I. Drug-Control Strategy: An Overview
Elements of the 1999 National Drug Control Strategy
Democratic: Our nation's domestic challenge is to reduce illegal drug use and its criminal, health, and economic consequences while protecting individual liberty and the rule of law. Our international challenge is to develop effective, cooperative programs that respect national sovereignty and reduce the cultivation, production, trafficking, distribution, and use of illegal drugs while supporting democratic governance and human rights.
Outcome-oriented: To translate words into deeds, the Strategy must ensure accountability. Performance Measures of Effectiveness: Implementation and Findings5 details long- and mid-term targets that gauge progress toward each of the Strategy's goals and objectives.
Comprehensive: Successfully addressing the devastating drug problem in America requires a multi-faceted, balanced program that attacks both supply and demand. Prevention, education, treatment, workplace programs, research, law enforcement, interdiction, and drug-crop reduction must all be components of the response. The 1999 Strategy continues to adhere to a principle that appeared originally ten years ago, that no single tactic, pursued alone or to the detriment of other possible and valuable initiatives, can work to contain or reduce drug use. We can expect no panacea, no "silver bullet," to solve the nation's drug-abuse problem. We will have to move forward simultaneously on several paths at once if we are to be successful.
Long-term: No short-term solution is possible to a national drug problem that requires the education of each new generation and resolute opposition to criminal drug traffickers. We must adhere to our principles over the long term. Only with a consistent approach that is internally coherent can we hope to turn back the threat of rising drug abuse.
Wide-ranging: Our response to the drug problem must support the needs of families, schools, and communities. It also must address international aspects of drug control through bilateral, regional, and global accords.
Realistic: Some people believe drug use is so deeply embedded in society that we can never decrease it. Others feel that draconian measures are required. The 1999 Strategy rejects both these views. Although we cannot eliminate illegal drug use, history demonstrates that we can control this cancer without compromising American ideals.
Science-based: Facts, rather than ideology or anecdote, must provide the foundation for rational drug policy. The informational basis of this Strategy is grounded in research. Its effectiveness is gauged over time by objective performance measurements. Over the years it will be adjusted in accordance with the findings of the research and performance measurement efforts.
