OFF THE WIRE
Washington, DC: The federal government's anti-drug efforts are inefficient and ineffective, according to a report issued last
week by the Congressional watchdog agency, the Government Accountability Office
(GAO).
The report assessed whether the Obama administration's anti-drug strategies,
as articulated by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)
in its 2010 National Drug Control Strategy report, have yet to achieve its
stated goals. In virtually all cases it had not, authors reported.
Concluded the report: "The public health, social, and economic
consequences of illicit drug use, coupled with the constrained fiscal
environment of recent years, highlight the need to ensure that federal programs
efficiently and effectively use their resources to address this problem. ONDCP
has developed a 5-year Strategy to reduce illicit drug use and its consequences,
but our analysis shows lack of progress toward achieving four of the Strategy's
five goals for which primary data are available."
Specifically, the GAO report's authors criticized the administration for
failing to adequately address rising levels of youth marijuana consumption. They
also rebuffed the ONDCP's allegation that increased rates of adolescent marijuana use
are a result of the passage of statewide laws decriminalizing the plant or
allowing for its therapeutic use, stating: "The studies that assessed the effect
of medical marijuana laws that met our review criteria found mixed results on
effects of the laws on youth marijuana use. ... [S]tudies that assessed the
effect of marijuana decriminalization that met our review criteria found little
to no effect of the laws on youth marijuana use."
Full text of the report is online at: http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/653354.pdf.
