GAO Report to Congressional Requesters March 1997 DRUG CONTROL Observations on Elements of the Federal Drug Control Strategy

The federal government's investment in the war on drugs has grown to over $15 billion in fiscal year 1997. Yet the availability of drugs on U.S. streets and the number of persons using illegal drugs continue to be serious problems. We have reported many times over the past decade on federal antidrug efforts. This report responds to your October 30, 1996, request that we provide information to help Congress examine and improve the federal government's drug control 1 strategy. Specifically, this report (1) identifies findings of current research on promising approaches in drug abuse prevention targeted at school-age youth; (2) describes promising drug treatment strategies for cocaine addiction; (3) summarizes our recent work assessing the effectiveness of international efforts to reduce illegal drug availability, including interdiction; (4) assesses whether the U.S. Coast Guard's performance measures for its antidrug activities conform to the principles of the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA); and (5) summarizes several of our recent products on federal drug prevention-and treatment-related efforts. Background In 1995, an estimated 22.7 million Americans had used at least one illicit drug in the past year—17.8 million had used marijuana, 3.7 million had used cocaine; and 428,000 had used heroin. " drug control " is any activity conducted by a national drug control program agency involving supply reduction and demand reduction. Supply reduction includes international drug control; foreign and domestic drug enforcement intelligence; interdiction; and domestic drug law enforcement, including law enforcement directed at drug users. a pronounced rise in the estimated drug use rates among school-age youths—the estimated rate of marijuana use by 8th grade students increased from 7.2 percent to 15.8 percent; the estimated rate of marijuana use by 10th graders rose from 15.2 percent to 28.7 percent; and for 12th graders, the estimated rate of marijuana use increased from 21.9 percent to 34.7 percent. According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) social costs of illegal drug use were estimated at $67 billion annually. In addition, ONDCP reported that in the 1990s there were 100,000 drug-related deaths, approximately 20,000 deaths per year. 3 In 1988, Congress created ONDCP to lead the nation's war on drugs. The federal budget for drug abuse control climbed from $1.5 billion in fiscal year 1981 to about $15.1 billion in fiscal year 1997. 4 Approximately $1.8 billion of the over $15 billion authorized by Congress to implement the 1996 national …