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Hillary's Drug Plan to Focus on Prevention, Not Enforcement

As if you needed another reason to vote for Hillary Clinton, here it is: She has a $10 billion plan for drug abuse, which does not include funds for enforcement.

Her $10 billion proposal calls for boosting federal spending in five areas: prevention, treatment and recovery, first responders, prescribers and criminal justice reform. Over 10 years, Clinton calls for sending $7.5 billion to states, which could receive up to $4 in federal dollars for every $1 of state money they spend on the problem. States would need to show concrete proposals in one of the five areas to receive the money. The remaining $2.5 million would go toward the federal Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant program.[More...]

....Clinton's $10 billion plan does not include drug enforcement efforts aimed at stopping drugs from entering the U.S.

...Clinton's plan is focused on boosting access to treatment and recovery programs. State efforts could include building more beds in hospitals and residential treatment facilities, training more health care providers and recovery coaches, subsidizing child care for people in treatment and enforcing parity laws that require insurance companies to cover substance abuse treatment.

Clinton also wants to promote greater use of medically assisted treatment, which can halt drug cravings and create adverse reactions to taking drugs. The Democrat would push for stricter prescribing laws and requiring states to use prescription drug monitoring systems to prevent doctor shopping. Developing an addiction to painkillers is a frequent path toward using heroin or other opioids.

Clinton would also boost evidence-based prevention programs in schools and make naloxone, the overdose reversal drug, more widely available. Some states have already made naloxone available over the counter so family members and friends of addicts can purchase it. She's also stressed a need to improve and integrate mental health and substance abuse care, as the two often occur together.

On criminal justice reform:

CLINTON: Clinton says she will ask her attorney general to issue guidance telling states to prioritize treatment over incarceration for low-level offenders. She supports the drug court programs that many states have created. She says she'll also push states to consider alternatives to incarceration for low-level offenders, such as going through drug court programs that focus on treatment.

What's Trump offering? A border wall. And more mandatory minimum sentences for drug traffickers. Only someone seriously stuck in a time warp would make that recommendation. Even some major Republicans now recognize they were a mistake.

He is pledging, however, to "aggressively prosecute traffickers of illegal drugs." In his Oct. 15 speech, he praised running mate Mike Pence for instituting stricter mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses as governor of Indiana and suggested he'd pursue a similar policy federally.

Trump showed off his (lack of) knowlege on the topic a few weeks ago in New Hampshire with this bizarre comment:

"How does heroin work with these beautiful lakes and trees?" he said recently in New Hampshire. "It doesn't."

Case closed. It's not even close.

< Trump Begins Nightly "News" Coverage of His Campaign | ABA Stifles Report on Trump for Fear of Being Sued >
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  • Display: Sort:
    "The Democrat would push for... (5.00 / 3) (#1)
    by MileHi Hawkeye on Tue Oct 25, 2016 at 08:10:20 AM EST
    stricter prescribing laws and requiring states to use prescription drug monitoring systems to prevent doctor shopping."

    IOW, making it harder for people with legitimate need for pain treatment to get the help they need.  

    I also see nothing about rescheduling marijuana.

    Sorry, but that doesn't cut it for me.  

    funny you should bring this up. (5.00 / 2) (#5)
    by cpinva on Wed Oct 26, 2016 at 12:27:34 AM EST
    "IOW, making it harder for people with legitimate need for pain treatment to get the help they need."

    my wife takes 4 5mg oxycodone pills a day, for constant, ongoing pain, that can only be stopped by a liver transplant. a pain mgmt. center oversees this, and all her other Dr.'s are fully informed, of all the meds she's currently taking. today, I  ended up going to three different pharmacies, to find one that had a sufficient # of these pills, to fill the prescription.

    here's what's really annoying, if it were any non-narcotic, I could have gotten the prescription partially filled at the first pharmacy. when they received their weekly shipment of drugs, I could have gone back and completed filling it. she'd have had the drugs she needed today, and I wouldn't have had to go all over town trying to find them all, at one place. can't do that with oxycodone, or it's evil older brother, oxycontin, because they are controlled substances.

    this is a DEA regulation, not a law passed by Congress. Congress delegated the authority to write regulations to the DEA, and the DEA doesn't care if my wife is in pain.

    Parent

    cp, I'm very sorry to hear of this problem. (5.00 / 3) (#6)
    by fishcamp on Wed Oct 26, 2016 at 06:55:37 AM EST
    Down here, on the water, the DEA are the worst of the enforcement agencies, and we have several out there checking boats all the time.  They come blazing up very fast practically swamping a small boat like mine.  Then they are in your face immediately, with absolutely no respect.  They don't care about my life jackets, fire extinguisher, or any of the other safety devices required, they just want to check my cooler box.  Then they always say that's where they find a load of drugs.  Like I'm going to make a run from where, in my 17' skiff with a 90 horsepower motor?  

    When they finally cracked down on the pill mills in south Florida, they also made it more difficult for all the doctors to issue pain meds.  Now my doctor can only issue 43 pills at a time with no refills.  So one must go to the doctor every time for a refill, thus costing insurance companies more money.  My general practitioner said the DEA kept coming to his office to check on the amount of pills he was dispensing, and then began going directly to his patients houses to interview them.  He had been the only pain management doctor in the Florida keys, but when he found out about their nefarious activity, he quit that service.  Now if someone, like your wife, needs that amount of medication, they must travel to a special clinic in Miami, over 100 miles away, and go to several pharmacies to receive their allotted amount.  

    The DEA has way too much power, and Jeralyn has written about this several times.  Their vast amount of agents in several countries, often making questionable busts, gives them the power to avoid being eliminated.  It's a sad state of affairs.

    Parent

    I can certainly relate... (5.00 / 1) (#7)
    by MileHi Hawkeye on Wed Oct 26, 2016 at 08:25:30 AM EST
    as I'm on a similar dose of oxycodone plus oxycontin for irretractable pain in my tailbone. People who don't suffer from chronic pain have a hard time understanding how much it wears on you.  There's no escaping it, even with the drugs, its always there. Day in, day out.  

    There have been times that I've had to go without waiting for the pharmacy to get their order in and those are some of the worst days imaginable.  

    Parent

    i have a better idea, and it won't cost any (5.00 / 1) (#2)
    by cpinva on Tue Oct 25, 2016 at 02:31:29 PM EST
    additional funds: get rid of the DEA. it has no legitimate reason for existing, everything it does, was being done by (or could be done better by) the FBI. yeah, yeah, I know, Farley on LG&M wants to get rid of the Air Force, and I want to get rid of the DEA. I could go on a long write about the reasons the DEA should be done away with, heck, Farley wrote an entire book about getting rid of the AF, but I won't do that here. it's not my blog, and it wouldn't be right to take up the space necessary. suffice it to say, I believe HRC would have a winner if she considered it.

    You and Alex Jones (InfoWars) agree (none / 0) (#3)
    by jbindc on Tue Oct 25, 2016 at 03:01:16 PM EST
    re: Alex Jones (none / 0) (#4)
    by cpinva on Wed Oct 26, 2016 at 12:09:42 AM EST
    you know what they say, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. I wasn't aware of this, but then, I don't pay much attention to rightwingnut grifters in general, and specifically not ones that are clinically insane.

    Parent
    Well, it happened... (5.00 / 2) (#8)
    by MileHi Hawkeye on Wed Oct 26, 2016 at 10:24:55 PM EST
    my Doctor limited my meds because of the DEA threatening them.

    Literally,  we both said that those who really need them are going to suffer at the same time.

    Its a sad f#cking day when the government interferes with how doctors practice medicine.