Drug Strategies is a non-profit research institute located in Washington, D.C. Drug Strategies works to identify and promote more effective approaches to substance abuse and to increase public understanding of current research on what works and what does not.
Drug Strategies is led by former
Mathea Falco
Kathleen Mathea Falco (born October 15, 1944) is a leading expert in drug abuse prevention and treatment who served as the first U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs during the Carter Administra ...
. Falco, a leading expert in drug abuse prevention and treatment, comments frequently on drug policy in the media. She is the author of The Making of A Drug Free America: Programs That Work. The Drug Strategies Board of Directors is chaired by Harvard Law Professor and former U.S. Deputy Attorney General
Philip Heymann
Philip Benjamin Heymann (October 30, 1932 – November 30, 2021) was an American lawyer, federal prosecutor, legal scholar, and law professor who headed the Criminal Division of the Justice Department as Assistant Attorney General during the Ca ...
. Current Board members include
Marian Wright Edelman
Marian Wright Edelman (born June 6, 1939) is an American activist for civil rights and children's rights. She is the founder and president emerita of the Children's Defense Fund. She influenced leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Hillary ...
, President of the Children's Defense Fund;
James R. Jones, former U.S Ambassador to Mexico;
Michael Kantor
Michael Kantor (born August 7, 1939) is an American attorney who served as the United States Trade Representative from 1993 to 1996 and United States Secretary of Commerce in 1996 and 1997.
Early life and education
Born and raised in Nashville, ...
, former Secretary of Commerce; Dr.
David Aaron Kessler
David Aaron Kessler (born May 13, 1951) is an American pediatrician, attorney, author, and administrator (both academic and governmental) serving as Chief Science Officer of the White House COVID-19 Response Team since 2021. Kessler was the commi ...
, former FDA Commissioner;
Mark A.R. Kleiman
Mark Albert Robert Kleiman (May 18, 1951 – July 21, 2019) was an American professor, author, and blogger who dealt with issues of drug and criminal justice policy.
A professor of public policy at New York University, in 2015, Kleiman became th ...
, Chairman of BOTEC Analysis Corporation; and
Thomas Schelling
Thomas Crombie Schelling (April 14, 1921 – December 13, 2016) was an American economist and professor of foreign policy, national security, nuclear strategy, and arms control at the School of Public Policy at University of Maryland, College ...
, Nobel laureate in Economics, along with other notable figures in the fields of international drug policy and public health. David Kessler's best selling book, ''The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite'', refers to the work of Drug Strategies.
Drug Strategies has produced numerous publications, including "Making the Grade: A Guide to School Drug Prevention Programs" and "Treating Teens: A Guide To Adolescent Drug Programs". The Treating Teens publication features an online companion guide designed to help parents, teachers, judges, counselors and other concerned adults make better choices about teen substance abuse treatment. The guide's Programs section contains extensive information about teen substance abuse treatment programs nationwide. Drug Strategies also offers the online resource Teen Substance Use for reliable information related to teen substance use prevention, education, treatment, and recovery.
Drug Strategies created the
Nancy Dickerson Whitehead
Nancy Dickerson (January 19, 1927 – October 18, 1997) was an American radio and television journalist and researcher for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. As famous as a celebrity and socialite as she was for her journalism, she later ...
Awards in 1999 and presented them annually for ten years to print and broadcast journalists who reported with excellence on drug issues. A distinguished Awards Committee provided overall guidance. Members included Dickerson Whitehead's friends and colleagues:
Marie Brenner
Marie Harriet Brenner (born December 15, 1949) is an American author, investigative journalist and writer-at-large for '' Vanity Fair''. She has also written for ''New York'', ''The New Yorker'' and the ''Boston Herald'' and has taught at Columbi ...
,
Vanity Fair;
Joan Ganz Cooney
Joan Ganz Cooney (born Joan Ganz; November 30, 1929) is an American television writer and producer. She is one of the founders of Sesame Workshop (formerly ''Children's Television Workshop'' or CTW), the organization famous for the creation of ...
, Children's Television Workshop;
Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' for 19 years (1962–1981). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the mo ...
, Cronkite/Ward & Company;
John Dickerson, journalist;
Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers (born Billy Don Moyers, June 5, 1934) is an American journalist and political commentator. Under the Johnson administration he served from 1965 to 1967 as the eleventh White House Press Secretary. He was a director of the Counci ...
, Public Affairs TV;
Peggy Noonan
Margaret Ellen Noonan (born 1950), known as Peggy Noonan, is a weekly columnist for ''The Wall Street Journal'', and contributor to NBC News and ABC News. She was a primary speechwriter and Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan from 1984 t ...
, ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'';
Diane Sawyer
Lila Diane Sawyer (; born December 22, 1945) is an American television broadcast journalist known for anchoring major programs on two networks including ''ABC World News Tonight'', '' Good Morning America'', ''20/20'', and '' Primetime'' newsmag ...
,
ABC-TV;
Lesley Stahl
Lesley Rene Stahl (born December 16, 1941) is an American television journalist. She has spent most of her career with CBS News, where she began as a producer in 1971. Since 1991, she has reported for CBS's ''60 Minutes''. She is known for her ne ...
,
60 Minutes
''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique styl ...
;
Mark Whitaker, ''
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...
''; and
Katharine Graham
Katharine Meyer Graham (June 16, 1917 – July 17, 2001) was an American newspaper publisher. She led her family's newspaper, ''The Washington Post'', from 1963 to 1991. Graham presided over the paper as it reported on the Watergate scandal, whi ...
, ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' (until her death in 2001).
Bubblemonkey.comcreated by Drug Strategies, provides adolescents anonymous access to information on substance abuse and treatment centers. The interactive website is also available in Spanish (
changobomba.com), and offers self-assessment tests, Q&A with experts, and location-specific information on substance abuse programs.
Drug Strategies and the
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States.
Each class ...
's International Center for Criminal Justice co-hosted two working groups on transnational organized crime in April and October 2011, which were attended by policy experts from the United States, Colombia, and Spain, including a number of Mexican officials at the federal, state, and local levels.
Drug Strategies, in collaboration with Schell Games, created Tunnel Tail, a free mobile phone app launched in 2012. Developed for the BEST Foundation, the app targeted adolescents 11–13 years old, when youth begin experimenting with alcohol, tobacco, and drugs. A paper detailing a preliminary study of Tunnel Tail's effects was presented at the 2014 Games for Health Europe conference and published in the conference proceedings.
In 2015, Drug Strategies and Harvard Law School's International Center for Criminal Justice co-hosted a two-day seminar sponsored by the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study addressing lessons from the United States' 40-year war on drugs.
A multidisciplinary panel of experts explored innovative approaches to drug policy and programs and covered topics ranging from domestic law enforcement to adolescent drug prevention programs.
References
{{reflist
External links
Drug Strategies Official Site
Drug policy organizations based in the United States
Non-profit organizations based in Washington, D.C.