So, the answer is support for government actions through aerial eradication and not pouring money into these countries that are filled with corruption. This is an urgent matter with Barry McCaffrey stating " that aerial eradication has been stopped in Colombia and as a result, in the last 10 years, cocaine production has tripled." Also, in the United States we need to create rehabilitation centers in all major prisons to lower the use of drugs in our communities and the prisons themselves to combat these rising numbers.
In 2000, At the end of Bill Clinton's tenure, we had a conversation with him about discussing the problem that two-thirds of arrestees test positive for illegal drugs. He agreed that there needs to be massive drug treatment in prisons to stop the recidivism, along with the increase of crime and re-upping of drugs within the country. However, he then completed his tenure in office.
The sad truth is that little has been done to promote drug prevention and treatment programs in prison. These programs would be a vital step toward stopping crime and drugs in the United States.
These policies are being implemented at the state level. In Rhode Island, the medical journal JAMA Psychiatry found that overdose deaths dropped by nearly two-thirds among recently incarcerated people in the first year they began offering all three FDA"'approved addiction medications to incarcerated people and continued care after release. A program like this could benefit Florida and many others nationwide to better our communities.
Robert Weiner is former White House drug policy spokesman in both the Clinton & Bush administrations, former Public Affairs Director under Drug Czar/4-Star General McCaffrey, and spokesman for the House Narcotics Committee under Chairman Charles Rangel.
Griffin Cobb is a Policy Analyst at Robert Weiner Associates and the Solutions for Change Foundation
(Article changed on Mar 03, 2026 at 11:39 AM EST)
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