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I. Drug-Control Strategy: An Overview
Evolution of the National Drug Control Strategy
National drug control strategies have been produced annually since 1989. Each defined demand reduction as a priority. In addition, the strategies increasingly recognized the importance of preventing drug use by youth. The various documents affirmed that no single approach could rescue the nation from the cycle of drug abuse. A consensus was reached that drug prevention, education, treatment, and research must be complemented by supply reduction actions abroad, on our borders, and within the United States. Each strategy also shared the commitment to maintain and enforce anti-drug laws. All the strategies, with growing success, tied policy to a scientific body of knowledge about the nation's drug problems. The 1996 Strategy established five goals and thirty-two supporting objectives as the basis for a coherent, long-term national effort. These goals remain the heart of the 1999 Strategy and will guide federal drug-control agencies over the next five years. In addition, the goals will be useful for state and local governments and the private sector. They are discussed in detail in Chapter III.
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