President Donald Trump’s newly issued statement on drug policy priorities shows his administration has embraced the Make America Healthy Again movement as it tackles American’s top public health crisis: addiction. The next step must be to re-empower the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), elevating America’s anti-drug movement to the prominence it deserves.
Despite the media-coined title, “drug czar,” leading America’s drug policy has been relegated to the background of the national fight against illicit substances for years. This office is supposed to speak for the president on drug policy and have statutory control over the federal government’s drug policy budget, spread across multiple agencies.
But regrettably, in a world of high emotions, big egos, congressional subcommittees, vocal interest groups, and competing issues, Americans likely haven’t seen or heard much from our drug czars in decades. If utilized the right way, there is tremendous potential to reduce the suffering that is the consequence of drug addiction in the U.S. With close to 100,000 people a year dying of overdoses, more deadly drugs coming across the border, and for-profit industries targeting young people as lifelong customers, restoring ONDCP’s relevance is critical.
ONDCP must use its megaphone to show the toll drug use has taken on the nation’s communities. Speaking with families, law enforcement, educators, and medical professionals will put faces to the statistics of those whose lives have been forever altered by the drug crisis. This country needs a new anti-drug message, and it needs it now.
A science-based media campaign, directed especially at young people, is needed to offset the harms of extreme drug normalization policies like marijuana legalization and Oregon’s short-lived Measure 110, which decriminalized all drugs. As the Department of Education ramps down, ONDCP should coordinate school-based prevention programs to ensure that every student learns about the dangers inherent in today’s drug landscape, refusal skills and healthy coping strategies.