Program: Drug control policy
Appropriation: |
Federal Funds: |
$1,587,400 |
|
GF/GP: |
$386,000 |
|
Total: |
$1,973,400[60] |
Program Description:
This appropriation funds the Drug Control Policy program. The office seeks to reduce the use of illegal drugs through a combination of social services, education and law enforcement.
Recommended Action:
This program has laudatory objectives, but it takes money from local communities, passes it through federal and state bureaucracies, and returns the remainder of it, strings attached, to programs which often duplicate existing school-based or community-based programs. One lesson of the last 30 years of anti-drug policy is that illicit drug use is most effectively reduced through efforts financed by local community organizations and individuals. This program should be eliminated. Savings: $1,973,400.
Program: Anti-drug abuse grants
Appropriation: |
All from Federal Funds: |
$28,659,200 |
|
Total: |
$28,659,200[61] |
Program Description:
This line item funds grants for anti-drug use programs in schools and other settings. The Boys & Girls Club of Alpena received $55,000, for example, to conduct “a fine arts program, computer skills, academic enrichment, job readiness program, decision making skills, coping and communications skills” program. The Alliance for a Safer, Greater Detroit, another recipient of anti-drug funds, used $70,000 to conduct “a summer academic or sports camp experience at one of six Michigan universities.”[62] Campus mentoring programs link first-year college students with upperclassmen who “have been trained to help the freshmen adjust to college life without the use of alcohol.”[63]
Recommended Action:
This program should be eliminated. A body of evidence suggests government drug abuse prevention programs may even be counter-productive.[64] The message to refrain from drug abuse is a sound one, but it is one that is best taught by family and other members of civil society.[65] Savings: $28,659,200.