{"id":441815,"date":"2010-03-18T06:00:42","date_gmt":"2010-03-18T10:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/?p=79552"},"modified":"2010-03-18T06:00:42","modified_gmt":"2010-03-18T10:00:42","slug":"white-house-shifts-away-from-%e2%80%98war-on-drugs%e2%80%99-rhetoric-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/441815","title":{"rendered":"White House Shifts Away From \u2018War on Drugs\u2019 Rhetoric"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_53342\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"width: 490px\"><a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/shooting-up.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-53342\" title=\"needle exchange\" src=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/shooting-up.jpg\" alt=\"The Obama administration is changing its tune on needle exchanges and other harm-reduction policies.\" width=\"480\" height=\"318\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Obama administration has signaled shifts on needle exchanges and other harm reduction policies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Quietly, free of headlines and fanfare, the Obama White  House is toning down the bellicose &#8220;war-on-drugs&#8221; position that\u2019s  defined the country\u2019s narcotics policy for the last 25 years.<\/p>\n<p>Appearing  in Vienna last week for the 53rd annual United Nations meeting on  global drug policy, administration officials shifted away from the  decades-old approach of attacking drug use as a crime to be penalized.  Instead they moved toward a strategy of tackling addiction as an illness  to be treated, a number of health and human rights advocates who  attended the event told TWI.<\/p>\n<p><div id=\"attachment_3087\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"width: 140px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3087\" title=\"congress\" src=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/congress.jpg\" alt=\"Image by: Matt Mahurin\" width=\"130\" height=\"130\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image by: Matt Mahurin<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"floatButtons\">\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/digg.com\/tools\/diggthis.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\"\n\tsrc=\"http:\/\/d.yimg.com\/ds\/badge2.js\"\n\tbadgetype=\"square\">\n\t<?php the_permalink(); ?><\/script><\/div>\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px;\">\n\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\ntweetmeme_source = \"TWI_news\";\ntweetmeme_service = \"bit.ly\";\n<\/script> <script src=\"http:\/\/tweetmeme.com\/i\/scripts\/button.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"float: left;\"><a name=\"fb_share\" type=\"box_count\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php\">Share<\/a><script src=\"http:\/\/static.ak.fbcdn.net\/connect.php\/js\/FB.Share\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> Drug reformers for  years have promoted so-called &#8220;harm reduction&#8221; measures as a more  effective and humane way to treat drug addiction and the diseases that  often accompany it &#8212; an approach that runs counter to the punitive  attitude epitomized by the Reagan administration\u2019s \u201cwar on drugs.\u201d And  while the Obama White House &#8212; behind Gil Kerlikowske, the White House  drug czar, and his deputy, Thomas McLellan &#8212; remains officially opposed  to the hot-button harm reduction language, officials have also conceded  that the current strategy isn&#8217;t working, advocates say. That sharp  break from past administrations has left reformers hopeful that the  Obama White House will mark a new era in the nation&#8217;s fight against drug  abuse &#8212; one that prioritizes treatment and prevention above rap sheets  and prison time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was virtually no reference  to a criminal justice approach,\u201d Allan Clear, executive director of the  Harm Reduction Coalition, an advocacy group, said of the U.S. delegation  in Vienna. \u201cI\u2019m just so used to being appalled by their behavior \u2026 It  was very encouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Deborah Peterson Small,  executive director of Break the Chains, another group advocating for  drug-policy reforms, agreed, noting a brand new willingness among White  House officials to embrace certain elements of the harm reduction  strategy. When she spoke about treatment reforms to U.S. drug officials  in Vienna in 2008, Small said, the entire delegation walked out on her.  &#8220;This year it was completely different,&#8221; she said. &#8220;We finally had a  sense that they were listening.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The comments mark quite a  departure from those that drug reformers were making a year ago at the  same U.N. event, where the Obama administration <a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/32748\/us-stand-jeopardizes-global-anti-hiv-push\">killed<\/a> international efforts to include harm reduction language as part of a  U.N. document that will guide the next decade\u2019s global drug policy. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.avert.org\/needle-exchange.htm\">Harm reduction<\/a> refers to things like drug-substitute treatments and clean-needle  exchanges &#8212; programs being tried (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journals\/lancet\/article\/PIIS0140-6736%2896%2911380-5\/fulltext?_eventId=login\">with<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.who.int\/hiv\/pub\/idu\/e4a-drug\/en\/index.html\">promising<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ancd.org.au\/news-and-announcements-2006\/australia-commemorates-20-years-of-needle-syringe-programs.html\">results<\/a>)  in a number of countries to battle the spread of HIV\/AIDS, Hepatitis C  and other drug-related illnesses. The White House <a href=\"http:\/\/vienna.usmission.gov\/090212-unodc-cnd.html\">has argued<\/a> that the broad harm reduction language is &#8220;ambiguous&#8221; and could include  controversial programs the administration doesn&#8217;t support, including  drug legalization, drug consumption rooms and heroin prescription  initiatives.