The federal government's battle against nonviolent, low-level marijuana users has produced explosive growth in the field of taxpayer-financed "treatment" for a condition that doesn't exist.  Because our National Drug Control Strategy treats any marijuana use as a problem, thousands of people every year choose "treatment" when faced with the alternative -- prison.

DPA Network has strongly urged lawmakers and other government officials to emphasize a medical approach, rather than a punitive one, when dealing with drug abuse.  Putting people behind bars doesn't help them with their problems, and costs an outrageous amount of money when compared to treatment.  It is alarming that most people in "treatment" for marijuana use -- not abuse -- are there because they've been coerced by the criminal justice system.

Hundreds of thousands of people have flocked to "treatment" for marijuana, according to boasts from the Office of National Drug Policy.  But a report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) shows a majority are first-time nonviolent drug offenders arrested for marijuana possession who have been given the option by a judge or drug court to choose drug treatment or jail.  In other words, they're in "treatment" because marijuana is illegal -- not because they have a drug problem.

The majority of studies on treating marijuana dependence use relatively inexpensive outpatient approaches, not the expensive, multi-week inpatient programs frequently forced on people caught with cannabis.

Treatment admissions involving primary marijuana and no alcohol increased by an astonishing 520% from 1992-2001, the nine-year period covered by the HHS report.  According to a separate HHS study, overall use of marijuana rose much less slowly during the same period.  Children aged 12-17 had a much higher rate of using marijuana than older age groups.

DPA Network believes in a more reasonable approach to keeping kids away from marijuana.  Taxing and regulating the drug would make it more much difficult for teens to get.  An education program based on harm reduction, rather than abstinence-only hysteria, would give kids the tools they need to make responsible, informed decisions about drugs.

The federal government's policy of considering all marijuana use as something that needs to be treated is also keeping people with serious drug problems away from the help they need.  With drug treatment programs chronically underfunded and a huge jump in referrals for marijuana, treatment facilities often have to turn away or postpone patients in need of true help.