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Date: November 22, 2024 Fri
Time: 11:40 am
Time: 11:40 am
Results for drug abuse policy (u.s.)
1 results foundAuthor: U.S. Government Accountability Office Title: Drug Control Initial Review of the National Strategy and Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment Programs Summary: An estimated 22.6 million Americans aged 12 or older were illicit drug users in 2010, representing 8.9 percent of the population aged 12 or older, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. This represents the highest overall rate of illicit drug users among this population group since 2002, when the rate was 8.3 percent. Abuse of illicit drugs results in significant social, public health, and economic consequences for the United States. For example, the economic impact of illicit drug use, including the costs of crime, health care, and lost productivity, was estimated at more than $193 billion in 2007, the most recent year for which data were available. The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) was established by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 to, among other things, enhance national drug control planning and coordination and represent the drug policies of the executive branch before Congress. In this role, ONDCP provides advice and governmentwide oversight of drug programs and is responsible for coordinating drug control activities, including federal drug abuse prevention and treatment programs, and related funding across the federal government. ONDCP is required annually to develop the National Drug Control Strategy (Strategy), which sets forth a plan to reduce illicit drug use through prevention, treatment, and law enforcement programs, and to develop a Drug Control Budget for implementing the Strategy. ONDCP reported that for fiscal year 2012, about $25.2 billion was provided for drug control programs across 17 federal departments and independent agencies. Further, according to ONDCP, from 2004 to 2012 this signified an increase of $5.9 billion (about 31 percent) for drug control programs, including drug abuse prevention and treatment programs. The 2010 Strategy is the inaugural strategy guiding drug policy under President Obama’s administration and, according to ONDCP officials, sought a comprehensive approach to drug policy, including an emphasis on drug abuse prevention and treatment efforts and the use of evidence-based practices—approaches to prevention or treatment that are based in theory and have undergone scientific evaluation. Drug abuse prevention includes activities focused on discouraging the first-time use of controlled substances and efforts to encourage those who have begun to use illicit drugs to cease their use. Treatment includes activities focused on assisting regular users of controlled substances to become drug free through such means as counseling services, inpatient and outpatient care, and the demonstration and provision of effective treatment methods. National Drug Control Program agencies (drug control agencies) follow a detailed process in developing their annual budget submissions for inclusion in the Drug Control Budget, which provides information on the funding that the executive branch requested for drug control to implement the Strategy. Agencies submit to ONDCP the portion of their annual budget requests dedicated to drug control, which they prepare as part of their overall budget submission to the Office of Management and Budget for inclusion in the President’s annual budget request. ONDCP reviews the budget requests of the drug control agencies to determine if the agencies have acceptable methodologies for estimating their drug control budgets, and includes those that do in the Drug Control Budget . Agencies may administer programs that include drug abuse prevention and treatment activities but do not meet ONDCP’s standards for having an acceptable budget estimation methodology. Such programs are not represented in the Drug Control Budget. Part of the 2010 Strategy is a long-term policy goal for increasing the emphasis on preventing and treating substance abuse. Multiple federal departments—and their component agencies, bureaus, divisions, and offices—and independent agencies (collectively referred to as agencies), administer drug abuse prevention and treatment programs, fund these programs, or both. The drug abuse prevention and treatment programs vary and may include grants to service providers, direct services, and education and outreach activities. For example, an agency’s grant program may award block grants to grantees, such as states or local entities, to implement their own interventions through community-based drug abuse prevention or treatment programs, while direct service programs often entail interventions directly administered by an agency to a specific population. Drug abuse prevention and treatment programs target various populations and use a wide variety of interventions, which are strategies or approaches intended to prevent an undesirable outcome, such as abuse of an illicit drug; promote a desirable outcome, such as reducing the use of alcohol among youth; or alter the course of an existing condition, such as successful treatment of drug addiction. Some programs may be either jointly funded or administered by two or more agencies. In light of the increase in the rate of illicit drug use among Americans, efforts to oversee and coordinate the implementation of the Strategy and ensure that ONDCP and federal agencies invest in the most effective drug abuse prevention and treatment programs become more important. You asked us to determine the extent to which the 2010 Strategy has been implemented, review the sources of funding for federal drug abuse prevention and treatment programs as well as federal agency efforts to coordinate their programs, and examine agencies’ efforts to evaluate drug abuse prevention and treatment programs and ensure that they are effective. Specifically, in this report we (1) provide an initial review of the extent to which the 2010 Strategy has been implemented, the extent to which ONDCP coordinates its implementation across drug control agencies, and how ONDCP assesses the effectiveness of the Strategy in preventing and reducing drug use; (2) review what agencies fund drug abuse prevention and treatment programs and how agencies coordinate their programs; and (3) provide an initial review of the extent to which federal agencies evaluate their drug abuse prevention and treatment programs and the extent to which agencies assess their programs’ effectiveness. This is the first report in response to your request that we assess the implementation of the 2010 Strategy. This report describes the implementation approach, federal agencies’ drug abuse prevention and treatment programs, and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Department of Justice (DOJ), and Department of Education (Education) efforts to assess the effectiveness of their drug abuse prevention and treatment programs. We will continue our work on these issues and plan to evaluate the extent to which the 2010 Strategy has been implemented and coordinated across agencies and how ONDCP assesses the effectiveness of the Strategy in preventing and reducing drug use. Details: Washington, DC: GAO, 2012. 45p. Source: Internet Resource: GAO-12-744R: Accessed August 8, 2012 at: http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-744R Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-744R Shelf Number: 125909 Keywords: Drug Abuse and AddictionDrug Abuse Policy (U.S.)Drug Control PolicyNarcotics Control |