Cost-Effectiveness of School-Based Drug Prevention Programs

Cost-Effectiveness of School-Based Drug Prevention Programs

PI: Jonathan Caulkins

Funded by: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

RAND has conducted pioneering work comparing the cost-efficacy of various drug control strategies, creating models that show, for example, that treatment of heavy cocaine users is much more cost-effective than enforcement-oriented "supply control" programs. Although this work has been well received and widely cited, it has had a serious shortcoming in that it does not consider prevention. This study fills the void by analyzing the cost-effectiveness of school-based prevention programs in terms of their ability to reduce lifetime cocaine consumption by participants. The researchers found that such programs appear to be comparable in cost-effectiveness with enforcement programs emphasizing apprehension of dealers or interdiction of drug smuggling. It appears that they are more cost-effective than enforcement oriented primarily to longer prison terms. On the other hand, they are apparently much less cost-effective than treatment of heavy cocaine users. These findings, however, are subject to considerable uncertainty, because little is known about some of the factors that must be taken into account in the cost-effectiveness estimate. The authors suggest a reallocation of research effort to reduce the uncertainty and permit more confident recommendations as to which mix of drug control strategies will reduce drug consumption the most per dollar spent.