We recommended in our 1993 report that ONDCP, as the coordinator of the federal drug control effort, (1) develop additional measures to assess progress in reducing drug use, (2) develop performance measures to evaluate the contributions made by major components of current antidrug efforts and significant new initiatives, and (3) incorporate these measures into annual drug control strategies. It provides a useful framework for assessing the effectiveness of federal drug control efforts. To obtain information on the U.S. Coast Guard’s performance measures for its antidrug activities, we interviewed officials responsible for managing the Coast Guard’s drug interdiction program and reviewed key agency documents such as the Coast Guard’s preliminary performance plans (for implementing the GPRA). The first approach emphasizes individual drug resistance skills, generic problem-solving/decisionmaking training, and modification of attitudes and norms that encourage drug use (the psychosocial approach). These approaches have been used in several notable programs. Obstacles to U.S. International Drug Control Efforts

Over the past 10 years, U.S. agencies involved in counternarcotics efforts have attempted to reduce the supply and availability of illegal drugs in the United States by implementing the U.S. international drug control strategy. During this period, we reported on other significant long-standing obstacles faced by the United States in its international drug control efforts, including the inconsistency in the amount of funds applied to international drug control programs, difficulty in obtaining bilateral and multilateral donor support for U.S. drug control efforts, and organizational and operational limitations. Inadequate resources and institutional capabilities of these and other foreign countries have limited arrests and convictions of drug traffickers. In reauthorizing ONDCP in 1993, Congress specified that ONDCP’s performance measurement system should assess changes in drug use, drug availability, the consequences of drug use, drug treatment capacity, and the adequacy of drug treatment systems. The Coast Guard has taken steps toward conforming with certain GPRA principles. The Coast Guard has developed preliminary performance plans that reflect a need for additional work in three areas: (1) developing goals and ways of achieving them, (2) developing data to measure the results of its actions, and (3) identifying wide variety of constraints that could influence the effectiveness of its antidrug activities. Conclusions

ONDCP and several other agencies are developing measures of the results of their antidrug activities. Monitoring the Future, National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1996. the nature and objectives of drug prevention and treatment, the types of prevention approaches currently being used and promising prevention practices for school-age youths, the types of cocaine treatment approaches currently being used and promising treatment practices for those abusing or addicted to cocaine, and future research initiatives needed to enhance our knowledge base of prevention and treatment effectiveness. 4. According to the study, “given that annual U.S. cocaine consumption is less than 300 tons, the impact of the additional resources in the transit zone does not seem significant enough to affect U.S. drug use.”
On the basis of this analysis, the study concluded that “t does not appear that the potential benefit of decreased trafficker smuggling success rate in the transit zone is significant enough to warrant additional resources.” The study noted that the federal policy challenge is not only to determine the benefits from direct investment in the transit zone but also to consider whether the investment of a similar level of resources elsewhere in the drug strategy might produce even more benefits. Drug Control: Reauthorization of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (GAO/GGD-93-144, Sept. 29, 1993).
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the federal drug control strategy, focusing on: (1) findings of current research on promising drug approaches in drug abuse prevention targeted at school-age youth; (2) promising drug treatment strategies for cocaine addiction; (3) GAO's recent work assessing the effectiveness of international efforts to reduce illegal drug availability, including interdiction; (4) whether the U.S. Coast Guard's performance measures for its antidrug activities conform to the principles of the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA); and (5) summaries of several of GAO's recent products on federal drug-prevention and treatment-related efforts.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) recent research points to two types of promising drug prevention approaches for school-age youth; (2) the first approach emphasizes drug resistance skills, generic problem-solving, decisionmaking training, and modification of attitudes and norms that encourage drug use; (3) three approaches have been found to be potentially promising in the treatment of cocaine use; (4) these approaches include avoidance or better management of drug-triggering situations, exposure to community support programs, drug sanctions, and necessary employment counseling, and use of a coordinated behavioral, emotional, and cognitive treatment approach; (5) despite some successes, United States and host countries' efforts have not materially reduced the availability of drugs in the United States for several reasons; (6) international drug trafficking organizations have become sophisticated, multibillion dollar industries that quickly adapt to new U.S. drug control efforts; (7) the United States faces other significant and long-standing obstacles, such as inconsistent funding for U.S. international drug control efforts, competing foreign policy objectives, organizational and operational limitations, and a lack of ways to tell whether or how well counternarcotics efforts are contributing to the goals and objectives of the national drug control strategy, which results in an inablity to prioritize the use of limited resources; (8) in drug-producing and transit countries, counternarcotics efforts are constrained by competing economic and political policies, inadequate laws, limited resources and institutional capabilities, and internal problems such as terrorism, corruption, and civil unrest; (9) measuring the effectiveness of U.S. antidrug activities has been a continuing problem in assessing the results of the national drug control strategy; (10) in reauthorizing the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) in 1993, Congress specified that ONDCP's performance measurement system should assess changes in drug use, drug availability, the consequences of drug use, and the adequacy of drug treatment systems; (11) to implement the statutory requirements, which are consistent with recommendations in GAO's 1993 report, ONDCP is developing national-level measures of drug control performance; (12) similarly, the Coast Guard is developing performance measures to assess the results of its antidrug activities; and (13) it appears from GAO's review of the Coast Guard's strategic and performance plans that it has taken steps toward conforming with certain GPRA principles.