The authority for a Federal probation and parole drug aftercare program was initially established by the Narcotic Rehabilitation Act of 1966. Under the program of the Northern District of California, each drug aftercare client (DAC) is referred to a professional substance abuse therapist for an assessment and evaluation. A written report is completed and submitted to the probation officers with a recommended course of treatment. Intervention options include drug-free counseling, psychotherapy, group counseling, family counseling, recovery groups, transition groups, substance abuse education groups, intensive outpatient treatment, psychological and psychiatric evaluations, monitoring and payment for psychotropic medication, short-term residential treatment (28 to 180 days), and long-term residential treatment (6 to 18 months). In 1984 a total of 217 cases were identified as DAC. From that population, 3,050 urine scheduled tests were taken throughout 1984. Between 18 and 21 percent of the tests were returned as positive for illicit drugs. During fiscal year 1990, 666 cases were identified as DAC. This population provided 15,514 randomly taken urine tests during the year. Of all urine tests taken, 6.6 percent were returned positive for drugs. This amounted to an average reduction of 14.4 percent in the district's urine positive drug test rate. 10 references