Up-to-date information on the availability and prevalence of illegal drugs and the criminal,
health, and social consequences of their use is vital to the implementation of the
National Drug Control Strategy. Such information is also important for measuring the
effectiveness of federal, state, and local drug control programs. The Office of National
Drug Control Policy�s (ONDCP) Advisory Committee on Research, Data, and Evaluation;
Subcommittee on Data, Research, and Interagency Coordination (the Data Subcommittee)
coordinates the development and analysis of drug control information in support of
the Strategy. The Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 1998
defines ONDCP�s reporting requirements to include �an assessment of current drug use
(including inhalants) and availability, impact of drug use, and treatment availability.�
The legislation* specifies that this assessment shall include the following:
|
(i) | estimates of drug prevalence and frequency
of use as measured by national, State, and
local surveys of illicit drug use and by other
special studies of: |
|
| (I) |
casual and chronic drug use; |
|
| (II) |
high-risk populations, including school
dropouts, the homeless and transient,
arrestees, parolees, probationers, and
juvenile delinquents; and |
|
| (III) |
drug use in the workplace and the
productivity lost by such use; |
|
(ii) |
an assessment of the reduction of drug
availability against an ascertained baseline, as
measured by: |
|
| (I) |
the quantities of cocaine, heroin,
marijuana, methamphetamine, and
other drugs available for consumption in
the United States; |
|
| (II) |
the amount of marijuana, cocaine,
heroin, and precursor chemicals
entering the United States; |
|
| (III) |
the number of hectares of marijuana,
poppy, and coca cultivated and
destroyed domestically and in other
countries; |
|
| (IV) |
the number of metric tons of
marijuana, heroin, cocaine, and
methamphetamine seized; |
|
| (V) |
the number of cocaine and
methamphetamine processing
laboratories destroyed domestically
and in other countries; |
|
| (VI) |
changes in the price and purity of
heroin and cocaine, changes in the
price of methamphetamine, and
changes in tetrahydrocannabinol level
of marijuana; |
|
| (VII) |
the amount and type of controlled
substances diverted from legitimate
retail and wholesale sources; and |
|
| (VIII) |
the effectiveness of Federal technology
programs at improving drug detection
capabilities in interdiction, and at
United States ports of entry; |
|
(iii) | an assessment of the reduction of the
consequences of drug use and availability,
which shall include estimation of: |
|
| (I) |
the burden drug users placed on
hospital emergency departments in the
United States, such as the quantity of
drug-related services provided; |
|
| (II) |
the annual national health care costs of
drug use, including costs associated with
people becoming infected with the
human immuno-deficiency virus and
other infectious diseases as a result of
drug use; |
|
| (III) |
the extent of drug-related crime and
criminal activity; and |
|
| (VI) |
the contribution of drugs to the
underground economy as measured by
the retail value of drugs sold in the
United States; |
|
(iv) | a determination of the status of drug
treatment in the United States, by assessing: |
|
| (I) |
public and private treatment capacity
within each State, including
information on the treatment capacity
available in relation to the capacity
actually used; |
|
| (II) |
the extent, within each State, to which
treatment is available; |
|
| (III) |
the number of drug users the Director
estimates could benefit from treatment;
and |
|
| (IV) |
the specific factors that restrict the
availability of treatment services to
those seeking it and proposed
administrative or legislative remedies to
make treatment available to those
individuals; and |
|
(v) | a review of the research agenda of the
Counter-Drug Technology Assessment
Center to reduce the availability and abuse
of drugs. |
Data are available for many of the areas listed
above; however, there are specific areas for which
measurement systems are not yet fully operational.
The tables presented in this volume contain the
most current drug-related data on the areas the
1998 ONDCP Reauthorization Act requires
ONDCP to assess.
