After years of escalating crime and drugs in the region, the territory and Puerto Rico’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) program has won an award for its outstanding work.
The Alliance for a Drug-Free Puerto Rico, an organization of the Puerto Rico/U.S. Virgin Islands HIDTA program, recently picked up the national award for "Outstanding Treatment or Prevention Efforts" at the 2011 National HIDTA conference in Washington, D.C.
Alliance for a Drug-Free Puerto Rico, or Alianza, has become one of the region’s most education-focused organizations and seeks to reduce illegal drug use in Puerto Rico through anti-drug, mass media campaigns along with prevention workshops and various social programs, according to a press release from the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
"Close collaboration with our federal, state, local and tribal partners is a critical component of our efforts to reduce both the demand and supply of drugs," White House Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske said in the release. "I congratulate the Puerto Rico/U.S. Virgin Islands HIDTA for their work to improve public health and safety.”
There are currently 28 HIDTA’s in 46 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia, which cover approximately 60 percent of the U.S. population, the release said. The HIDTA program puts federal resources toward the reduction of drug trafficking within designated areas, with law enforcement agencies helping to design specific initiatives for the decrease in production, manufacturing, transportation, distribution and chronic use of drugs and money laundering.
"Overall drug use in the U.S. has dropped substantially over the past 30 years," the release said. "In response to comprehensive efforts to address drug use at the local, state, federal and international levels, the rate of Americans using illicit drugs today is roughly half the rate it was in the late ‘70s."
To help continue the effort, President Barack Obama has committed more than $10 billion for drug education programs and making drug treatment accessible for addicts, along with over $9 billion for U.S. law enforcement efforts.
