The Blueprint for Effective Drug Policy
The Blueprint for Effective Drug Policy is FDPS’s comprehensive plan for American drug policy: what to do about prevention, treatment, recovery, supply and criminal justice, written by former White House drug czars, a former DEA administrator, clinicians, researchers and people in recovery.
Five pillars, twelve chapters, a committee-by-committee agenda for Congress, and nearly 100 contributors. Read it online or download the PDF.
Members of CongressCommittee by committeeWhat each House and Senate committee can do this session, including the bills to pass and the bills to stop.
Communities and coalitionsPut it to workModel laws, trainings and an FDPS policy team ready to help your state or district act.
The Blueprint for Effective Drug Policy is the Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions’ answer to a question the drug crisis keeps asking: what would a serious, science-based national plan actually look like? It is a policy guide for decision makers, congressional and executive branch staff, grassroots organizers and anyone who wants to change the course of the crisis, and it is written to be used, not shelved.
Why the Blueprint, and why now
The Blueprint opens with the numbers, because the numbers are the argument. Overdose deaths have begun to fall from their pandemic peak, and the Blueprint warns against taking the decline for granted: the goal is to reduce the total burden of harm from drugs, not just the death count.
Rise in U.S. overdose deaths from 1999 (16,849) to 2023 (105,007).
CDC WONDER, cited in the Blueprint introduction
Growth in overdose deaths involving fentanyl together with cocaine or methamphetamine, from 1,969 in 2015 to 41,583 in 2023: the “fourth wave.”
CDC, cited in the Blueprint introduction
Teen overdose deaths, at roughly 5 per 100,000 among 14- to 18-year-olds.
Blueprint introduction
The Blueprint’s five pillars and sixteen recommendations
Each pillar was written by its own working group, and the groups worked together so the recommendations hold up as one plan. The wording below is condensed; the full text and evidence are in each chapter.
Prevention
- 1Drug policies must reduce the appeal, exposure and access to substances, counteracting the growing normalization of substance use.
- 2A culture of prevention normalizes practices that promote healthy brain and social development and strengthen protective factors against substance use.
- 3Population-level change requires permanent, embedded, multi-sector prevention infrastructure at the federal, state and community levels, with assessment, planning, evaluation and sustainability built in.
If a child does not use substances by age 21, they are unlikely ever to do so. Prevention is the only part of drug policy that can stop a disorder before it starts.
Intervention and treatment
- 4Individuals and families benefit most from treatment and care that is available, accessible, affordable and engaging to those being served.
- 5To count as treatment, an activity must be shown to end drug use, reduce symptoms, prevent complications, improve functioning and lead to recovery.
- 6Sufficient permanent funding, including insurance coverage, must reward cost-effective, clinically effective services along the full continuum of care.
- 7People who use drugs should have access to evidence-based harm reduction, such as naloxone, always linked to treatment and never as a standalone program.
Substance use disorder is a treatable condition with identifiable criteria. The system has to be personalized, evidence-based and honest about what treatment means.
Recovery
- 8Recovery should use the recognized benchmark of five years of sustained remission, reached through individualized combinations of treatment and support.
- 9Recovery takes place in community, where people can reach culturally, spiritually and developmentally appropriate services and supports.
- 10Ongoing investment in a strength-based structure that delivers the right care where and when people need it, builds recovery capital and achieves abstinence.
Twenty-three million Americans are in recovery. Housing, work, purpose and community are what keep them there.
Reducing supply and the harms of the drug market
- 11National capacity and political will are needed to target, disrupt, degrade and dismantle transnational criminal organizations and their facilitators.
- 12Political commitments from governments working in partnership can reduce the global drug threat through multinational strategies.
- 13Balanced approaches that pair supply reduction with demand reduction recognize that both sides of the drug problem must be addressed to get results.
The plentiful supply of high-potency drugs fuels use across every part of American society. Enforcement and international cooperation are part of public health, not a substitute for it.
Criminal justice approaches
- 14Justice systems must distinguish among traffickers and manufacturers, low-level functionaries, people who use drugs and commit serious crimes, those who commit minor non-drug crimes, and those charged only with simple possession.
- 15Punishments should be genuine, certain and calibrated to redress harm, maximize deterrence and reinforce healthy norms, matched to the charge and the person’s involvement with drugs.
