"Nation's drug czar to outline drug policy reform"

[Myrina]

Is this for real? Didn't see mention of it anyplace else. If it is, it's a great change, IMHO - as long as the healthcare system is really going to HELP them and not just take a bunch of money & turn them out like it did for the mentally ill in the 80's/90's.



http://www.wthr.com/story/22061710/nations-drug-czar-to-outline-drug-policy-reform

By BRIAN WITTE
Associated Press
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - President Barack Obama's new strategy for fighting the nation's drug problem will include a greater emphasis on using public health tools to battle addiction and diverting non-violent drug offenders into treatment instead of prisons, under reforms scheduled to be outlined by the nation's drug czar Wednesday.

Gil Kerlikowske, director of the National Drug Control Policy, is scheduled to release Obama's 2013 blueprint for drug policy at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. Millions of people in the United States will become eligible in less than a year for treatment for substance abuse under the new health care overhaul.

...

The strategy also includes a greater emphasis on criminal justice reforms that include drug courts and probation programs aimed at reducing incarceration rates. It also will include community-based policing programs designed to break the cycle of drug use, crime and incarceration while steering law enforcement resources to more serious offenses, according to details of the strategy released by Kerlikowske's office."

[tridim]

1. Surprisingly rational... This is really going to confuse the reflexive Obama haters.

[SamKnause]

2. Drug Policy

Translation;

We will no longer jail marijuana users. It will be mandatory for them to enter rehab, perform community service and pay exorbitant fines.

People over 21 who use marijuana do not need drug counseling.
People over 21 who use marijuana do not need drug rehab.
People over 21 who use marijuana do not need to be hauled into drug courts and fined excessively.

People over 21 who use marijuana need to be left alone to live their lives !!!!!!!!!!!


The fake and failed war on drugs focuses on the least harmful of all drugs; marijuana.

If the U.S. were serious about the drug problem in this country, they would follow the 12 year successful route that Portugal has taken.

[Warren Stupidity]

3. If you are "diverting non-violent drug offenders" you are still

starting from the assumption that self medication is a crime and that people who get high are criminals.

In other words - nothing substantial will change.

[bemildred]

4. More lipstick for the pig. nt