Thursday, July 29, 2010

2010 Election

The Obama Administration recognizes that the most effective way to keep America’s youth drug-free is to prevent them from getting involved with drugs in the first place. The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) administers programs that focus on community-based substance abuse prevention, and supports prevention initiatives in the Departments of Health and Human Services, Justice, Education, and others. The President’s FY 2011 Budget seeks to increase funding for drug prevention efforts by 13.4 percent over the FY 2010 Budget.
A vote in the right direction would help prevent your sons and daughters from abusing any substance known to man.
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Goodbye, 'Safe and Drug Free Schools'; Hello, 'Successful, Safe and Healthy Students'

The Obama administration is proposing a new "Successful, Safe and Healthy Students" grant program to replace the Department of Education's Safe and Drug-Free Schools (SFDS) program, which has suffered significant funding cuts in recent years amid doubts about its effectiveness. The new program -- intended to create "an improved school climate that reduces drug use, violence, and harassment and improves school safety and students' physical and mental well-being" -- would receive $283 million under the Obama plan, $107 million more than SFDS received in FY2010. Unlike the formula-based SDFS national grants, the Healthy Students grants will be awarded on a competitive basis to local education agencies. CADCA's Dean welcomed the funding but worried about how it will be used. "Although the new program does speak to some drug prevention, it's more implicit than explicit," he said. "If it's not explicit, school officials might not give drug prevention the attention it deserves." The budget would establish a $15-million Prevention Prepared Communities program, a pilot project intended to create a system of evidence-based youth prevention interventions lasting throughout adolescence. Another $5.6 million would be spent on supporting community prevention specialists who would assist in developing these projects in collaboration with the states, and $2 million would be used to evaluate the project. The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign -- a frequent target of critics who claim the program is expensive and ineffective -- also would receive a major funding boost under the Obama drug budget, up $21.5 million to a total of $66.5 million in FY2011. "The president is throwing good money after bad when what we really need is a new direction," said MPP's Houston. $100 Million More for Treatment, But No New Funds for Block Grant About $100 million in new funding for treatment programs within the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) would be spread over a variety of programs, notably the Second Chance Act, which would receive $20 million more to provide community-based treatment services to ex-offenders

1 comment:

  1. I don't think it makes any difference how much money you give to a school for drug prevention or what kind of drug free programs there are. Kids are going to try things just because they can and it's really up to the parents and their guidance whether a child will try drugs or not.

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