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The President's
National Drug Control Strategy
March 2004
- Stopping Use Before It Starts:
Education and Community Action
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Budget Highlights
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Education—Student Drug Testing: up $23 million. The budget proposes $25 million
for student drug testing programs. This initiative will provide competitive grants to support schools
in the design and implementation of school-based drug testing, assessment, referral, and
intervention programs.
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ONDCP—National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign: $145 million. The President�s
fiscal year 2005 Budget continues funding for ONDCP�s media campaign, an integrated effort that
combines paid and donated advertising with public communications outreach. Anti-drug messages
conveyed in advertising are supported by Web sites, clearinghouses, media events, outreach to the
entertainment industry, and strategic partnerships that enable messages to resonate in ways that
generate awareness and ultimately change teen beliefs and intentions toward drug use. In 2005,
the media campaign will expand its strategy to include information for teens and parents to promote
early intervention against drug use.
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ONDCP—Drug-Free Communities Program: up $10.4 million. Building on the success of
this program, these additional resources will fund approximately 100 new local community anti-drug
coalitions working to prevent substance abuse among young people. This program provides matching
grant monies, with priority given to coalitions serving economically disadvantaged areas.
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In a scene that has become a staple of television
dramas, the neighborhood �pusher� frequents
local playgrounds offering free drugs to entice
first-time users. Such people exist, but they are
not the norm. Successful drug dealers are more
circumspect; their livelihood depends on it.
They are not known for giving out samples.
The pressure young people face to use drugs
is more accurately portrayed as a general
compulsion to fit in, the type of pressure teens
face every day. Debunking the mistaken view
that �everyone� is using drugs is a key goal of the
National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign,
which has contributed to the remarkable decline
in drug use over the past two years.
But far too many young people find that their
first experience with illegal drugs happens
through contact with one person—not a pusher,
not even a peer group, but a single friend. This
pressure to use drugs can take on a surprisingly
earnest form. A young person exposed to the
pleasures of a new drug—or seeking to normalize
his own drug-using behavior—may pressure peers
to join in the fun or face eventual expulsion from
the group.
Figure 5: Drug Use Starts With Young People
Past-Month Illicit Drug Use by Age
Source: National Survey of Drug Use and Health, 2002
Youth in the early teen years may face few
challenges greater than choosing between a friend
and drug use. From the public health perspective
that informs this Strategy, this type of friend is a
vector of contagion. And all too often, the illegal
drug use he proposes to his peers will lead to the
pediatric onset disease of addiction.
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INTERVENING EARLY:
MIAMI-DADE
COUNTY�S JUVENILE ASSESSMENT CENTER Juvenile arrestees pose an unusual
challenge to state criminal justice systems,
requiring segregated facilities and a host
of specialized services, including drug
treatment. Florida�s Miami-Dade County
takes a different approach, one that works
well with the brief intervention approach
discussed in more detail in the next
chapter. In Miami-Dade, all juvenile
arrestees are sent to a central facility, the
Juvenile Assessment Center ( JAC), which
brings together specialists from law
enforcement and social services to provide
coordinated services to youth as they enter
the juvenile justice system.
�We brought all the agencies that deal
with arrested children to the JAC,� says
Wansley Walters, the center�s director.
�We have staff to do everything from
arrest processing to treatment referrals.
We have staff from the Dade County
school system here to check school
records and notify the school that a child
has been arrested. The State Attorney�s
office is represented so that they can
meet with the arresting officer and
interview the young person.� In all, the
formerly bureaucratic process of arresting
a juvenile has been shortened from four
weeks to less than a day.
All arrestees receive an assessment of
some type. �At the root of many of these
kids� behavior is a drug problem,� says
Walters. �Unfortunately, a lot of kids
move through the system without having
their drug use connected to their
behavior problems.�
Through careful screening, the JAC staff
are able to tailor their interventions
accordingly. �One child may need a lengthy
residential treatment,� says Walters. �You
may have a child who needs no more than
counseling and a realistic discussion about
the risks of what he�s doing. Frankly, some
children just need some attention�and
that may be all [it takes] to modify their
behavior.�
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Research into youth motivations for using drugs
confirms the crucial importance of peers,
particularly close friends, in fostering a climate
tolerant of drug use. Just as young people who use
drugs are much more likely to continue their drug
use into adulthood, the available research is
unequivocal that people who make it through
their teenage years without using drugs are much
less likely to start using later in life.
Keeping teens from taking that first, risky step is
central to the success of our Strategy. Yet despite
parents� best efforts to keep their kids drug-free,
every day approximately 4,800 American youth
under age 18 try marijuana for the first time—a
number roughly equal to the enrollment of six
average-size high schools.
Following up with brief interventions for young
people who do try illegal drugs (or alcohol)
is critical. This Strategy highlights the importance
of student drug testing, a prevention approach that
accomplishes both goals: deterring drug use while
guiding users to needed treatment or counseling.
