From CADCA’s Coalitions Online (April 25, 2013)
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) released the 2013 National Drug Control Strategy in April, which includes a focus on substance misuse prevention. The Strategy highlights the Drug-Free Communities Support Program, noting that community coalitions are an effective vehicle to prevent drug misuse before it starts.
“We know that preventing drug misuse before it begins, particularly with young people, is absolutely the most cost effective way to reduce crime and drug use and its consequences. Recent research has concluded that every dollar invested in research-based substance use prevention programs, strategies, and activities has the potential to save up to $7 in areas such as substance misuse treatment and criminal justice system costs,” said ONDCP Director Gil Kerlikowske when he released the Strategy in Baltimore on Wednesday. “That is why the Strategy lays out expanding our national and community-based programs – including the Drug-Free Communities Support Program.”
In addition, the plan acknowledges the growth of community coalitions internationally, in which CADCA has played a central role. Since 2005, through a contract with the Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, CADCA has helped build and train community coalitions in 18 countries.
“We’re very pleased to see that the National Drug Control Strategy is a balanced and public health-based approach that includes prevention, treatment, recovery and alternatives to incarceration. As the membership organization of more than 5,000 community-based coalitions around the world, CADCA was also thrilled to see that the Strategy acknowledged the effectiveness of the community-based coalition approach through the Drug-Free Communities program, which is touted as one of the major pillars of the Strategy,” said CADCA Chairman and CEO Gen. Arthur Dean.
Visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/ondcp/drugpolicyreform to download the 2013 National Drug Control Strategy.
