Obama’s National Drug Strategy Failed to Fulfill Goals While Death Toll Soared

A report by GAO reveals that none of the overall goals in the US National Drug Control Strategy of Barack Obama has been fully achieved.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — None of the overall goals in the US National Drug Control Strategy of President Barack Obama has been fully achieved and drug-induced deaths instead increased from 2009 to 2015 by more than 40 percent, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report.

"The federal government has made mixed progress toward achieving the goals articulated in the 2010 National Drug Control Strategy," the report stated on Wednesday. "[N]one of the overall goals in the Strategy were fully achieved."

Progress had not been made on the goal to reduce drug-induced deaths by 15 percent and drug-induced deaths instead increased from 2009 to 2015 by 41.5 percent and as of July 2017, work is currently underway to develop a new strategy, the report revealed.

"According to ONDCP [Office of National Drug Control Policy] as of July 2017, work is currently underway to develop a new strategy," the report said.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in 2015, the most recent year for which national data are available, over 52,000, the GAO said.