"Health & Medical News"

From:
Treatment Research Institute
600 Public Ledger Building, 150 S. Independence Mall West
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Tel: (215) 399-0980
http://www.tresearch.org

Paying substance abuse treatment providers for results, not services, may lead to improved quality of care, according to the first published study of a novel performance-based contracting system implemented by the State of Delaware in 2002.

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Congress is being asked to fund a $1.4-billion aid package to Mexico aimed at fighting international drug trafficking, the Dallas Morning News reported Feb. 8.

Officials from the Bush administration appeared before that House Committee on Foreign Affairs’ Western Hemisphere subcommittee to call for funding the so-called Merida Initiative, which includes more direct aid to Mexico and Central America, some of it in the form of military equipment and training. “This is money well spent,” said Thomas Shannon, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs.

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The Bush administration recently said that cocaine supplies have tightened and prices are rising, but officials in some U.S. cities are unconvinced of the federal government’s claim of an “unprecedented cocaine shortage,” NPR reported Dec. 26.

In December, U.S. drug czar John Walters announced that, “The latest DEA reporting indicates a sharp increase in the street price of cocaine, with a 44 percent increase reported in price per pure gram between January and September of 2007.” Walters said that drug “seizures are having a profound effect on availability of drugs in the U.S.”

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U.S. anti-drug officials say that corrupt military leaders and others in Venezuela are working with Colombian drug cartels to smuggle cocaine into the U.S., the Washington Post reported Oct. 27.

No cocaine is cultivated in Venezuela, but about 220 tons of the drug are funneled through the country each year, bound for the U.S. and Europe, experts said. The Bush administration has treated the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as a pariah, meaning there has been little cooperation between the governments to stop the flow of drugs. “The problem of drugs has gotten out of the hands of Venezuela,” said Mildred Camero, a former drug czar for Chavez. “Now the situation in Venezuela is grave, grave, grave. At some moment, we’re going to collapse.”

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