Embassy of the United States

Topics of Interest

Drug Abuse

The 2006 National Drug Control Strategy

The President's National Drug Control Strategy for 2006 focuses on three core priorities: stopping use before it starts, healing America's drug users, and disrupting the market for illegal drugs. 

• The President's balanced Strategy is producing results:
• Current use of any illicit drug by 8th, 10th, and 12th graders has dropped 19 percent since 2001. This translates into nearly 700,000 fewer young people using illicit drugs.
• Meth use declined by 34 percent, 30 percent, and 36 percent for lifetime, past year, and past month.
• Steroid use declined by 38 percent, 37 percent, and 30 percent for lifetime, past year, and past month.
• Declines in current use of hallucinogens and LSD use by nearly two thirds and current Ecstasy (MDMA) use by nearly two thirds.
• The Strategy seeks to build on the progress that has already been made by outlining a balanced, integrated plan aimed at achieving the President's goal of reducing drug use.
• Each pillar of the Strategy is crucial and each sustains the other.
• The Strategy highlights the good work faith-based and community organization are doing to combat the scourge of illicit drugs in their communities. The Strategy seeks to harness these efforts, and the work of state and local officials, so that Americans work in tandem to reach the President's goal of reducing overall drug use.

Key Points on the National Drug Control Strategy

Stopping Drug Use Before It Starts - Education and Community Action

Education programs and outreach activities supported by scientific studies, have worked to spread the word that illicit substances use can be harmful to a person's health and well being, as well as a detriment to society as a whole.

• Drug Free Communities - Coalitions of community leaders and professionals in health care, law enforcement, and education provide local grassroots solutions to the challenges drug and alcohol abuse pose to neighborhoods.
• National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign - Above the Influence, the new advertising campaign launched in November 2005, features a series of television, print, and web-based interactive advertisements that tap into the power teens gain when they resist negative influences that compromise their values and aspirations.
• Student Drug Testing - In addition to creating a culture of disapproval towards drugs, drug testing also achieves three public health goals: it deters young people from initiating drug use, it identifies those who have initiated drug use so that parents and counselors can intervene early, and it helps identify those who have a dependency on drugs so they can be referred to treatment.
• Drug-Free Workplace - For adults, drug screening helps prevent initiation of use by sending a clear message that in order to work, one must be drug-free. Furthermore, because the vast majority of American adults work, and many of these employees are parents, the workplace is an effective setting for prevention messages that have the power to spread exponentially to America's families, schools, and communities.

Healing America's Drug Users

Despite prevention efforts, 19.1 million Americans have used at least one illicit substance in the past month, resulting in addiction for too many of our colleagues, friends, and family members. But recovery is possible, and with effective treatment, those suffering from the disease of addiction can return to healthy productive lives.

• Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral and Treatment (SBIRT) - A key priority of this Administration has been to make drug screening and intervention programs part of the Nation's existing network of health, education, law enforcement, and counseling providers. Focusing on this nexus is cost effective and limits the spread of drug use by individuals who are in the early stages of use, before the negative effects of continued use and addiction are compounded.
• Access to Recovery (ATR) - The President's ATR program offers vouchers to allow individuals the freedom to choose the most effective treatment program for them, including faith-based providers. One study of treatment programs found that every dollar spent on treatment saves nearly $7.50 in costs associated with crime and lost productivity.
• Drug Courts - Drugs courts use the power of the courts and the support of family, friends, and counselors to bring those struggling with addiction into recovery. Data show that within the first year of release, 43.5 percent of drug offenders are rearrested, whereas only 16.4 percent of drug court graduates are rearrested.

Disrupting the Market

The illegal drug trade is a market, and both users and traffickers are affected by market dynamics. By disrupting this market, the U.S. Government seeks to undermine the ability of drug suppliers to meet, expand, and profit from drug demand. When drug supply does not fully meet drug demand, changes in drug price and purity support prevention efforts by making initiation to drug use more difficult. They also contribute to treatment efforts by eroding the abilities of users to sustain their habits.

• Progress in the Andean Ridge - As the sole supplier of the world's cocaine and a provider of the heroin consumed in the U.S., Colombia and the U.S. are solid partners in a combined strategy of eradication, interdiction, and organizational attack. The U.S. has seen positive results from these efforts with the increase in price and the decrease in purity of heroin and cocaine on American streets.
• Targeting Methamphetamine - In response to the increased threat from meth, U.S. law enforcement agencies have increased their efforts both domestically and internationally to stem the flow of meth and the precursor chemicals that are used to produce it. States have also taken decisive action with dramatic results.
• Reducing Prescription Drug Abuse - The Administration's strategy in this area focuses on reducing the incidence of diversion, approaching each type of diversion with the goal of preventing the diversion - and also getting users into treatment where necessary.
• Intelligence and Organizational Attack - Market disruption requires a broad understanding of the global operations of the illicit drug industry, from cultivation and production, through transportation and distribution, until it is marketed and consumed. The OCDETF Fusion Center (OFC), when it reaches its initial operating capability in 2006, will significantly enhance law enforcement's ability to "connect the dots" and increase the flow of investigative information to the field. OFC is an intelligence center designed to collect store, and analyze relevant all-source drug and related financial investigative information.
• Financial Attack -Federal agencies are strategically refocusing their resources to attack the financial infrastructure of drug-trafficking organizations. A strong ally in this attack is the financial sector of our economy, which has been effectively keeping most illegal funds out of our banking system. To accomplish this strategy, OFC will be capable of analyzing massive amounts of intelligence concerning the financial operations of drug-trafficking organization.
• Transit Zone interdiction - Transit Zone interdiction accounted for the removal of hundreds of tons of cocaine from the market 2005. Large seizures denied traffickers significant profits from selling bulk quantities cocaine. They also prevented millions of dollars in illegal proceeds from returning to Colombia to fuel a longstanding insurgency, and to help reduce violence and bring stability to a key U.S. ally.
• Mexico and Southwest Border Challenge - Because the U.S. government's counterdrug, counterterror, and immigration enforcement missions are interrelated, improved counterdrug efforts will also enhance border security. Interagency efforts are culminating in a coordinated National Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy that will identify key strategic objectives and provide specific recommendations to address the illicit narcotics threat and significantly improve overall interdiction efforts along the Southwest Border.
  

Washington, D.C.
February 9, 2006