Terry Zobeck, Ph.D.Office of National Drug Control Policy

Executive Office of the President

Prepared for

Conference on Identifying Europe’s Information Needs for Effective Drug Policy

European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug AddictionLisbon, Portugal

May 2009

What can Europe learn from the US experience of policy-related drugs

monitoring?

Reporting Requirements for the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)

4/2009

Source: The Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 2006 (HR 6344).

The law requires that the National Drug Control Strategy include:

•An assessment of current illicit drug use•An assessment of change in illicit drug availability•An assessment of change in the consequences of illicit drug use and availability•A determination of the status of drug treatment in the United States

Current illicit drug use includes:

4/2009

Source: The Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 2006 (HR 6344).

•Estimates of drug prevalence and frequency of use as measured by national, State, and local surveys of illicit drug use (including inhalants and steroids)

•Estimates by other special studies of nondependent and dependent illicit drug use

•Illicit drug use in the workplace and the productivity lost by such use

•Illicit drug use by arrestees, probationers, and parolees

Illicit drug availability includes:

4/2009

Source: The Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 2006 (HR 6344).

•The quantities of cocaine, heroin, marijuana, methamphetamine, ecstasy, and other drugs available for consumption in the United States

•The amount of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, ecstasy, and precursor chemicals entering the United States

•The number of illicit drug manufacturing laboratories seized and destroyed, and the number of hectares of marijuana, poppy, and coca cultivated and destroyed

•The number of metric tons of marijuana, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and other drugs seized

•Changes in the price and purity of heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine; changes in the price of ecstasy; changes in THC level of marijuana; and purity or price of other drugs

Consequences of illicit drug use and availability include:

4/2009

Source: The Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 2006 (HR 6344).

• The burden illicit drug users placed on hospital emergency departments

• The annual national health care costs of drug use

• The extent of drug-related crime and criminal activity

Status of drug treatment includes:

4/2009

Source: The Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 2006 (HR 6344).

•The number of illicit drug users that meet diagnostic criteria for treatment

•Treatment availability•Public and private treatment utilization

Trends in Current Use of Any Illicit Drug (Past 30 Days)

Source: 2008 Monitoring the Future study (December 2008).

Source: Quest Diagnostics Drug Testing Index, through June 2008 for cocaine and through December 2007 for marijuana and methamphetamine.

Monthly Trends in Workforce Drug Testing

Number of Chronic Users

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000

3,500

4,000

1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000*

CocaineHeroin

Source: Office of National Drug Control Policy, What America’s Users Spend on Illegal Drugs, 1998-2000 (December 2001).

Estimated Number of Chronic Users of Cocaine or Heroin, 1998-2000

3/2009

*Estimates for 2000 are projections.

Percentage of All Treatment Admissions

Source: SAMHSA, 2007 Treatment Episode Data Set.

Percentage of Treatment Admissions for Four Major Drugs as Primary Substance of Abuse, 1997-2007

3/2009

Most of those needing but not receiving drug treatment did not feel the need for

treatment.

Total needing but not receiving drug treatment = 6.185 million

.Source: SAMHSA, 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (September 2008).

3/2009