President Obama’s 2014 National Drug Control Strategy, issued in July 2014, is a departure from previous approaches to drug policy. The strategy focuses on both the public health and public safety aspects of alcohol, tobacco and substance use disorders. It focuses on addiction as a disease and on the importance of preventing drug use; providing treatment to those who need it, including those in the criminal justice system. It provides support for all individuals and family affected by addiction (Whitehouse.gov 2014).
National Drug Control Strategy Goals to be accomplished by 2015
Objective 1: Curtail unlawful drug consumption in America
• Decrease the 30-day prevalence of drug use among 12– to 17-year-olds by 15%
• Decrease
…show more content…
Opium turned out to be exceptionally famous after the American Civil War. Cocaine followed in the 1880's. Heroin was utilized to treat respiratory ailment, cocaine was utilized as a part of Coca-Cola, and morphine was regularly prescribed by doctors as a pain reliever. The abuse of opium and cocaine at the end of the 19th century reached epidemic proportions. Local governments started forbidding opium caves and opium importation. In 1906, the Pure Food and Drug Act required all doctors to label their medications, while public service campaigns urged people not to use medicines containing opiates. The Harrison Narcotics Act, of 1914, was the United States' first government drug policy. The act restricted the manufacture and sale of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and morphine. The act was aggressively enforced. Physicians, who were prescribing drugs to addicts on “maintenance” programs, were harshly punished. Between 1915 and 1938, more than 5,000 physicians were convicted and fined or jailed (Trebach, 1982, p. 125.) In 1919, The Supreme Court ruled against the maintenance of addicts as a legitimate form of treatment in Web v. United States. America’s first federal drug policy targeted physicians and