Information & Resources

The Office of National Drug Control Policy was created by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 which authorized ONDCP to set drug policy priorities, implement a comprehensive and research-based national strategy, and certify Federal drug policy budgets.

The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 expanded ONDCP’s mission to include assessing budgets and resources related to the National Drug Control Strategy.

Executive Orders 12880 (1993), 12992 (1996), and 13023 (1996) tasked ONDCP with the responsibility to lead the United States’ drug policy and reiterated that ONDCP’s Director is the Executive Branch’s senior drug policy official.

The Drug Free Communities Act of 1997 authorized ONDCP to carry out a national initiative that awards Federal grants directly to community coalitions.

The Media Campaign Act of 1998 directed ONDCP to conduct a national media campaign for the purpose of reducing and preventing drug use among young people in the United States.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 1998 expanded ONDCP’s mandate and authority, including:

• Development of a long-term national strategy
• Implementation of a robust performance-measurement system
• Commitment to a five-year national program budget
• Permanent authority for the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas grant program
• Increased reporting to Congress on drug policy activities
• Reorganization of ONDCP to allow more effective national leadership
• Improved coordination among national drug program agencies

Executive Order 13165 (2000) created the White House Task Force on Drug Use in Sports. It authorized the Director of ONDCP to serve as the U.S. Government’s representative on the board of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

The ONDCP Reauthorization Act of 2006 reauthorized ONDCP through FY 2010 and expanded the mandate of the Agency, including:

• Statutorily creating the position of the U.S. Interdiction Coordinator (USIC) and the Interdiction Committee (TIC) within ONDCP
• Adding faith-based organizations and tribal officials to the National Drug Control Strategy consultation list
• Establishing a HIDTA designation petition process

The SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act of 2018 reauthorized ONDCP through FY 2023, expanded ONDCP’s mandate, and made other changes, including:

Creating a cadre of coordinators at ONDCP to lead efforts on key drug issues

Reauthorizing the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas and the Drug Free Communities grant programs at ONDCP

Creating an Emerging Threats Committee tasked with proactively identifying and preparing for the next drug crises

Allowing a portion of HIDTA funds to be used for prevention and treatment

Creating an online Drug Control Data Dashboard with search functions

Creating a Grant Tracking System to better track and improve federal drug grants

Created in 1997, the Drug-Free Communities (DFC) Support Program funds community-based coalitions that engage multiple sectors of the community to prevent youth substance use.

The DFC Support Program provides grants up to $125,000 per year for five years to community coalitions to strengthen the infrastructure among local partners to create and sustain a reduction in local youth substance use. After five years, community coalitions may re-compete for another five-year cycle.

Recognizing that local problems need local solutions, DFC-funded coalitions engage multiple sectors of the community and employ a variety of environmental strategies to address local substance use problems. DFCs involve local communities in finding solutions and also helps youth at risk for substance use recognize the majority of our nation’s youth choose not to use substances. As demonstrated by independent evaluations, the DFC Support Program significantly reduces substance use amongst youth, the target population.

DFC Coalitions consist of community leaders representing twelve sectors that organize to meet the local prevention needs of the youth and families in their communities. These twelve sectors are:

• Youth
• Parents
• Businesses
• Media
• School
• Youth-serving organizations
• Law enforcement
• Religious/fraternal organizations
• Civic and volunteer organizations
• Healthcare professionals
• State, local, and Tribal governments
• Other organizations involved in reducing illicit substance use

By funding these coalitions, the DFC Support Program ensures communities adopt a balanced and comprehensive approach to reducing substance use in their neighborhoods.

Grant Recipients

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Impact

Since the program’s inception, the past 30-day prevalence of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and prescription drug misuse has declined significantly among middle school and high school aged youth. 

Decreasing youth substance use: Youth substance use significantly decreases in communities with a DFC coalition. The graphs below show the percentage of students in communities with a DFC coalition who reported they had not used a drug in the past 30 days.

In addition to the substances listed above, most DFC coalitions (73%) reported that they implemented activities to address opioids and/or methamphetamine.

Reaching youth across the country: An estimated 75 million people (23% of the U.S. population) lived in communities served by DFC coalitions receiving funding in 2023.  This included approximately 3 million middle school youth ages 12 to 14 (23% of all middle school youth) and about 4 million high school youth ages 15 to 18 (23% of all high school youth).By funding coalitions in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and three United States territories (Guam, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands), the DFC Support Program helps youth across the country and of all demographics to stay healthy and safe.

Funding comprehensive solutions to youth substance use: By requiring representation from each of the 12 sectors, the DFC Support Program helps mobilize approximately 43,000 community members representing everything from youth groups to local media, religious/fraternal organizations to the private sector, and law enforcement (including ONDCP’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas) to educational institutions. This diversity in membership helps coalitions connect their communities’ resources to each other and develop comprehensive, evidence-based prevention programming.

Read more about the DFC Support Program’s impact in the 2023 End of Year National Evaluation Report.