<\/p>\n<p>But there are clear signs that the  attitude is changing &#8212; and the policies are beginning to follow suit.<\/p>\n<p>With  Obama\u2019s vocal support, for example, Congress last year repealed the  21-year-old ban on federal funding for needle exchange programs. And  last week in Vienna, not only did the United States endorse <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unodc.org\/documents\/commissions\/CND-Uploads\/CND-53-RelatedFiles\/ECN72010_L6Rev1EV1051780.pdf\">a  new U.N. resolution<\/a> promoting access to controlled medicines for  legitimate medical purposes (commonly considered to include drug  dependency treatments, like methadone for heroin addiction), but it  co-sponsored <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unodc.org\/documents\/commissions\/CND-Uploads\/CND-53-RelatedFiles\/ECN72010_L11Rev1eV1051909.pdf\">a  separate declaration<\/a> designed to tackle the treatment gap plaguing  HIV patients. The latter resolution, while it doesn&#8217;t mention harm  reduction specifically, references <a href=\"http:\/\/www.who.int\/hiv\/pub\/idu\/idu_target_setting_guide.pdf\">a  U.N. technical guide<\/a> promoting certain harm reduction measures, like  needle exchange and opioid substitution therapy. Rebecca Schleifer,  advocate for the health and human rights division at Human Rights Watch,  said this week that the HIV document represents &#8220;the most vocal  support&#8221; the White House has ever given for HIV-treatment efforts  focusing on human rights.<\/p>\n<p>Opponents of needle  exchange and other harm reduction measures argue that the human rights  groups have misinterpreted the signals coming from the White House in  Vienna. \u201cIf you read Kerlikowske\u2019s statement,\u201d said Lana Beck,  spokeswoman for the Drug Free America Foundation, \u201cclearly there\u2019s  nothing there to indicate any change.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That part is  true. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov\/news\/speech10\/030810_UNCOmmission.pdf\">remarks  prepared<\/a> for Kerlikowske &#8212; officially the director of the Office  of National Drug Control Policy, or ONDCP &#8212; reiterated the  administration&#8217;s opposition to the broader harm reduction language,  arguing that the term &#8220;creates unnecessary confusion&#8221; and might be  misused to &#8220;promote drug use.&#8221; Still, drug reformers were quick to point  out that the drug czar declined to include those passages when he  addressed the crowd in Vienna &#8212; more evidence, they say, that the U.S.  is consciously toning down its traditional war-on-drugs rhetoric.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Traditional  advocates of harm reduction recognized that the United States was a  different animal [this year],\u201d Clear said.<\/p>\n<p>The ONDCP  did not return calls for comment.<\/p>\n<p>For health and  human rights advocates, there remains a long way to go. Like any number  of emotionally charged issues, drug policy is often dictated more by  entrenched ideology than evidence-based rationality. And on Capitol  Hill, there remains a strong sense that drug users are criminals to be  punished, not patients to be treated. For proof, look no further than  the debate over needle exchange. Although a long list of public health  organizations &#8212; including the National Institute of Medicine, the  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health  Organization and the American Public Health Association &#8212; had endorsed  needle exchange as an effective way to reduce HIV\/AIDS without  increasing drug abuse, the politics of Washington <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/cgi-bin\/article.cgi?file=\/chronicle\/archive\/1998\/04\/21\/MN64461.DTL\">kept  the ban in place<\/a> for more than two decades prior to last year&#8217;s  repeal.<\/p>\n<p>Not that some lawmakers aren&#8217;t trying to  reform the punitive mindset surrounding drug use. Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.),  for example, has long-criticized the criminal justice system for  packing the nation&#8217;s prisons with non-violent drug users. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scribd.com\/full\/26428082?access_key=key-2k96dyfeo2wvosjqlk57\">A  description<\/a> of his reform proposal notes that the the war on drugs  hasn&#8217;t diminished drug use, it hasn&#8217;t brought the multi-billion dollar  drug industry under control, and it targets minority offenders  disproportionately. The system, he <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2008\/12\/28\/AR2008122801728_2.html\">says<\/a>,  is &#8220;broken, unfair, [and] locking up the wrong people.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The  Senate Judiciary Committee <a href=\"http:\/\/org2.democracyinaction.org\/o\/5269\/blastContent.jsp?email_blast_KEY=1113557\">approved<\/a> the Webb proposal in January, leaving supporters hopeful that  Democratic leaders will bring the bill to the chamber floor later this  year.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, health and human rights advocates  have vowed to continue their push for health-centered drug reforms,  encouraged by the tone of a White House that seems set to place a  greater emphasis on treatment, health and human rights.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That  would put us on par with most other countries &#8212; like Iran,&#8221; Small  quipped, &#8220;instead of being the leading jailer in the world.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Obama administration has signaled shifts on needle exchanges and other harm reduction policies. Quietly, free of headlines and fanfare, the Obama White House is toning down the bellicose &#8220;war-on-drugs&#8221; position that\u2019s defined the country\u2019s narcotics policy for the last 25 years. Appearing in Vienna last week for the 53rd annual United Nations meeting on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4315,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-441815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4315"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441815\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}