National Drug Control Strategy -- Strategic Communications: Selected Writings

• NCJ Number: 176980
• Author(s): B. R. McCaffrey
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 62 pages
• Corporate Author: Office of National Drug Control Policy
• Sale Source: NCJRS Photocopy Services; Drug Policy Information Clearinghouse
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

These publications written by Barry McCaffrey, the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, are grouped under the five goals of the national drug control strategy.

Abstract

Two of the publications provide a general view of America's approach to the drug problem, as they discuss the tradition of anti-legalization and the Office of National Drug Control Policy's institution of a strategic plan that has already begun to show its effects. Nine publications are then presented to describe ways in which one of the five strategic goals of the national drug control strategy is being pursued, i.e., to educate and enable America's youth to reject illegal drugs as well as alcohol and tobacco. Topics discussed under this goal include mentoring, the dangers of inhalant use by children, drug education, and the effectiveness of the media campaign to reduce drug abuse by youth. Two publications pertain to the second goal of the national drug control strategy, i.e., to increase the safety of America's citizens by substantially reducing drug- related crime and violence. Topics covered are the need to eliminate the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine in Federal law and how the Citizens Protection Act of 1998 handicaps Federal prosecutors in litigation against large- scale drug criminals. Five publications focus on the third goal of the national drug control strategy, which is to reduce the health and social costs to the public of illegal drug use. A discussion of the anti-drug effort at the U.S.-Mexican border is the one publication presented under the fourth goal of the national drug control strategy, which is to "shield America's air, land, and sea frontiers from the drug threat." Two publications focus on the fifth goal, to break foreign and domestic drug sources of supply. Other presentations include a summary of the 1998 Reauthorization Act, highlights of the 1999 national drug control strategy, goals and objectives of this strategy, and America's drug abuse profile.