Walters Touts Testing, Treatment, Drug Court Initiatives March 1, 2005
News Summary
White House Office of National Drug Control Policy chief John Walters told the U.S. Conference of Mayors they have a role to play in bringing together the addiction treatment and primary healthcare systems.The U.S. Mayor Newspaper reported Jan. 31 that Walters credited the national anti-drug media campaign and community-based prevention for a 17-percent drop in teen drug use between 2001 and 2004. He also noted that the administration is seeking an additional $100 million for a drug-treatment voucher program. "Now the challenge is to get it where it needs to be with the least resistance possible," said Walters.
Drug testing has a place in hospital emergency rooms as well as in the classroom, Walters said. "We need to intervene by working to bring medical professionals together to treat this as a public-health matter by screening for drug use as part of triage," said Walters. "Convening these people in your cities is the key to helping build this screening into hospitals to stop the flow of extremely costly pathology. It's better to work together to make most costly results to families and children the least amount possible."
Walters said that like drug courts, the intent of testing students for drugs isn't punishment, but getting them help. "Testing is about getting to the truth," he said.
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