Drug Policy Reform Strategy

•    Reverse Drug Policy Funding Priorities. The Bush administration should eschew the course set by the previous drug czar and give highest priority to drug education and treatment. Reversing the current 70 percent-30 percent funding disparity favoring law en-forcement over drug prevention is a moral imperative.

•    Curtail AIDS: Make Clean Needles Available to Intravenous Drug Addicts. President Bush and National Drug Control Policy Director Martinez should heed the advice of the National Commission on AIDS, which urged implementation of clean needle exchanges and other programs targeting addicts.

•    Develop a Plan for Drug Treatment on Demand, Allow Medicaid to Pay for Treatment for the Poor, and Expand the Variety of Treatment Options Available. The drug czar should make a com-prehensive assessment of drug treatment availability nationwide, then propose a target date and plan of attack for achieving treatment on demand everywhere in the United States. Mr. Martinez should also work with Congress on legislation allowing Medicaid to cover drug treatment expenses for our nation's poor.

•    Stop Prosecutions of Pregnant Drug Users. Director Martinez should use his national pulpit to urge states to cease the counterpro-ductive practice of prosecuting pregnant drug users. Ending such prosecutions, while expanding drug treatment and prenatal care, will help reduce the problem of drug-exposed infants.

•    Make Medical Marijuana Available to the Seriously ni. The presi-dent should order the Food and Drug Administration and Drug Enforcement Administration to join in making marijuana available, by prescription, to the tens of thousands of seriously ill Americans who could benefit from its use.

•    Appoint a Commission to Seriously Examine Alternatives to Prohibition. The national policy of drug prohibition has not reduced the supply of illegal drugs, but it has bred crime and violence on a massive scale. It is time to look honestly at the experiences of other nations with illegal drugs and at our own experiences with legal drugs to develop new, health-based policies for reducing substance abuse.