B. Goals and Objectives of the 1998 Strategy
The goals of the 1998 Strategy remain unchanged from the 1997 Strategy; reflecting both the need for consistency and the importance of sticking to those programs that make sense and are working. The objectives set out below, drawn from the measures of performance, provide, at a glance, both the specific accomplishments this Strategy is designed to achieve and the basic markers by which the future success of this Strategy's should be measured. The objectives are aggressive. The Administration is committed to meeting these goals, as well as to continually examining and refining the goals and targets set forth in the performance measures system -- including an annual review during the budget process of the relationship between the goals and the level of federal and nonfederal resources required to attain them.
Goal 1: Educate and enable America's youth to reject illegal drugs as well as alcohol and tobacco.
Drug abuse is preventable. If boys and girls reach adulthood without using illegal drugs, alcohol, or tobacco, they probably will never develop a chemical-dependency problem. To this end, the Strategy focuses on educating children about the real dangers associated with drugs. ONDCP seeks to involve parents, coaches, mentors, teachers, clergy, and other role models in a broad prevention campaign. ONDCP encourages businesses, communities, schools, the entertainment industry, universities, and professional sports leagues to join these anti-drug efforts. In addition, we must limit drug availability and treat young substance abusers.
Objectives: The Strategy's mid-term objectives are to reduce the prevalence of past-month drug use among youth by 20 percent and increase the average age of first use by twelve months before the year 2002. The long-term objectives are a 50 percent reduction in current drug use and an increase of thirty-six months in the average age of first use by the year 2007.
Goal 2: Increase the safety of America's citizens by substantially reducing drug-related crime and violence.
The social ruin caused by drug-related crime and violence mirrors the tragedy that substance abuse wreaks on individuals. A large number of the twelve million property crimes committed each year are drug-related as is a significant proportion of nearly two million violent crimes. The nation's 3.6 million chronic drug users contribute disproportionally to this problem, consuming the majority of cocaine and heroin on our streets.
Drug-related crime can be reduced through community-oriented policing, which has been demonstrated by police departments in New York and numerous other cities where crime rates are plunging. Cooperation among federal, state, and local law-enforcement agencies and operations targeting gangs, trafficking organizations, and violent drug dealers are making a difference. Equitable enforcement of fair laws is a must. Punishment must be perceived as commensurate with the offense. Finally, the criminal justice system must do more than punish. It should use its coercive powers to break the cycle of drugs and crime through effective treatment programs.
Objectives: The Strategy's mid-term objective is to reduce drug-related crime and violence by 15 percent by the year 2002. The long-term objective is a 30 percent reduction by the year 2007.
Goal 3: Reduce health and social costs to the public of illegal drug use.
Drug dependence is a chronic, relapsing disorder that exacts enormous costs on individuals, families, businesses, communities, and nations. Addicted individuals have, to a degree, lost their ability to resist drugs, often resulting in self-destructive and criminal behavior. Effective treatment can end addiction.
Providing treatment for America's 3.6 million chronic drug users is both compassionate public policy and a sound investment. For example, a recent study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that outpatient methadone treatment reduced heroin use by 70 percent, cocaine use by 48 percent, and criminal activity by 57 percent, thus increasing employment by 24 percent. Long-term residential treatment had similar success.
Objectives: The Strategy's mid-term objectives are to reduce use by 25 percent and health and social consequences by 10 percent by the year 2002. The long-term objectives are a 50 percent reduction in drug use and 25 percent reduction in consequences by the year 2007.
Goal 4: Shield America's air, land, and sea frontiers from the drug threat.
The United States is obligated to protect its citizens from the threats posed by illegal drugs crossing our borders. Interdiction in the transit and arrival zones disrupts drug flow, increases risks to traffickers, drives them to less efficient routes and methods, and prevents significant amounts of drugs from reaching the United States. Interdiction operations also produce intelligence that can be used domestically against trafficking organizations.
