NCJ Number
164686
Date Published
1975
Length
122 pages
Annotation
This report of the Domestic Council Drug Abuse Task Force assesses the effectiveness of current drug programs and policies and determines whether the Federal drug strategy, priorities, and organizational structures are appropriate to meet current needs.
Abstract
In addition, the review examines the need for and structure of a drug management and coordination mechanism in the Executive Office of the President. The report first examines the nature and extent of the drug problem in an effort to establish an understanding of the task that faces the Nation. Two chapters then discuss the task force's evaluation of supply and demand reduction efforts, respectively, and present recommendations for improvement. A subsequent chapter addresses overall program management, followed by a summary of major conclusions and recommendations. The task force endorses the concept of a Federal program that balances the effort to control and ultimately reduce the supply of drugs with an effort to control and reduce the demand for drugs. According to the task force, successful supply reduction can minimize the number of new users, increase the number of old users who abandon use, and decrease the consumption of current users. Balancing supply reduction efforts with complementary demand reduction efforts is one way to reduce the adverse costs of supply reduction, as well as being itself another avenue for reducing drug abuse. The task force further proposes six programmatic themes. First, policymakers must be realistic about what can be achieved and what the appropriate Federal role is in the war against drugs. Second, treatment and enforcement efforts should give priority to those drugs that pose the greater risk and to compulsive users of drugs of any kind. Third, supply reduction is broader than law enforcement and should use a variety of supply-reduction tools. Fourth, Federal law enforcement efforts should focus on the development of major conspiracy cases against the leaders of high-level trafficking networks and thus move away from "street-level" activities. Fifth, the current treatment focus of demand-reduction efforts should be supplemented with increased attention to prevention and vocational rehabilitation. Sixth, neither successful prevention or rehabilitation is drug specific; both should be integrated with other social programs. Themes related to the effective management of the drug program at the Federal level are also proposed. Appended agency comments and listing of work groups and contributors from outside government