Thaindian News

By Meena Kar
Washington, May 12, (THAINDIAN NEWS) On Tuesday a new anti-drug policy was announced by the President of United States Barack Obama who said that the new policy will help to curb the drug problems and will address the issue on a broader plane. The summary of the policy that was declared suggests that the new policy will try to reduce the drug use among the youth by 15 percent along with reducing the number of deaths caused by the drug use by 2015. 10 percent reduction is expected in the cases of drug driving.

Announcing the policy, President Barack Obama said that the new anti-drug policy addresses the issue of drug use in a more balanced way. He called the problem to be a persistent, unsolved social problem that the country had previously tried to deal with by enforcing laws that tried to wage “war on drugs”. Criticizing the previous attempts made by the government to address the drug issue, Gil Kerlikowske, the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy said that the new attempt is in no way a “war” against drug. He said that “calling it a war really limits your resources”. He mentioned to media sources that looking at the issue as a “public safety problem” and as a public health problem provide a more sensible idea about the new policy.

The new anti-drug plan will encourage health care professionals to take early note of any kind of drug use by the patients through making general inquiries about drug use during regular checkups. It will ensure early intervention on such matters. The policy will also try to build up set ups that might detect doctors who prescribe addictive pain killers without there being any need of it.