Letter: Failures in the Fight Against Drugs
David R. Anderson
July 7, 2008
New York Times
To the editor:
Your editorial made an important point about the need for more effort to reduce the demand for drugs.
The United States should devote more resources to preventing and treating substance abuse and dependence. But these resources should be allocated based on need.
Alcohol is the drug of choice for the overwhelming majority of people suffering from a substance use disorder. According to the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, nearly 16 million Americans were dependent on or abusing alcohol. That's five times greater than the number of people who were dependent on or abusing illicit drugs and almost 15 times greater than the number of people dependent on or abusing cocaine.
Rather than spend billions of dollars on foreign intrigues and high-profile cocaine seizures, the next administration should do more to address the greatest source of drug-related problems in the United States: alcohol.
David R. Anderson, communications director and senior research scientist, department of health policy, George Washington University Medical Center, Washington | 