- 16For people with a substance use disorder, alternatives to incarceration such as deflection, diversion and drug courts, with treatment, care and accountability, should often be the primary approach.
Drug courts graduated 59.7 percent of participants in 2019, against a 42.6 percent national completion rate for treatment. The justice system can motivate recovery when it is built to.
We should strive to create a world in which children and families thrive, substance use is prevented, and there is rapid access to quality treatment and meaningful pathways to recovery.
Dr. Kevin A. Sabet, President and CEO, FDPS, from the Blueprint’s foreword
The Blueprint for Congress, committee by committee
There is no silver bullet for the drug crisis, so the Blueprint does not pretend to offer one. Instead it walks through every committee with jurisdiction, from Appropriations to Veterans’ Affairs, and says what each can do now: bills to pass, riders to protect, nominees to question and legislation to stop.
A Cabinet-level drug czar
Re-elevating the Director of ONDCP to the Cabinet, the first recommendation of the U.S. Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking, would let the office lead a whole-of-government response and cut through bureaucratic red tape.
Fund what works, keep the guardrails
Agency funding levels decide whether prevention, treatment and interdiction programs thrive or fail. The Blueprint asks appropriators to keep the rider that bars federal funds from promoting the legalization of Schedule I drugs.
Treatment courts and accountability
Expand and reauthorize treatment courts, bring proven state models like Hawaii’s HOPE program to the national level, confirm nominees who will take the drug crisis seriously, and integrate addiction treatment into the justice system.
Defeat commercialization bills
Pending legislation that would commercialize drugs, such as the SAFE Banking Act and the Federal Kratom Consumer Protection Act, would make the crisis worse and must be defeated.
How the Blueprint for Effective Drug Policy was built
Committees of five to ten subject-matter experts on prevention, intervention and treatment, recovery support, criminal justice, international cooperation, and equity and the social determinants of health met over two years to map the landscape, prioritize content and write recommendations. A follow-up meeting of select experts at the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port refined and cemented the document, which is why it is called the Hyannis Consensus.
Contributors include Ben Tucker, Karen Tandy, Michele Leonhart, Howard Koh, Jon Caulkins, Keith Humphreys, Rep. Lauren Davis, Joel Johnson, Mike Marshall, Teresa Haley, Mack Jenkins, Sion Harris and Jan Brown, among nearly 100 experts from institutions including Harvard, Johns Hopkins, the American Society of Addiction Medicine, CADCA, Partnership to End Addiction and Shatterproof. See everyone who contributed.
Put the Blueprint to work
The Blueprint is the strategy. FDPS’s model laws, trainings and policy team are how it gets implemented. Legislators and staff can request a briefing on any pillar, coalitions can bring an FDPS training to their community, and the Leadership Council behind the Blueprint is available to testify and advise.
Read the Blueprint for Effective Drug Policy online
PrinciplesFront matter
Essential elementsFront matter
Introduction and overviewFront matter
PreventionChapter 5
Intervention and treatmentChapter 6
RecoveryChapter 7
Reducing supply and related harmsChapter 8
Criminal justice approachesChapter 9
National policymakersChapter 10
Congressional actionChapter 11
Individuals who contributedChapter 12
Blueprint: frequently asked questions
Who is the Blueprint for?
Legislators and their staff, executive branch and agency officials, practitioners, community coalitions and the public. Each chapter opens with a summary and ends with specific recommendations, so a staffer can read the pillar that matters to a bill in a few minutes.
Why is it called the Hyannis Consensus?
After two years of working-group drafting, a smaller group of experts met at the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, to refine and finalize the document. The name reflects the agreement reached there across prevention, treatment, recovery, law enforcement and international policy.
Does the Blueprint support harm reduction?
Yes, as part of a continuum of care. Recommendation 7 calls for evidence-based harm reduction such as naloxone, always linked to treatment and never as a standalone program.
Does it call for arresting people who use drugs?
No. It asks justice systems to distinguish traffickers from people with a substance use disorder, and for the latter it says alternatives to incarceration with treatment and accountability should often be the primary approach.
Is it partisan?
No. FDPS is nonpartisan, and the Blueprint’s principles state that good drug policy must be free from political influences that contradict science and from economic interests misaligned with public health.
Read the Blueprint. Then bring it to the people who can act on it.
Request a briefing for your office or coalition, or ask for the model legislation that turns a recommendation into a bill.
