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Improving Data for Federal Drug Policy Decisions

NCJ Number
155874
Date Published
January 1991
Annotation
A conference of 15 nongovernmental researchers was convened by Rand Corporation's Drug Policy Research Center to make recommendations on how to improve the quality of data available to drug policymakers.
Abstract

The conference's primary aim was to ensure that data collection is expanded in a way that policymakers have consistent and comparable information about different aspects of the drug problem. The conference also stressed the need to improve the quality of data collection, analysis, and dissemination. Conference participants addressed drug prevalence, consumption, and expenditures; consequences of drug use and trafficking; drug prevention program effects; drug treatment; and the impact of drug law enforcement on the criminal justice system as a whole. Particular attention was paid to special populations (criminally involved persons, high school dropouts, homeless and transient persons, and pregnant women), drug prices and purity, drug production, harmful effects of drug use, and the relationship between drug use and AIDS. Conference participants and data sources are listed in appendixes.

Date Published: January 1, 1991