CARA Grants for DFC Coalitions

The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) Community Based Coalition Enhancement of Grants to Address Local Drug Crises Grants (CARA Local Drug Crises Grants) program is aimed at current or former Drug-Free Communities Support Program grant recipients to prevent and reduce the use of opioids or methamphetamines and the misuse of prescription medications among youth ages 12-18 in communities throughout the United States.

CARA Local Drug Crises Grants are funded and directed by ONDCP in partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) for the day-to-day management of the program. The CARA Grants program was established by the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016 (Public Law 114-198).

FY 2024 CARA Grant Award Recipients – Continuation Awards

Through the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) Program, ONDCP supports collaborative Federal, state, local, and Tribal law enforcement and public health efforts to address overdoses and disrupt drug trafficking and production. 

Created by Congress in 1988, the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) Program coordinates and assists federal, state, local, and Tribal law agencies to address regional drug threats with the purpose of reducing drug trafficking and drug production in the United States.

The HIDTA Program oversees 33 regional HIDTAs in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia. Nationwide, the program comprises more than 900 investigative, interdiction, and intelligence-sharing initiatives. Regional HIDTAs also collaborate closely with public health partners on innovative strategies to reduce fatal and non-fatal overdoses and substance use.

Each HIDTA is guided by an Executive Board that includes an equal number of regional federal and non-federal (state, local, and Tribal) law enforcement leaders and is managed by an Executive Director who has previous experience in public safety. Law enforcement officials interested in participating in the HIDTA Program can view the Designation Process below for more information.

For more information about the HIDTAs’ work and successes, see the Program Impacts below.

To view the 2023 HIDTA Designation Map, click here.

Combating Overdose through Community-Level Intervention (COCLI) is a collaborative effort between ONDCP and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to implement and evaluate community-based efforts to fight the overdose epidemic. These efforts support innovative approaches to help the regions and populations within the United States that suffer from the highest rates of fatal and non-fatal drug overdoses.

The recipient of the 2022 COCLI cooperative agreement is the University of Baltimore’s Center for Drug Policy and Prevention, which provides opportunities for communities to receive COCLI funding through competitive subawards. Additional information is available here.

To view the current cooperative agreement terms and conditions, please click here.

To view previous cooperative agreement terms and conditions, please click here.

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, in partnership with the Legislative Analysis and Public Policy Association (LAPPA), has developed several Model State Drug Laws to serve as a resource for states in the development effective substance use disorder policies. These model laws include:

• Model Law Enforcement and Other First Responders Deflection Act: Encourages the use and establishment of deflection programs on the state level. Deflection programs provide proactive policing to assist individuals who are at risk and offer pathways to treatment, recovery services, housing, medication for addiction treatment, whole family services, and other needed supports.
• Model Syringe Services Program Act: Authorizes the establishment of comprehensive syringe services programs, which are associated with a decrease in bloodborne infectious disease diagnoses as well as the number of needlestick injuries to first responders and others.
• Model Expanded Access to Emergency Opioid Antagonists Act: Provides state officials with the means to increase the ability of their citizens to access and use life-saving emergency opioid antagonists. Opioid antagonists, such as naloxone, which can be used during emergencies to reverse opioid overdoses and are effective in preventing fatal drug overdoses.
• Model Opioid Litigation Proceeds Act: Assists states in their efforts to maximize funds available to address the overdose crisis through the establishment of a dedicated fund, separate from the state’s general treasury fund, that is designated for substance use disorder abatement, including prevention, treatment, recovery, and harm reduction infrastructure, programs, services, supports, and resources. All proceeds received by the state arising out of legal claims made against manufacturers and distributors of prescription opioid analgesics, pharmacies that dispensed prescription opioid analgesics, and related parties shall be deposited into the dedicated fund.
• Model Overdose Fatality Review Teams Act: Assists states in setting up county-level, multidisciplinary teams to identify challenges unique to a local area. It addresses the duties, responsibilities, and composition of Overdose Fatality Review (OFR) teams in order for them to properly examine and understand the circumstances leading up to a fatal overdose.
• Model Overdose Mapping and Response Act: Assists states in  addressing overdose incident reporting. The Model Act requires a state (or other jurisdiction) to create an overdose mapping and response system using ODMAP where all law enforcement officers, other first responders, medical examiners, and coroners must report certain information about a confirmed or suspected overdose incident within 24 hours. 

Additionally, LAPPA has released reports on timely drug policy topics:

• Performance Measures for Medication-assisted Treatment in Correctional Settings: A Framework for Implementation: This report provides professionals at correctional settings with a performance management framework to monitor medication treatment for opioid use disorder in correctional settings and recommends twelve performance measures to track key activities associated with corrections-based medication treatment programs and their impacts.
• Telehealth and Substance Use Disorder Services in the Era of COVID-19: Review and Recommendations: This report found that telehealth services can provide increased access to vulnerable individuals with substance use disorder, decrease costs, and reduce spread of communicable diseases.