Student drug testing is a remarkable grassroots
tool that the Federal Government is moving
aggressively to support with research funding as well
as support for program design and implementation.
The fiscal year 2005 budget requests $25 million
for student drug testing programs. Eight
demonstration grants have already been awarded
with prior-year funding, to expand existing
programs and evaluate the effectiveness of others.
Student drug testing programs advance the
Strategy�s goal of intervening early in the young
person�s drug career, using research-based
prevention approaches to guide users into
counseling or drug treatment, and deterring others
from starting in the first place. The purpose of
random testing is not to catch, punish, or expose
students who use drugs but to prevent drug
dependence and to help drug-dependent students
become drug-free in a confidential manner.
Effective testing programs include clear-cut
consequences for students who use illegal drugs,
such as suspension from an athletic activity, until
the student has completed counseling.
Figure 6: Drug Use Initiation Is Highest Among Young People
Initiation Among Those Under 18 in 2001
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Marijuana | 1,741,000 |
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Cocaine | 353,000 |
| Hallucinogens
| 757,000 |
| Ecstasy
| 590,000 |
| Pain relievers
| 1,124,000 |
Source: National Survey of Drug Use and Health, 2002
Student drug testing programs work. According
to a study published in the Journal of Adolescent
Health, a school in Oregon that tested student
athletes for drugs had a rate of use that was onequarter
that of a comparable school with no drug
testing policy. After two years of a drug testing
program, Hunterdon Central Regional High School
in New Jersey saw significant reductions in 20 of
28 drug use categories, with cocaine use by seniors
dropping from 13 to 4 percent (see box). A study
from Ball State University showed that 73 percent
of high school principals reported a reduction in
drug use among students subject to drug testing
policies, with just 2 percent reporting an increase.
Our Nation needs more of the sort of community
and parental involvement that embraced Hunterdon�s
school drug testing program and made it a success.
Americans serve their communities in countless
ways—in our most drug-ridden communities,
groups of citizens are stepping forward to serve
their neighbors, banding together to fight back
against the drug trade and the social consequences
left in its wake. They are doing it with techniques as varied as videotaping dealers in open-air drug
markets, working with zoning officials to condemn
crack houses and close down drug paraphernalia
stores, and forging alliances between treatment
and law enforcement. And they are succeeding,
often surprising even themselves (see box on pages
16 and 17).When these Americans get involved
in their communities, our whole Nation benefits.
The drug Strategy works best when Americans
work together. As discussed more fully in the next
chapter, this means making the unpleasant and
seemingly thankless decision to intervene with a
family member or friend who is using drugs.
Last month, the National Youth Anti-Drug
Media Campaign launched an early intervention
initiative to help parents recognize the signs of
early use and encourage them to take action
before use creates problems and leads to addiction,
offering information and suggested approaches for
discussing the subject with their children.
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STUDENT DRUG TESTING AT HUNTERDON
CENTRAL REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL Lisa Brady, principal of Hunterdon Central
Regional High School, remembers 1997 as
if it were yesterday.
The Flemington, New Jersey, school�s
periodic surveys had detected a spike in drug
use among the student body, prompting
the school board to launch a random testing
program for student athletes. �Our school
board president at the time was an
Olympic track athlete,� says Brady. �He
was extremely familiar with the benefits of
drug testing.�
The psychology behind student drug testing
programs is straightforward. They give kids
an �out,� Brady says. �Kids will tell you that
the program gives them a reason to say no.
They�re just kids, after all; they need a
crutch. Being able to say, �I�m a cheerleader,�
�I�m in the band,� �I�m a football player,� and
�My school drug tests�—it really gives them
some tools to be able to say no.�
When a student turns up a positive drug
test (Hunterdon administers about 200
random tests per year), the student and
parents meet privately with a counselor.
An intervention is agreed to—typically,
brief counseling sessions followed by
classes emphasizing decision-making skills.
�After that they have to submit a drug
screen,� says Brady. �Then they return to
their activity, safer and smarter as a result
of their counseling. The program is designed
to be confidential. No records are kept.�
A lawsuit filed by the ACLU on behalf
of three students eventually forced the
suspension of testing, but by this time the
program had been enlarged to include
students involved in other extracurricular
activities. More important, testing had
been going on long enough for the school
to measure the program�s effects.What
they found was remarkable: significant
reductions in drug use�school wide. And
although only certain categories of students
were tested, the program had been affecting
the student body as a whole, identifying
drug use early and buffering the peer
pressure that encourages teens to use drugs.
Brady was understandably frustrated at
having to put the program on hold. �Here
I�m holding data in my hands that shows
that this program clearly was effective in
reducing drug use among my students,�
says Brady, �but I was not able to implement
the program. I was pretty upset.�
She continues, �We have never seen a
prevention curriculum that affected the
numbers this substantially. It seemed that
finally we had a tool that was making a
large difference. And yet we�re hemming
and hawing about whether to use it.�
The school eventually prevailed, but not
before litigating all the way to the New
Jersey Supreme Court. Today, the program
is back in full operation.
