Statement re: Physician Leadership On National Drug Policy

National Council on Alcoholism & Drug Dependence
Tuesday, 17 March 1998

The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, founded in 1944, supports a variety of measures to prevent and reduce alcohol and other drug related problems. Our mission is to provide information, education, help and hope to those afflicted with alcoholism and other drug dependencies. We have 115 Affiliates across the country that provide objective information and referrals for individuals and families seeking intervention and treatment; they serve as resource centers for literature and audio-visual materials; they offer community prevention and education programs and, they provide advocacy for alcoholics and other drug-dependent persons and their families in local and state governments.

NCADD is very pleased that this prominent group of physicians has taken on the drug policy issue. We have been working for many years to make prevention and treatment equal partners in the national drug control strategy, supporting each point in your consensus statement in various ways. We greatly appreciate the fact that General Barry McCaffrey, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, has been working to increase the role of prevention and treatment in the national drug control strategy. The Physician Leadership on National Drug Policy can be a key player in helping General McCaffrey, NCADD and other groups make that a reality.

Physicians, especially general practitioners, are in a unique situation to assess potential or actual drug-related problems with their patients. NCADD would like to see medical schools include alcohol and other drug screening and assessments as part of their basic curriculum. That is one important way to reduce harm and increase the facilitation of getting adequate and appropriate treatment because patients trust their doctors and are willing to take their advice.

Policymakers at the national, state and local levels are looking for precisely the kind of credibility that medical doctors and researchers can provide -- namely that prevention and treatment work and they must be included as key components in our national drug control strategy. In 1992, NCADD and 57 other national organizations, many of which have spoken here today, drafted an alternative drug strategy that parallels your consensus statement in many ways. Back then, we challenged the emphasis on drug interdiction and law enforcement activities, and suggested that a better way to fight drug-related crime is to make prevention and treatment equal partners in a drug control strategy.

As PLNDP begins to address these issues, we encourage you to look at one of the most pressing problems we face in the refocusing our national drug policies -- the illegal use of alcohol by young Americans. The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) has made the rejection of illegal alcohol use by America's youth one of its five goals in the national drug control strategy. NCADD strongly supports ONDCP's objectives to reach that goal because kids who drink are more likely to use other drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and inhalants.

Policymakers must recognize that alcohol is the drug that kids use the most and leads to more problems, including school drop out, acquaintance rapes, vandalism, and death, and must be convinced to include it in drug use reduction programs. Until they do, we will continue to witness the devastation of young lives due to the illegal use of alcohol.

NCADD urges PLNDP, with its combined influence, to join us in our efforts to prevent illegal underage drinking and provide adequate and appropriate treatment for those young people who need it.

For more information, or to contact National Council on Alcoholism & Drug Dependence, see their website at: www.ncadd.org