The National Drug Control Strategy - Origins Of The National Strategy

The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 (PL 100-690) established the creation of a drug-free America as a U.S. policy goal. As part of this initiative, Congress established the Office of National Drug Control Policy in order "to set priorities and objectives for national drug control, promulgate The National Drug Control Strategy on an annual basis, and oversee the strategy's implementation." To stress the importance of the issue, the director of the ONDCP has been given a cabinet-level position. The person holding the position, John P. Walters as of mid-2003, is usually dubbed the nation's "drug czar" by the media.

The first National Drug Control Strategy (NDCS) was submitted by President George H. W. Bush in 1989. It had been prepared under the reign of the nation's first drug czar, William J. Bennett. Its chief emphasis was on the "principle of user accountability—in law enforcement efforts focused on individual users; in decisions regarding sentencing and parole; in school, college, and university policies regarding the use of drugs by students and employees; in the workplace; and in treatment" (White House Fact Sheet on the National Drug Control Strategy, The White House, September 5, 1989, http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/research/papers/1989/89090503.html). The strategy called for active

TABLE 10.1
Direct societal costs of drug abuse, 1992-2002
[In millions]
SOURCE: "Table 24. Estimated Direct Costs to Society of Drug Abuse, 1992-2002," in National Drug Control Strategy: Data Supplement, The White House, March 2004, http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/policy/ndcs04/data_suppl_2004.pdf (accessed March 31, 2005)

Year	Health care costs	Other costs	Total direct costs
1992	13,719	24,909	38,629
1993	14,736	24,662	39,398
1994	14,761	25,892	40,653
1995	14,087	28,091	42,178
1996	13,249	28,325	41,574
1997	13,337	29,905	43,242
1998	13,569	31,334	44,903
1999	13,873	33,572	47,445
2000	13,974	35,280	49,254
2001	14,700	35,118	49,818
2002	15,675	36,363	52,038

efforts directed at countries where cocaine originated, improved targeting of interdiction, increasing the capacity of treatment providers, and accelerated efforts aimed at prevention and at the education of youth. In its details, the drug strategy laid emphasis on law enforcement activities and the expansion of the criminal justice system.

Since that time, the basic building blocks of the national strategy have remained the same, but the specific emphases taken by different administrations, or the same one in different years, have changed, at times leaning more toward enforcement, at other times more toward fighting drug racketeers, and at yet others more toward treatment and prevention. The Clinton administration, in its 2000 strategy, emphasized 1) empowering young people to reject drugs; 2) treatment for drug offenders within the criminal justice system; 3) increasing treatment resources for those who need them; 4) interdicting the flow of drugs across the nation's borders; and 5) aid to other democracies to help them fight traffickers (The President's Message to Congress on the 2000 National Drug Control Strategy, Washington, DC: U.S. State Department, April 12, 2000, http://www.ncjrs.org/ondcppubs/publications/policy/ndcs00/message.html).

In the 2004 National Drug Control Policy (http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/policy/ndcs04/2004ndcs.pdf), the ONDCP under George W. Bush established three priorities:

• Stopping Use Before It Starts: Education and Community Action
• Healing America's Drug Users: Getting Treatment Resources Where They Are Needed [and]
• Disrupting the Market: Attacking the Economic Base of the Drug Trade

Table 10.3 presents the administration's stated benchmarks for measuring the success of its strategy.

The Clinton administration adopted the view that the "war on drugs" was the wrong model because wars could be expected to end and the effort to control drugs could not. Drugs, therefore, should be seen as a disease, like cancer, requiring long-term strategies (NDCS 2001). The George W. Bush administration adopted the view that drug use was akin to cholera and should be fought on public health principles (NDCS 2003). Whatever the model, all strategies to date have had the same components: prevention and treatment (together constituting demand reduction) and law enforcement, interdiction, and international efforts (together constituting supply disruption). The emphasis given to each of these components has been reflected in federal budgets.

TABLE 10.2
Indirect societal costs* of drug abuse, 1992-2002
[In millions]
SOURCE: "Table 25. Estimated Indirect Costs to Society of Drug Abuse, 1992-2002," in National Drug Control Strategy: Data Supplement, The White House, March 2004, http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/policy/ndcs04/data_suppl_2004.pdf (accessed March 31, 2005)

Year	Premature death	Drug abuse related illness	Institutionalization/hospitalization	Productivity loss of victims of crime	Incarceration	Crime careers	Total
1992	28,961	18,214	1,894	2,640	22,961	24,617	99,287
1993	27,877	17,138	1,870	3,098	24,110	24,595	97,688
1994	28,034	19,234	2,043	3,100	25,607	23,796	101,815
1995	28,406	20,938	2,210	2,806	27,130	23,812	105,301
1996	23,745	23,241	1,758	2,674	28,473	27,241	107,132
1997	19,901	22,323	1,863	2,570	30,511	29,824	106,993
1998	19,323	25,542	1,971	2,279	33,257	27,180	109,553
1999	22,535	26,995	1,873	2,111	35,399	26,952	115,866
2000	23,045	28,654	1,782	1,930	36,244	26,836	118,492
2001	23,686	30,681	1,870	1,835	36,869	26,957	121,897
2002	24,646	33,452	1,996	1,797	39,095	27,576	128,563
*"Indirect costs" are productivity losses attributable to drug abuse.

TABLE 10.3
National drug control strategy goals, 2004
SOURCE: "National Drug Control Strategy Goals," in National Drug Control Strategy: Update, The White House, March 2004, http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/policy/ndcs04/2004ndcs.pdf (accessed March 31, 2005)

Two-year goals:	A 10 percent reduction in current use of illegal drugs by 8th,10th, and 12th graders.
	A 10 percent reduction in current use of illegal drugs by adults age 18 and older.
Five-year goals:	A 25 percent reduction in current use of illegal drugs by 8th,10th, and 12th graders.
	A 25 percent reduction in current use of illegal drugs by adults age 18 and older.
Note: Progress toward youth goals will be measured from the baseline established by the Monitoring the Future survey for the 2000-2001 school year. Progress toward adult goals will be measured from the baseline of the 2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. All strategy goals seek to reduce current use of any illicit drug. (Use of alcohol and tobacco products, although illegal for youths, is not captured under any illegal drug.)