Although the program is overwhelmingly
supported by Hunterdon parents, Brady
is surprised how often the parent, not
the student, questions the test results.
�The kid will come in and say, �I was at a
party this weekend, and my drug screen is
going to be dirty,� says Brady. �Then the
parent tries to get the kid out of the
situation. Sometimes the parent is just
used to bailing the kids out of everything.
A lot of parents are in denial, and
sometimes,� she adds, �it takes a drug
test to make kids and parents overcome
that denial.�
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This campaign also targets peers of teens who
have just started to use drugs and alcohol,
which is illegal in all 50 states for people under
age 21, and includes television, radio, and print
ads as well as workplace outreach and other
efforts. The campaign takes direct aim at parents�
understandable but misplaced fear that they
will push their children away by talking to them
about drug use.
Children also learn by example. Athletics
play an important role in our society, but,
unfortunately, some in professional sports are
not setting much of an example. The use of
performance-enhancing drugs such as steroids
in baseball, football, and other sports is dangerous,
and it sends the wrong message—that there are
shortcuts to accomplishment, and that
performance is more important than character.
America�s team owners, union representatives,
coaches, and players must work together to
end the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
Use by even a small number of elite
athletes sets a dangerous example for the
millions of young Americans, encouraging
young people to take dangerous risks with
their health and safety. Ending the use of
steroids will require sports leagues and athletes
to implement stringent drug policies to set
a healthier and more positive example for
America�s young people. These policies will
also protect the integrity of their sports and
ensure the health and well-being of athletes.
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Nobody told Shirley Morgan she couldn�t
do it.
In the beautiful rural area east of Portland,
in the shadow of Mount Hood, drug
dealers were taking advantage of the area�s
abundance of seasonally occupied vacation
homes to cook methamphetamine, some
of which they sold locally. Marijuana
�grows� abounded.
Then, somebody broke into Morgan�s
house. �It wasn�t until my home was
burglarized that I asked myself how I had
missed all the signs that the drug trade
was here,� says Morgan, founder of the
Mount Hood Coalition Against Drug
Crime. �All of a sudden we had cars
speeding along what had been quiet
mountain roads.We had people cooking
meth in their house, dumping the
chemicals into the yard, and contaminating
the water supply.�
Morgan, a marketing and advertising
consultant, gathered business, civic, and
faith leaders, and her neighbors. Together,
they reached the bold conclusion that with
some help from law enforcement, they
could drive off the drug dealers and meth
cookers in their midst. �At any given time,�
says Morgan �we have one police officer
patrolling a 35-mile-long strip. The police
just can�t be everywhere. So we, the
residents of the Mount Hood corridor,
formed a volunteer coalition against drug
crime in our community.�
Members of the coalition collect
intelligence such as digital photos of
suspicious vehicles and license plate
numbers and pass it to law enforcement,
often using email. Their Web site,
www.hadit.org (the residents had �had
it�), lists outstanding arrest warrants and
photographs of criminals known to be
active in the area. The coalition also
educates property owners about the longterm
effects of drug manufacturing in their
rental properties (a single meth cook can
turn a split-level ranch house with a view
into a hazardous materials site).
The coalition works. In a lesson that has been
learned time and again by community groups
and Orange Hat citizen patrols in some of
America�s most crime-ridden inner cities,
dealers respond to unwanted attention by
taking their business elsewhere. Morgan
counts six people who were involved with
the drug trade who picked up and moved.
Another five had their homes repossessed, and
several others just went back to their day jobs.
�People ask me, �Aren�t you afraid of
retaliation?� I say, �They�re already
retaliating, burglarizing our homes, and
abusing the environment.��
Some of her neighbors have sought drug
treatment, and Morgan, with the help of a
local church ministry, is happy to help place
them, with a strong dose of community
involvement. �One of the guys in the
program, who used meth, marijuana, and
alcohol said, �I can�t do this anymore. Every
time I turn around, somebody�s looking.��
Morgan, who is active in the Foursquare
Church, works with more than 50
neighbors from all types of backgrounds,
but she is happy to explain her pluck and
dedication in the context of her Christian
faith. �It�s sort of a calling�you don�t want
to go somewhere but you go anyway,� says
Morgan. �It�s like the Samaritan story. You
find drugs on your street, and you ask
yourself, �Can I look the other way?� I was
challenged by my faith to do something.�
In addition to radically changing the
climate in the Mount Hood region,
Morgan is poised to take her lessons on
the road: the coalition recently received a
mentoring grant to train and improve the
effectiveness of other coalitions in the
Pacific Northwest.
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Last Updated: March 29, 2004
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