in denial. The sad truth is that American drug
policy over the years has failed. The only people who
have succeeded over the years of this ongoing trade
are the traffickers and their allied supports. They
have become more ingenuous and successful at what they
do while governments have remained impotent in making
any real dent in their operations.
Mrs. Clinton did not elaborate on this, but now that
she has admitted that America's appetitie for drugs
has become a real national security issue, what does
the government plan to do about it? What is to be done
about the gargantuan American appetite for drugs? What
is it in the American psyche and emotional makeup that
contributes to this huge craving for an escape from
reality which drugs provide?
The answers to these questions are obviously not easy,
but they have to be asked. One of the reasons for the
failure of American drug policy over the years is that
there has been a greater emphasis placed on the supply
side of the equation than the demand. We have concentrated
our efforts on stopping drugs coming into the country
while ignoring any real emphasis on the demand side-why
Americans have such an insatiable appetite for drugs
of all description.
Although the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration
(SAMHSA) has reported that drug use in the various categories
of hard and prescription drugs has remained relatively
stable between 2006 and 2007, the level of drug addiction
in the population is still frightening. While illicit
drug use among the nation's adolescents has declined,
illicit use of prescription drugs (especially oxycontin
and vicodin) between the 18-25 age groups has risen.
The bottom-line is that drug addiction continues to
be a serious menace to the health of our society. Now
it has become a national security concern more than
it has ever been. Our policy makers seem not to be getting
the message of the risks to society posed by an increasing
population of drug addicts. Hardly any mention was made
of it in the last presidential election campaign. In
many states throughout the country subsidies to drug
programs often become the first casualties of any termination
of funding when things get hard in the economy as presently
obtains.
We cannot continue to bury our heads in the sand and
wait for the problem to blow away. Every American that
uses an illegal drug must be told that he or she is
contributing to the demise of America. Directly or indirectly
he or she is contributing to every sale that is made
and every gun that is exchanged for drugs. Furthermore,
they are unwitting accomplices in the corruption of
national institutions and the undermining of law and
order in the society. They are contributors to the wrecking
of families and the cauterization of the promise of
our young.
They must be told that if there are problems that
may force them down the road of addiction they must
be educated to the alternatives such as counseling and
other forms of therapeutic intervention. Government
policy must be aimed toward supporting such programs
increasingly with grants. There are alternatives and
part of dealing with the demand side is to present and
educate people to the alternatives that exist.
The president must use the bully pulpit of the presidency
to talk more to this issue of drug addiction and encourage
people to the available alternatives. Finally, drug
education must and its menace to society must become
a viable part of the curriculum of our schools starting
from grade 8 to grade 12. These are not panaceas but
this writer believes that they are steps in the right
direction in helping to stem the demand for illicit
drugs. It is time that we all become addicted to the
truth, however inconvenient, of the danger that we face
from the illicit drug trade.
Rev. Dr. Raulston Nembhard
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Blog this article,www.drraulston.blogspot.com
Read other articles by Dr.Raulston, click here.
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President
Obama's Balancing Act
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Unprecedented crises bring unprecedented opportunities.
This is true for individuals as it is for organizations
and nations. Even his worst detractors will agree that
President Obama is faced with a crisis that no other
president has had to face in modern times. Perhaps never
since the Civil War have we faced such great perils
as a nation.
And this is not just a national problem but a worldwide
one. The entire world is depending on the USA to pull
it out of the worst recession that it has seen in fifty
years. If America succeeds in putting its own house
in order this will augur well for the recovery of the
world economy.
The unprecedented nature of the crisis has provided
opportunities for this new president that was not afforded
any before him in recent times in getting his agenda
moved through Congress. He has the ammunition to do
this. The largest banks and financial houses, once the
bastions of American financial stability, are teetering
on the brink of collapse. The Democrats now control
the White House and both houses of Congress. The Republicans
are in disarray. If the their fulminations at the recent
CPAC gathering is anything to go by, it will be a long
time before that party can be considered seriously to
take over the reins of power in the country. Finally,
the president continues to enjoy a high job performance
rating. The honeymoon continues, but people are willing
to give him a chance to use the opportunity he has been
given to wisely to govern in their best interests.
This is where the rub is. In the big stimulus bill that
was just passed the president is hoping to give a needed
boost to the economy. The Budget that will soon make
its round through Congress is the biggest that has been
passed by any president in the history of the United
States. Needless to say, this has the Republicans hopping
mad. They believe the country is going socialist. Not
only is this charge not true but it is disingenuous.
It does not account for the reckless fiscal deficit
that was racked up by the Bush Administration and which,
for the first six years of a Republican Congress, was
rubber stamped by the Republicans. Furthermore the Obama
administration has only continued the policy of the
Bush Administration in spending huge sums to prop up
failing financial entities. In other words, it is the
Republicans in power that started the country on the
path to socialism.
The president ardently believes that the policies he
is putting in place and which the budget underpins,
are good for the country at this time. He seems to be
motivated by the Powell military doctrine of throwing
a massive amount of resources at the key sectors of
the economy that he has identified. Only in this case
no clear exit strategy is apparent. We hear of trillions
of dollars to be spent but no one is quite clear, not
even our best economists, as to whether these dollars
will bring the desired results for the country. And
all of this is being done in a hurry without, as far
as one can see, the benefit of calm, reasoned study.
The president is engaged in a delicate balancing act.
He would well be cautioned that in the unprecedented
opportunities that have been opened to him to spend,
that he approaches the matter with sober realism. Can
the economy withstand the spending shocks that might
be generated? There may be the need to do a "spending
stress" test to ascertain whether the economy can withstand
all this spending that the president proposes.
Rev. Dr. Raulston Nembhard
To respond to this article, click here.
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