ONDCP Blog

Join Us on September 17 for Recovery Month at the White House

In honor of the 25^th Anniversary of National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) will host a celebratory event at the White House called “Recovery Month at the White House: Celebrating 25 Years.” The event, which will be streamed live on September 17, will feature a panel of recovery advocates who will share their inspirational personal stories and participate in a discussion.  Viewers will be able to tweet questions for the panelists at @Botticelli44 using the hashtag #RecoveryatWH at any time prior to or during the event.

The panel discussion will be moderated by Laurie Dhue, a television journalist and recovery advocate. She will be joined on the panel by:

• Christina Huffington, a young person in recovery;
• Cris Carter, a former NFL football player and current ESPN analyst in recovery;
• Ruben Castaneda, a veteran Washington Post reporter who recently wrote about his path to recovery in his book, S Street Rising;
• Tim Willson, the mayor of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota.

The Recovery Month at the White House event will help raise awareness of substance use disorders and recovery, highlight Administration priorities and accomplishments in this area, educate the public and policymakers, and help dispel stigma by promoting the understanding that addiction is a disease and not the result of a personal or family failing.  The webcast will also serve to inspire and mobilize the millions of Americans in recovery while holding out hope to millions of people across the country currently struggling with addiction to alcohol or other drugs.

We urge you to take the opportunity to watch, participate via Twitter, and post to other social media sites about the event. And if you’re planning to host a viewing party, we’d love to hear about it.  Register your viewing party here.

Please share with your friends, loved ones, and colleagues that “Recovery Month at the White House: Celebrating 25 Years” will be webcast live from 2-4 p.m. EST, September 17. Tune in and spread the word!

We hope you will join us for this special event. Until then, check our Americans in Recovery Facebook page, @ONDCP and Acting Director Botticelli’s Twitter account for updates. 

Securing the Border: A Strategy to Reduce Drug Trafficking Between the United States and Canada

Today I traveled to the Bakken oil field region to announce the release of the 2014 National Northern Border Counternarcotics Strategy (Strategy), which updates and expands upon the Obama Administration’s first Strategy released in 2012. Like the inaugural Strategy, this document sets forth the Administration’s plan to reduce the illegal trafficking of drugs across the U.S.-Canada border.

There are inherent challenges in curtailing illicit drug trafficking across the Northern border. Among them are the vastness of the border itself, which extends more than 5 thousand miles, as well as the ever-evolving illegal drug production and trafficking trends that confront law enforcement officers. In fact, my visit earlier today was prompted by one such trend: the emergence of drug trafficking and related crime resulting from the development of the Bakken oil fields of northeastern Montana, northwestern North Dakota, and southern Saskatchewan. In recognition of this emerging threat, the 2014 Strategy includes a section dedicated to drug trafficking in the Bakken region and our efforts to address this threat.

Despite the challenges that we face, we are confident that by building upon our strong history and shared commitment with our Canadian partners, we will succeed in reducing cross-border illegal drug trafficking. Through integrated cross-border law enforcement efforts, the United States and Canada will build upon existing relationships, programs, and policies; will seek further opportunities to pursue national security by disrupting transnational criminal organizations; and will improve information sharing, enabling more efficient and effective use of resources to curb the flow of illicit drugs and drug proceeds across the Northern border.

The Strategy provides an overview of current counternarcotics efforts and identifies strategic objectives and specific actions that support the strategic goal to substantially reduce the flow of illicit drugs and drug proceeds along the Northern border. In updating and expanding upon the Administration’s first Strategy, the 2014 Strategy incorporates some significant changes and additions, such as the inclusion of sections addressing drug trafficking in the Bakken oil field region and the emerging threat posed by synthetic drugs; enhancements to the financial investigations section, including the addition of three new action items focusing on partnering with the private sector, targeting virtual currency and electronic payment devices, and targeting trade-based money laundering schemes; the addition of two new action items focused on eliminating public corruption; and significant enhancements to the section detailing our cooperative efforts with our Canadian counterparts.

Michael Botticelli is the Acting Director of National Drug Control Policy. 

Acting Director Botticelli Addresses Coalition Leaders at CADCA’s Mid-Year Training Institute

On July 23, ONDCP Acting Director Michael Botticelli met with hundreds of young people and coalition leaders from around the country at the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America’s (CADCA’s) Mid-Year Training Institute in Orlando, Florida. Attendees included young people taking part in a CADCA youth leadership initiative and grantees in ONDCP’s Drug-Free Communities (DFC) Support Program.

It was a busy day for the Acting Director, featuring speeches, roundtable discussions, and even a chance to show off his acting skills.

Speaking at a DFC Town Hall meeting, Acting Director Botticelli shared details of the Administration’s recently released 2014 National Drug Control Strategy. At one point he was joined at the lectern by DFC Administrator Helen Hernandez. Together, they applauded the work of the anti-drug coalitions, whose leaders voiced their appreciation for the Strategy and, particularly, its emphasis on preventing drug use before it begins.

