The Lost War on Drugs

I admit it.  I have Obamacare fatigue.

I’m tired of endless stories about website glitches and the small numbers of people who rushed to buy health insurance three months before it would even go into effect.  But I am most fatigued by the newest invented controversy about the so-called “health-insurance-you-like” policies that have been outlawed because they do not meet even the bare minimum standards established by the law.  That’s right – the American people just love lousy health insurance!

Source: NSDUH, 2013

So I thought I would write about something less controversial – drugs.  Because some new facts suggest that if we really want to change a useless federal policy, we will end – as quickly as we can – our failed War on Drugs.

President Richard M. Nixon declared “War on Drugs” in June of 1971.  We have been fighting this war for forty-two years now, long enough to determine if it has made any difference in our lives.  It has. 

The War on Drugs has loaded up our jails and prisons, but has resulted in no discernible impact on illicit drug use among children or adults – except, maybe, to increase it.

Please don’t take my word for this.  Just take a look at the data.

According to the 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, released a little over a month ago, only 19 percent of people over the age of 65 have ever used illicit drugs during their lifetime.  This was the last group that entered adulthood before the War on Drugs was declared.

But 47 percent of those born between 1948 and 1952 say they have used illicit drugs.  This was the group entering adulthood when the War on Drugs was declared. 

And for everyone entering adulthood after the declaration of war, lifetime illicit drug use is now greater than 50 percent.

So drug use may be up a little over the last forty years.  Is that enough to declare that the war is a failure? 

Maybe not, but here are some facts that are.  According to the NSDUH:

• An 18 year old (for whom drinking is illegal) is 10 percent more likely to drink than a 65 year old;
• A 16 year old (for whom smoking is illegal) is 36 percent more likely to smoke than a 65 year old;
• A 12 year old is three times more likely to use illicit drugs than a 65 year old.

So we’re losing our children to this war.  And not just compared to that older, pre-drug war generation.  In fact:

• A 15 year old is more likely to use illicit drugs than someone over the age of 40.
• An 18 year old is more likely to drive under the influence of alcohol than someone over the age of 45.
• And more than half of those who start to smoke still do so by age 18 – even though the number of people who first started to smoke after the age of 18 nearly doubled between 2002 and 2012.

When drug use leads to drug problems, it leads to jail and prison, but not to comprehensive drug treatment.

Thank goodness for peer support services, about which I have just written for Health Affairs.

Among the 4 million persons who received treatment for alcohol or illicit drug use last year, more than half – or 2.1 million – received that treatment from a self-help group. 

And despite the fact that prison populations have more than quadrupled since 1978 and that up to 75 percent of prisonershave been found to be dependent on alcohol or drugs at some point in their lives, year only 388,000 – a number equal to just 18 percent of the combined prison and jail population – received alcohol or drug treatment while in prison.

As pitiful as that percentage is, it is still better than what we offer in communities. 

Inadequate funding for drug treatment has meant that for the 1 million youths between the ages of 12 and 17 who needed treated for illicit drug use in 2012, only 121,000 – or 11.6 percent – received treatment in a treatment facility.  And of the almost 900,000 more who needed treatment for alcohol dependency, only 76,000 – or 8.9 percent – were treated in a facility.

And for everyone over the age of 12, 65 percent of those who needed treatment did not get it either because they had no coverage for it or no access to it.  

So you tell me - is this a war we won?

Paul Gionfriddo via email: gionfriddopaul@gmail.com.  Twitter: @pgionfriddo.  Facebook: www.facebook.com/paul.gionfriddo.  LinkedIn:  www.linkedin.com/in/paulgionfriddo/