Challenges and Opportunities in Drug Demand Reduction
John W. Wilson
Acting Administrator,
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Department of Justice
United States
I want to thank the planning committee for
asking me to speak briefly this morning and to
serve as moderator for this plenary session. I’m
honored to be here today on behalf of the U.S.
Department of Justice, Attorney General Janet
Reno, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention. I’m here, along with
Mark Morgan from our Anti-drug Program Unit,
and I’m excited to have the opportunity to
introduce the plenary session on the subject,
“Challenges and Opportunities in Drug Demand
Reduction.” Fortunately, we’ve been hearing
some encouraging news about youth attitudes
towards drug use lately. Forty percent of teens
in a recent survey responded that they strongly
agree that really cool teens do not use drugs.
And along with changes in attitude, we’re seeing
positive changes in behavior. Youth drug use
has been generally decreasing since the mid-1990’s
and in 1999 the level of drug use among
American adolescents held steady from the
previous year. We hope that this is a pause and
that the downward trend will continue into the
new millennium.
Yet, even with these gains in the battle against
youth substance abuse, many challenges lie
ahead. For even as youth substance abuse was
declining in 1998, more than half of American
high school seniors said they used an illicit drug,
at least once. And even more admitted to
consuming alcohol. Moreover, it is estimated
that 3000 youth, those under the age of 18,
started smoking every single day in 1997. We
also know that youth who have used or sold
drugs are more likely to engage in other
delinquent behaviors. Think about this. Youth
who have used marijuana are much more likely
to have sold marijuana – about four times more
likely, three times more likely to have carried a
gun, and seven times more likely to have been
in a gang. This all happens at some point during
adolescence. That is why it is so important for
us to focus on prevention and early intervention
of substance abuse. I’m talking about
intervention at the first sign of trouble. Time and
again, our experiences and research have shown
that the most effective and successful approach
to juvenile crime is prevention, including youth
development programs that target at-risk youth,
and early intervention programs for youth
engaged in high-risk behaviors including drug
use.
Our communities pay a high price when we
allow even one youth to leave high school for a
life of crime and drug abuse: a bill that is
estimated to cost over $1.7 million per lost
youth. Based on decades of research in the
fields of criminal and juvenile justice, public
health and youth development, our office, the
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention, has developed a comprehensive
system-wide approach to delinquency
prevention, early intervention and improvement
of the juvenile justice system’s response to
juvenile offenders. Our comprehensive strategy
for serious violent and chronic juvenile offenders
is a framework that is built on strengthening
families and communities so that they can better
provide guidance and support for their children
in developing capable, mature and responsible
youth.
Another key component of the comprehensive
strategy is multi-disciplinary coordination. To
succeed, we must have the support of key
leaders and the involvement of a strong network
of community based programs and services
public and private—system and non-system,
state and local—collaborating on prevention,
intervention, supervision and the provision of
effective services. We have committed to such
collaboration at the Federal level with initiatives
like the Drug Free Communities Support
Program. Together, OJJDP, the Office of
National Drug Control Policy, and the Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Service
Administration’s Center for Substance Abuse
Prevention, with private partners such as CADCA
are helping coalitions across this country to
bring communities together, we support drug
prevention programs by providing funding,
resources and tools needed to support at-risk
youth, provide services to drug-involved youth,
and make neighborhoods safe and drug free for
families. And this program has received strong
financial support. The U.S. Congress
appropriated an additional $30 million in fiscal
year 2000, the program’s third year, to ensure
that no child, family or community is left behind
in the prevention of substance abuse. Just
within the border states of Arizona, California,
New Mexico and Texas there are currently 43
operational Drug-Free Community support
programs. And if you don’t have one in your
community, or if you’re a visitor from Mexico, I
suggest that you go and see these programs at
work and work to put a coalition together in
your community.
We know that if we can reduce substance abuse
among our children, we will be laying the
foundation that gives them a better opportunity
to become drug free and productive adults. By
coordinating these efforts across agencies and
disciplines and through collaboration between
juvenile justice system officials, schools, law
enforcement, child and family services, and
community based organizations, we can succeed
in creating a community wide network of care
for our children. We have a special challenge
and a unique opportunity to reach out further
and establish a strong collaborative effort
between the United States and Mexico. Forming
local, state, Federal and global partnerships, and
using a system-wide approach, a comprehensive
strategic approach, that incorporates the latest
research into prevention and treatment
programming, we can successfully reduce
substance abuse by reducing drug demand.
I think the global nature of the problem has
been illustrated recently by a number of articles
and stories that I’ve read about in papers about
the use of the Internet for drug sales. We have
children now who are going on the Internet and
buying drugs for delivery to their homes. Think
of the implications of that and the need for all of
us to work together nationally and
nternationally to address this issue. One of the
things that we pride ourselves on in our office is
providing information resources. We have at the
back table here, a sample of publications from
our office. And they include publications about
how youth can be a bit more involved in
reducing crime and delinquency and drug
prevention. We work closely with a national
youth network to help youth to become involved
as part of the solution. And I applaud you for
having the youth representation here at this
conference because that’s critical to our success.
These publications deal with issues of gangs,
guns and drugs. They’re all inter-related
problems. You can’t look at one without looking
at the others. And they cover issues including
research, evaluation, programs, effective
programs that you can adopt in your
community. How to involve youth, families in
the communities, in comprehensive efforts on
how to involve the juvenile justice system as a
player in these efforts.
In this plenary, our speakers will present some
of the components of system wide services that
span the continuum of prevention and
treatment. This plenary challenges the
opportunities in drug demand reduction. It was
designed to stimulate continuing discussion and
thought on the roles of prevention, treatment
and multi-sector, multi-strategy collaborative
efforts and what role they can play in achieving
demand reduction on the U.S.-Mexico border. I
thank you for your attention. We have seven
speakers, so we’re going to be moving very
quickly. Our first speaker is H. Westley Clark. Dr.
Clark is the Director of the Center for Substance
Abuse Treatment in the Department of Health
and Human Services. He leads the nation’s effort
to provide effective and accessible treatment to
all Americans with addictive disorders. Dr.
Clark’s areas of expertise include substance
abuse treatment, methadone maintenance, pain
management, dual diagnosis, psycho-pharmacology,
anger management, and medical
and legal issues. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my
pleasure to introduce Dr. Clark.
