Drug Control

High demand for illegal drugs in the United States has persisted throughout the 1990s, as has the flow of illegal drugs into this country. The cost of illegal drug use in this country has been pegged at about $110 billion annually, including lost jobs and productivity, health problems, and economic hardships to families. Also, many violent crimes are drug related. Funding for federal drug control efforts has risen by nearly 50 percent during the 1990s, reaching about $18 billion in fiscal year 1999. Funding for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) nearly doubled, from $806 million in 1990 to about $1.5 billion in 1999. DEA staff grew from 6,000 in 1990 to 8,400 in 1998. During the 1990s, DEA strengthened many of its operations. The agency began to work more closely with state and local law enforcement and help combat drug-related violent crime in local communities. DEA intercepted the communications of drug trafficking groups at home and abroad in order to target their leaders and dismantle their operations. DEA began to participate in two interagency programs to investigate major drug trafficking groups in Latin America and Asia. DEA also changed its foreign operations by screening and training special foreign policy units to combat drug trafficking in key foreign countries. DEA has major responsibilities under the Office of National Drug Control Policy's national drug control strategy for reducing the drug supply. However, DEA has yet to develop measurable performance targets for its programs and initiatives that are consistent with those adopted for the national strategy. Consequently, it is difficult to assess how successful DEA's programs have been in reducing the supply of illegal drugs into the United States. This testimony summarizes the July 1999 report, GAO/GGD-99-108.

GAO noted that: (1) DEA enhanced or changed important aspects of its operations during the 1990s, including expanding its focus to target local drug dealers in addition to major drug trafficking organizations; (2) in this regard: (a) DEA expanded its domestic enforcement operations to work more with state and local law enforcement agencies and help combat drug-related violence in local communities; (b) DEA implemented an investigative approach focusing on intercepting the communications of major drug traffickers; and (c) DEA enhanced its foreign operations by participating in two interagency programs to target major drug trafficking organizations in Latin America and Asia and screening and training special foreign police units to combat drug trafficking in certain key foreign countries; (3) GAO also determined that DEA's strategic goals and objectives, and enhanced programs and initiatives, in the 1990s were consistent with the National Drug Control Strategy; and (4) however, DEA has not developed measurable performance targets for its programs and initiatives that are consistent with those adopted for the National Strategy.