~12 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, August 7, 1996 Drug czar seeks input on trends from University researchers ..By Jennifer Harvey general and a total victory" he said. "I and Laurie Mayk Daily Editors think we need to go for the root causes and also treat the pain, - take a holis- The University of Michigan campus tic approach." is not only one of the battlegrounds in Johnston agreed that using soldiers of the "war on drugs," it is now one of the war as a metaphor for facing off with resources the federal government is drugs and drug abuse is an outdated using to fight it. approach with limited modern use. "The U.S. Cabinet member Gen. Barry metaphor 'war on drugs' is not helpful McCaffrey, director of the office of any longer. It's successful to motivate the National Drug country (but) the Control Policy, metaphor breaks met with down later on University Profs. because war usu- Lloyd Johnston ally has an end and Rick Price in and a clear win- a closed session f ner, and drug Friday to garner ' abuse doesn't input about the have either," he status of drug said. treatment pro- Johnston said grams in the the briefing at the United States. University was to The ongoing f am i li a r i z e battle with sub- McCaffrey with stance abuse is the Monitoring ill-named, how- the Future study, ever, McCaffrey 9 an ongoing series said in an inter- ., of national sur- view with The veys of five differ- Michigan Daily. ent sectors of the McCaffrey said population and the drug-abuse pre- JONATHAN LURIE/Dalys trends in drug use vention and treat- Barry McCaffrey, director of the federal within them. ment language Office of National Drug Control Policy, "It was a needs to be came to campus last Friday to meet tremendously rethought in with University researchers. beneficial semi- preparation for nar," McCaffrey imminent changes in drug-abuse pre- said. vention. He said he thought the phrase "We're writing the '98 budget right "war on drugs" was no longer effective, now," McCaffrey said, noting that he calling it a "terrible metaphor." wanted to gather as much input as pos- "We ought to think (of drug abuse sible about the status of the programs prevention) in terms of a cancer. If that would be affected by a five-year there's a war, there's a campaign and a budget for drug-prevention measures. Although the group "didn't really talk budget-specific," federal financial support for the cause is crucial to its success, Johnston said. "The overall budget for dealing with the drug problems has grown immense- ly over the years," he said. McCaffrey said studies performed by researchers at the University's Institute for Social Research help mold public policy. "We're (looking at what) the academic world can provide to help the policy world" he said. "The University of Michigan is instrumental in providing correct assessment in what's going on in America," McCaffrey said. One influential study, the Drug Abuse Treatment System Survey, began in 1988 under the direction of Johnston. Price and former University researcher Tom D'Aunno, now with the University of Chicago. The study, which involved detailed interviews with program staffs was repeated in 1990 and 1995. Researchers collected data on topics ranging from staff characteris- tics to treatment (Thes goals, and from licensing to types have bee of services offered from to under nearly 400 drug treatment units in what we each of the three years. "(These ) _ efforts have been critical to understanding what we're doing," McCaffrey said. Price said the study's investigators are able to talk about trends and not just specifics of drug-treatment programs because they have data on three detailed points in time over seven years. "As far as we know, it's the only national proba- bility sample of such programs," he said. "We're basically trying to answer two questions: 'Are the programs operating at known or desired standards of care?' and 'Why or why not?"' D'Aunno said. "We're trying to see if services are responsive to different important demo- graphic groups they serve," he said. D'Aunno said the project looks to see if the programs are meeting the needs of women, women with children, and racial and ethnic minority groups. "We're also checking to see if they're engaged in effective HIV prevention counseling," D'Aunno said. D'Aunno said the investigators also look to see "if managed care is cutting services in ways that are not effective." Price said one detectable trend involves a decrease in the supple- mental services available to those enrolled in drug treatment programs. "It used to be the case for people A young Detroiter rolls a joint Monday night. According to statistics pr( the Office of National Drug Control Policy, 12.6 million Americans used on a monthly basis in 1994. v . 1 ) s 'i . who need this kind of treatment to have other needed services like med- ical examinations and vocational assistance'" Price said. "But these additional, crucial services have been stripped away by budget cuts." "It is basical- ly stripped- e) efforts down counsel- ing without as ,n critical many support ive services, tanding Price said. Another rec- Fre doing," ognizable trend Price said, is that Barry McCaffrey "services have Drug czar become part of the general chaos in the health care industry." Price said that because of drug-treatment pro- grams' connections with HMOs, the pro- grams are "increasingly experiencing constraints." Price said a third recognizable trend is a deficiency in supplemental AIDS counseling for those in drug treatment programs. "It's not nearly as much as we need," Price said. Price said neither lie nor Johnston offered any financial recommendations to McCaffrey, but only shared their knowledge of social trends. "We're in the business of trying to tell people what's going on around the country Price said. D'Aunno said the project's investiga- tors are currently working ots "special- ized studies, getting into survey topics in much more detail:" D'Aunno said he expects to ask the National Institute ot lDrug Abuse for further funding in the future to finance another wave of the study, now based at the University of Chicago. He said he expects to submit the futnding request in the fall of 1997. If approved. it would fund the collection of new data in the winter of 1998. D'Autnno said he expects the research team will still draw most c key contributors from the lUniversity o Michigan faculty. "Our most important contributio lie in the future," D'Aunno said. Although the success of various cam- paigns may vary by generation an social background, the fact that analyst, can compare the effects ofsvarious treat ments reveals much about the "disease' itself, Johnston said. Johnston cited a period of declilis-' drug use from the late '70s to early as one example that American value can and have been influenced though out history. "The more they become aware of thi dangers of a drug, the less likely they are to use it," Johnston said. McCaffrey asked Johnston to arrang a seminar for him to attend with othe University specialists and experts in thi field, Johnston said. Johnston also* McCaffrey left campus with a cleare picture of the Monitoring the Futuri study and plans to include Johnston' research and charts into his presenta tions across the country. U.S. Drug Use . There are an estimated 2.7 million hardcore drug users in the U.S. W . In 1993 alone, Americans spent $49 bil ion on illegal drugs. The social cost of drug use is estimated at $67 billion annually. 8 In 1994. 12.6 million Americans used illicit drugs on a monthly basis. Barry McCaffrey, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, talks with police he accompanied on a drug bust in Detroit last week.