The Benefits and Costs of Drug Use Prevention

Clarifying a Cloudy Issue

Cover: The Benefits and Costs of Drug Use Prevention

This research brief describes work documented in An Ounce of Prevention, a Pound of Uncertainty: The Cost-Effectiveness of School-Based Drug Prevention Programs (MR-923-RWJ).

Excerpt: The United States has for some time now been spending tens of billions of dollars a year in an attempt to control the trafficking and use of illicit drugs; most of those dollars have been used to support stricter enforcement. Few people, however, would claim that America's drug problem has been solved. There is growing doubt that the United States will be able to incarcerate its way out of its drug problem, and polls have shown a corresponding increase in public support for preventive approaches to reducing drug consumption. [1] But how effective is prevention — and at what price? Would a national program be feasible — and justifiable?

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Document Details

  • Copyright: RAND Corporation
  • Availability: Web-Only
  • Document Number: RB-6007
  • Year: 1999
  • Series: Research Briefs

This report is part of the RAND Corporation research brief series. RAND research briefs present policy-oriented summaries of individual published, peer-reviewed documents or of a body of published work.

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