The Bush administration's proposed FY2007 drug budget calls for more funding for anti-drug ads and drug courts, but elimination of state-administered school-based prevention programs and federal support for enforcement of underage-drinking laws. 

The budget plan was released in the same week as the administration's 2006 National Drug Control Strategy, which claims a 19-percent reduction in current illicit drug use among 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-graders between 2002 and 2005.

In what could fairly be described as the stingiest anti-drug budget in many years, the administration has declined to increase its funding request for the keystone, $1.759-billion substance abuse prevention and treatment block grant, cut funding for both the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) and the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) compared to FY2006 appropriations, and trimmed the budgets of both the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism after years of steady increases in research funding.

Block Grant Called 'Ineffective'

The budget proposal for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) notes that an evaluation of the block grant labeled it "ineffective, primarily because no independent evaluation had been conducted, and existing annual measures provided information primarily on outputs. The program is now conducting an independent and comprehensive evaluation and is working with states to implement ... national outcome measures." 

As for the CSAT and CSAP cuts, these were attributed by SAMHSA to programs "coming to a natural end." 

The single largest cut proposed in the budget is the elimination of the $346-million state grants portion of the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities (SDFSC) Program -- no surprise, since the administration has repeatedly called for the program to be discontinued, only to be thwarted by Congress and lobbying from the prevention community. The administration asserted that the SDFSC state grants program "has not demonstrated effectiveness, and grant funds are spread too thinly to support quality interventions." The cuts would partially be offset by an increase of $56.9 million in the national grants program of SDFSC.

Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) disputes the administration's rationale for eliminating SDFSC, saying that, "Although over half of the Local Education Agencies (LEAs) in the country receive less than $10,000, most of them have leveraged the limited funds from the program to recruit partners who have committed additional public and private resources and manpower to implement school-based programs that work for their communities. LEAs receiving a small amount of money develop consortia to pool their resources to provide optimally effective programs and services."

President Bush also is calling for eliminating the $32.4-million SDFSC Alcohol Use and Reduction grant program, as well as the Justice Department's $24.8-million Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws program -- also somewhat ironic, since the administration's budget summary says that "SAMHSA will continue to support efforts to enhance implementation of effective programs at the state and community levels, with an emphasis on the prevention of underage drinking."

Mark Weber, SAMHSA's communications director, said the administraton's approach with both SAMHSA grants and SDFSC is to align funding around a set of specific goals and make grants directed at creating systemic changes. "We're becoming a lot smarter about how we're using our money," he said. "As [SAMHSA Administrator Charles Curie] says, instead of planting 1,000 flowers, we're planting a few sturdy redwoods."

For prevention advocates, however, the bottom line is that, despite the rhetoric, there are fewer dollars going towards keeping kids from starting to use drugs. "When we lose ground on prevention like we did in the early 1990s, attitudes toward drugs start softening," said Sue Thau, public policy consultant for CADCA. "When the statistics are on a trajectory that the administration is taking credit for, why would you start cutting prevention? ... The president said in the State of the Union that drug education is working, and then he zeroes out the Safe and Drug Free Schools program." *

Drug Free Communities Funding Maintained

The Drug-Free Communities Support Program (DFC), a major funding mechanism for community anti-drug coalitions, would be flat-funded at $79.2 million under the administration proposal. The Office of National Drug Control Policy sparked a major controversy over the program last year when it altered the DFC grantmaking process and eliminated funding for a number of prominent coalitions. However, the new National Drug Control Strategy continues to emphasize the importance of community coalitions, calling them the "backbone" of community drug prevention efforts.

The administration also continues to strongly support the Anti-Drug Media Campaign despite some tough criticism from some members of Congress and prevention experts: the program would receive a $21-million increase in FY2007, for total funding of $120 million. The National Drug Control Strategy identified the new Above the Influence ad campaign as one of the core components of the administration's prevention strategy, along with student drug testing, community coalitions, and a commitment to outcomes, accountability, and federal-state coordination via the Strategic Prevention Framework. 

States Encouraged to Use Block Grant for Vouchers

The Access for Recovery (ATR) program -- an administration favorite because it allows participants to use vouchers to pay for treatment at faith-based programs as well as other providers -- continues to receive strong support, with a $198.2-million funding request. But the overall budgets of the agencies that administer the program -- CSAT and CSAP -- would be cut by $23.9 million and $12.3 million, respectively.

The FY2007 ATR program includes a number of new components, including a $25 million set-aside for methamphetamine treatment grants and a $70 million Voucher Incentive Program (VIP), which would offer states additional treatment funding but gives priority to those who voluntarily use their SAPT block grant funding for vouchers. 

Weber said that SAMHSA did "extremely well" in the budget process compared to other social-services agencies and the addiction block-grant program. "One of the key reasons why [the block grant] is not being reduced is because it is aligned with the administration's priorities," such as building addiction treatment capacity," said Weber. Similarly, using block grant funds for treatment vouchers, as suggested by the VIP program, could be a way for states to "ensure maintenance of the block grant" in a tough budget environment, suggested Weber.

Along with the voucher program, screening and brief interventions were named as part of the core strategy for "Helping America's Drug Users" in the National Drug Control Strategy. The federal Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral, and Treatment Program (SBIRT) is slated to receive $31.1 million in FY2007 under the president's budget plan, up $643,000 over the FY2006 appropriation. "A key priority of this Administration has been to make drug screening and intervention programs part of the nation's existing network of health, education, law-enforcement, and counseling providers," the National Drug Control Strategy notes.

"The FY07 drug budget is a mixed bag," said Alexa Eggleston, director of national policy at the Legal Action Center. "While we are encouraged that the administration is targeting funding specifically for meth treatment within CSAT, there are significant cuts, including an elimination of the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities State grants program and cuts to services programs at CSAT and CSAP as well as NIDA and NIAAA that would really hurt communities nationwide if implemented."

* Correction notice: When first published, this article quoted Sue Thau as stating "....zeroes out the Drug Free Communities progam." The quote has been corrected to name the Safe and Drug Free Schools program.  (02/11/06)