Each year, more than sixty-eight million passengers arrive in the United States aboard 830,000 commercial and private aircraft. Another eight million individuals arrive by sea, and a staggering 365 million cross our land borders each year driving more than 115 million vehicles. More than ten million trucks and cargo containers and ninety thousand merchant and passenger ships also enter the United States annually, carrying some four hundred million metric tons of cargo. Amid this voluminous trade, traffickers seek to hide more than 300 metric tons of cocaine, thirteen metric tons of heroin, vast quantities of marijuana, and smaller amounts of other illegal substances.
Objectives: The Strategy's mid-term objective is to reduce the amount of illegal drugs entering the United States by reducing trafficker success rates through the transit and arrival zones 10 percent by the year 2002. The long-term objective is a 20 percent reduction in trafficker success rates by the year 2007.
Goal 5: Break foreign and domestic drug sources of supply.
The rule of law, human rights, and democratic institutions are threatened by drug trafficking and consumption. International supply reduction programs not only reduce the volume of illegal drugs reaching our shores, they also attack international criminal organizations, strengthen democratic institutions, and honor our international drug-control commitments. The U.S. supply reduction strategy seeks to: (1) eliminate illegal drug cultivation and production; (2) dismantle drug-trafficking organizations; (3) interdict drug shipments; (4) encourage international cooperation; and (5) safeguard democracy and human rights. Additional information about international drug-control programs is contained in a classified annex to this Strategy.
Objectives: The Strategy's mid-term objectives are a 15 percent reduction in the flow of illegal drugs from source countries and a 20 percent reduction in domestic marijuana cultivation and methamphetamine production by the year 2002. Long-term objectives include a 30 percent reduction in the flow of drugs from source countries and a 50 percent reduction in domestic marijuana cultivation and methamphetamine production by 2007.
Assessing Performance
The Strategy's supporting performance-measurement system establishes the interrelationship between outcomes, programs, and resources. The performance measurements detailed in a companion volume to the Strategy -- Performance Measures of Effectiveness: A System for Assessing the Performance of the National Drug Control Strategy -- will gauge progress toward that end using five and ten-year targets. The heart of the system consists of twelve impact targets that define strategic end-states for the Strategy's five goals. Eighty-two supporting performance targets establish outcomes for the Strategy's thirty-two objectives. These targets were developed by federal drug-control agencies working with ONDCP and were reviewed by state and local agencies and drug-control experts.
While the drug-control performance measurement system can offer valuable information on program effectiveness, it will not determine federal budgets. No responsible level of federal spending alone can bring about a 50 percent reduction in America's illegal drug use problems. State and local governments, the private sector, communities, and individuals must all embrace the commitment to reduce demand by 50 percent over the next ten years. However, by providing clear benchmarks of our progress, the performance measures will assist policy makers, legislators, and managers in considering the adequacy of specific drug-control programs and increase accountability; these measures will assist in a considered review of whether we are achieving the maximum impact for the resources being used -- and, in turn, whether the performance targets need to be adjusted to reflect new or changing circumstances.
Progress will be gauged using both existing and new survey instruments. The Monitoring the Future survey and the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, for example, estimate risk perception, current use rates, age of initiation, and life-time use for most illegal drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. The Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring system and Drug Abuse Warning Network provide indirect measures of consequences. The principal measuring device for international progress is the International Narcotics Control Strategy Report. This annual State Department document provides country-by-country assessments of initiatives and accomplishments. It summarizes drug cultivation, eradication, production, seizures, arrests, destruction of laboratories, drug flow and transit, and criminal justice efforts. The Office of National Drug Control Policy's Advisory Committee on Research, Data, and Evaluation will consider additional instruments and measurement processes needed to address the demographics of chronic users, domestic cannabis cultivation, drug availability, and other drug-policy data shortfalls. (Because our performance assessments depend on the quality of the data developed, improved and expanded research will contribute greatly to this effort.) Annual progress reports will be submitted to Congress.
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