Model law descriptions retrieved from the Legislative Analysis and Public Policy Association.

State officials interested in implementing model laws can contact ONDCP with any questions or requests for additional information.

In 2018, as part of the ONDCP reauthorization, which was embedded in the larger Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) for Patients and Communities Act of 2018 (P.L. 115-271) Congress created a requirement (21 U.S.C. §1704 (f)) for ONDCP to establish a tracking and reporting system for federally funded drug-related grant programs. The purpose of the new laws is to:

• Ensure the public has electronic access to information identifying: all drug control grants and pertinent identifying information for each grant; any available performance metrics, evaluations, or other information indicating the effectiveness of such programs
• Facilitate efforts to identify duplication, overlap, or gaps in funding to provide increased accountability of Federally funded grants for substance use disorder treatment, prevention, and enforcement
• Identify barriers in the grant application process impediments that applicants currently have in the grant application process with applicable agencies.

In response to this requirement ONDCP established a process to collect drug-related grant information from all national drug control program agencies with drug control grant programs. This information is consolidated into web links at Grants.Gov and USASpending.Gov. Although there is some overlap between the systems, generally the Grants.Gov link is the best source for currently available funding opportunities while USASpending.Gov has a deeper history of past grant programs. The specific links are below.

Links:

Grants.Gov: Search Grants | GRANTS.GOV

USASpending.Gov: Federal Awards | Advanced Search | USAspending

Note that once on the specific website, the information can be tailored in a number of ways, including by agency, by keyword, and by fiscal year. For example, information on grants.gov include links by “opportunity number.” Clicking on that number brings you to a dedicated description of the program and more information about the program, how to apply, and additional information and web links. Agencies provide available performance and outcome data within their program documents under each grant program.

Contacts:

As referenced above, specific information about agency grants are embedded within each specific agency grant. Agencies awarding the grants are the best source for specific information about their programs. For information about ONDCP grant programs or about the grant tracking process, please contact us at: performancebudgetcoordinator@ondcp.eop.gov

ONDCP’s Grant Programs:

The Drug-Free Communities (DFC) Support Program is the Nation’s leading effort to mobilize communities to prevent youth substance use. DFC performance information can be found here.

The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) Program, since its inception in 1988, has helped public safety officials implement integrated operations against drug trafficking organizations. HIDTA Program performance information can be found here.

The ONDCP Drug Control Data Dashboard was mandated by Congress (21 USCA § 1705 (f)) and provides a machine-readable and interactive collection of drug data from many sources. ONDCP compiles these data from primary data sources and works with the data source agencies and organizations to regularly update the Dashboard. The Dashboard provides users the ability to search topics by year, agency, drug, and, to a limited degree, geographic location.

Please note: Although data are available for many specific drug topics, some are incomplete or dated and in need of new or updated data and research. 

For an overview of the drug data dashboards and their respective Substance Use Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities (SUPPORT) Act requirements, please visit the Drug Control Data Dashboard.

Access the individual Drug Control Data Dashboards here:

Fatal and Non-fatal Overdoses

Opioid-Related Hospital Visits

Drug Induced Deaths

Drug Overdose Deaths

Unintentional Drug Overdose Deaths

Drug Overdose and Other Injury Deaths

Supply Reduction

Drug Seizures Submitted to Forensic Labs

Illicit Marijuana Eradication

Drug Production, Cultivation, and Eradication

Drug Price and Purity

Arrests by Type of Offense and Drug

Substance Use

Estimated Drug Consumption

Dispensed Opioid Prescriptions

Frequency of Substance Use

Economic Costs of Drug Abuse

Drug Use by Employment Status

Positive Drug Tests in the Workforce

Positive Drug Tests Among Male Arrestees

Illicit Drug Use Disorder

Initiation of Substance Use

Substance Use Disorder Treatment

Medicaid Beneficiaries Treated for a SUD

Admissions to Substance Use Treatment Facilities

Individuals in Need of SUD Treatment

Quarterly FOIA Reports

Annual FOIA Reports

Chief FOIA Officer Reports

Frequently Requested Records

Ethics

The ONDCP Office of General Counsel (OGC) serves as the designated agency ethics office. OGC provides legal advice and counsel on a full range of ethics matters including avoiding conflicts of interest, gift rules and filing public and confidential financial disclosure reports among others. If you would like to request public financial disclosure reports filed by ONDCP staff, please submit OGE Form 201 to foia@ondcp.eop.gov.  OGC will process requests for public financial disclosure reports in accordance with 5 U.S.C. App. § 105.

Media Campaign Contract Award

ONDCP awarded a contract for a National Media Campaign aimed at young adults to advance the President’s Unity Agenda Strategy to beat the overdose epidemic by raising awareness about the dangers of synthetic drugs and how to prevent overdose deaths with naloxone. ONDCP determined that sole source action was necessary, given the urgency of the public health issue with over 108,000 overdose deaths in the United States in 2021.

The award was issued to the Ad Council on September 29, 2022.