White House Releases Drug Control Strategy for 2020

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy released updates to the Trump administration’s national drug control strategy on Monday to address drug abuse and misuse. 

The 44-page document builds on the 23-page version from 2019. It remains largely the same, including the administration’s objective, assumptions, and implementation strategy. But it adds nine goals, each of which outlines a set of objectives and includes measures of success. 

The strategy for 2020 “maintains focus on President Trump’s overarching goal from day one – reducing the number of Americans dying from drug overdoses,” ONDCP Director Jim Carroll said. “While the Trump Administration has made significant progress in preventing substance misuse before it starts, getting more people into treatment and long-term recovery, and curbing the flow of deadly drugs into our communities, now is not the time to rest on this success.”

The report follows on the heels of long-awaited data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on drug overdose deaths in the US between 1999 and 2018. CDC reports a total of 67,367 drug overdose deaths in 2018—a 4.1 percent decline from 70,237 deaths in 2017’s total.

In modifying the 2019 metrics section, the report looks to align objectives with 2020 goals and budget projections to achieve the overarching goal of national drug control. This is intended to ensure the necessary alignment across agencies and interagency partners’ policies, priorities and objectives, as well as to identify areas within the strategy needing refinement or resources.

Goals call for reducing the number of drug overdoses, drug use education, greater access to evidence-based addiction treatment, increasing mandatory education on prescribers, and reducing opioid prescription fills nationwide. They also seek adoption of interoperability in the states’ Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs, prevention of illicit drug production outside of the US—with specific goals on Colombia and Mexico—and reducing the availability of such drugs in the US. 

The report also includes five new appendixes. These list supporting plans or documents, outline ONDCP’s role to facilitate goals’ achievement, overview ONDCP’s mission, discuss the role of key stakeholders and partners of the strategy and define the research and data collection plan.

“We must build on our momentum and accelerate our efforts to strengthen communities and families across America,” Carroll added. “Through our continued whole-of-government approach, this Strategy lays the groundwork to continue reversing the pattern of addiction in our country.”

The report was released in conjunction with ONDCP’s Performance Reporting System report, a data supplement, and a first-of-its-kind National Treatment Plan for Substance Use Disorder.

The Government Accountability Office, meanwhile, recently highlighted some deficiencies related to the Drug Enforcement Agency’s collection and use of industry-reported data. “DEA’s systems don’t provide real-time analysis, but more robust analysis is possible,” GAO said.