Carnevale Policy Brief: The Continued Standstill in Reducing Illicit Drug Use: Is the Policy-Budget Mismatch to Blame?

This Policy Brief shows what can happen when a drug policy fails to align program resources with its strategic goals and objectives.

Analyzing data from SAMHSA's just-released National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), the Research and Policy Analysis Group of Carnevale Associates find that the US has experienced a standstill in progress to reduce drug use so far in this decade and attribute this lack of progress to the eight-year failure of the US Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) to meaningfully match its federal drug control budget with the demand reduction goals set forth by its own policy.

The brief concludes that if the ONDCP continues to make demand reduction its top strategic priority, then it must begin by reallocating resources from supply reduction to demand reduction programmes.