The majority of the nation is currently hailing our newly elected president Obama the reform president after huge national unrest over Bush's oil tycoon policies of the past. Among the social reform issues President Obama has already championed is the health care industry. He has on his agenda to increase availability of health care to those lower income citizens who desperately need this care. He is cleaning up many of Bush's vested interest policies regarding health care which currently denies millions of Americans proper health care for themselves and their families. However, the question is will that health care provide one of the most desperately needed services for this large segment of our population; addiction treatment.



According to recent studies the nation has a severe problem in lower income communities with drug and alcohol use and abuse. The people who make up these communities are more likely to use drugs and alcohol than their higher income counterparts as youth. This spills over into a predominance of addiction for the adults of these communities as they grow and mature.

Further, drug trafficking organizations target the lower income segments of our society as cheaply paid ?mules? or street dealers for their drugs. This equates to availability of drugs on virtually every corner of these neighborhoods. With the availability high, the income low and the frustrations of social unrest, millions turn to drugs and alcohol to ease their suffering. Of course this leads to addiction ad further poverty and further unrest with greatly exaggerated unemployment, disease and familial instability.

According to the Substance Abuse Mental Health Service Administration, a larger majority of youth in lower income use drugs and alcohol and they don't end up receiving the treatment they need to rid themselves of the addiction that follows this use. ?Studies show that many individuals who have substance use problems do not receive treatment for those problems. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), formerly the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA), asks persons aged 12 or older questions to determine whether they needed treatment for an illicit drug or alcohol problem within the past 12 months. "Any illicit drug" refers to marijuana/hashish, cocaine (including crack), inhalants, hallucinogens, heroin, or prescription-type drugs used non-medically?.

Obama can help to change all that now. He has his finger on the trigger of a very powerful social reform gun and it seems to be pointed directly at the common man. He needs to be aware that the common man needs massive availability of addiction treatment and addiction recovery resources to help handle the millions currently enslaved by drugs and alcohol and who don't have access to medical coverage to assist them in getting clean and sober. I suggest any interested parties reach out to the newly sworn in President to address these most serious social issues immediately. Very few medical issues are as large and destructive as the addiction plague we have are experiencing and it is in the lower income area that many of these social issues are born.