Acting Director Botticelli drew even greater applause with his announcement that ONDCP will increase funding for CADCA’s National Youth Leadership Initiative (NYLI), which equips young leaders with the knowledge and tools they need to get involved and bring about positive change in their communities. Specifically, ONDCP will provide additional funds to support the development of youth leaders representing special populations, such as LGBT youth, African-American and Hispanic youth, and youth from military families.

Earlier in the day, the Acting Director took part in several roundtable discussions with DFC coalitions, exploring such themes as how to address the issue of marijuana legalization and the importance of forging partnerships with ONDCP’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program.

In what was certainly the liveliest event of the day, the Acting Director got to play the part of “Mayor Botticelli” in a mock Town Council meeting. His task, which he eagerly accepted, was to preside over a make-believe council of young people as it heard opposing arguments and then voted on a proposal to ban the use and sale of “medical” marijuana.

Throughout the day, Acting Director Botticelli met and spoke with local coalition leaders, who shared stories of their success in implementing local solutions to local issues. Grantees were impressed by the time and energy he put into the event and thrilled by the Administration’s show of support for the DFC program and anti-drug coalitions nationwide.

Helen Hernandez is grants administrator for the Drug-Free Communities program. 

Response to The New York Times Editorial Board's Call for Federal Marijuana Legalization

The New York Times editorial board opined in its Sunday July 27, 2014 edition that the Federal government should legalize marijuana for adults aged 21 years and older. The New York Times editorial board compares Federal marijuana policy to the failure of alcohol prohibition and advocates for legalization based on the harm inflicted on young African American men who become involved in the criminal justice system as a result of marijuana possession charges. We agree that the criminal justice system is in need of reform and that disproportionality exists throughout the system.  However, marijuana legalization is not the silver bullet solution to the issue.

In its argument, The New York Times editorial team failed to mention a cascade of public health problems associated with the increased availability of marijuana. While law enforcement will always play an important role in combating violent crime associated with the drug trade, the Obama Administration approaches substance use as a public health issue, not merely a criminal justice problem.

The editorial ignores the science and fails to address public health problems associated with increased marijuana use. Here are the facts:

• Marijuana use affects the developing brain. A recent study in Brain reveals impairment of the development of structures in some regions of the brain following prolonged marijuana use that began in adolescence or young adulthood.[1] Marijuana use is associated with cognitive impairment, including lower IQ among adult chronic users who began using marijuana at an early age.[2]
• Substance use in school age children has a detrimental effect on their academic achievement. Students who received earned D’s or F’s were more likely to be current users of marijuana than those who earned A’s (45% vs. 10%).[3]         
• Marijuana is addictive. Estimates from research suggest that about 9 percent of users become addicted to marijuana. This number increases to about 17 percent among those who start young and to 25-50 percent among people who use marijuana daily.[4]
• Drugged driving is a threat to our roadways. Marijuana significantly impairs coordination and reaction time and is the illicit drug most frequently found to be involved in automobile accidents, including fatal ones.[5]

The editors of The New York Times may have valid concerns about disproportionality throughout our criminal justice system.  But we as policy makers cannot ignore the basic scientific fact that marijuana is addictive and marijuana use has harmful consequences.  Increased consumption leads to higher public health and financial costs for society. Addictive substances like alcohol and tobacco, which are legal and taxed, already result in much higher social costs than the revenue they generate. The cost to society of alcohol alone is estimated to be more than 15 times the revenue gained by its taxation.[6] For this reason, the Obama Administration and the Office of National Drug Control Policy remain committed to drug use prevention, treatment, support for recovery, and innovative criminal justice strategies to break the cycle of drug use and associated crime. This approach is helping improve public health and safety in communities across the United States.

Two recent studies by the nonpartisan RAND Institute suggest that policies making drugs more available would likely not eliminate illicit sales or increase tax revenues to the extent that marijuana legalization advocates predict.  The first study examined various methods of measuring marijuana use and found that people under 21 account for a substantial share of marijuana consumption.  Under most legalization schemes those under 21 would not be able to purchase marijuana legally; therefore, they would continue to turn to the grey market of illicit or diverted legal marijuana to obtain the drug.  The second study examined the likely impact of California’s 2012 initiative to legalize marijuana use and concluded that dramatically lowered prices for marijuana as a result of legalization could mean substantially lower potential tax revenue for the state.

We are also keeping a close eye on the states of Washington and Colorado in conformance with the directive provided by the Attorney General in August 2013.

Any discussion on the issue should be guided by science and evidence, not ideology and wishful thinking. The Obama Administration continues to oppose legalization of marijuana and other illegal drugs because it flies in the face of a public health approach to reducing drug use and its consequences. Our approach is founded on the understanding of addiction as a disease that can be successfully prevented and treated, and from which people can recover. We will continue to focus on genuine drug policy reform – a strategy that rejects extremes, and promotes expanded access to treatment, evidence-based prevention efforts, and alternatives to incarceration.

Note: This post was updated with a correction from Beau Kilmer, an author of the two RAND Corporation studies mentioned above.