GLOSSARY
Items in the glossary appear in two alphabetical lists. The second listing often contains additional information.
1972 National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse "Marihuana, A Signal of Misunderstanding "
ARO
Alliance of Reform Organizations (over 200 groups, each with a focus related to some aspect of drug policy reform)
CASA
National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.
DEA
Drug Enforcement Administration
DRUG WAR
Prohibition, in coloquial terms. Does NOT include education, treatment or prevention.
DTO
Drug Trade Organization [Illegal] in government reports. DTOs range in size from local gangs to international cartels.
DWF
Drug War Facts [www.drugwarfacts.org/], is an alpha indexed list of facts compiled by Common Sense for Drug Policy [www.csdp.org/] Detailed documentation, primarily from a variety of government funded reports.
FAS
Federation of American Scientists.
IOM
Institute of Medicine; part of the NAS
LANCET
Prestigious medical journal
MTF
Monitoring the Future - funded by the government since 1975 to survey 12th grade drug use [8th and 10th grade added in 1991]
NAS
National Academy of Sciences
NDIC
National National Drug Intelligence Center
NSDUH
National Survey on Drug Use and Health
NIDA
National Institute on Drug Abuse
NRC/NAS
National Research Council; part of the NAS
ONDCP
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy; the director is often called the "drug czar"
SAMHSA
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Violence and Drugs Panel/NAS
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ARO
Alliance of Reform Organizations ARO is an email information exchange between drug policy reform organizations. It began around 1996 with some 15 US members (DPFT was an original member) and now has over 200 member groups, including several from foreign countries. Different groups have different objectives but all agree on the need to change some aspect of the drug war.
CASA
National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.
Drug War
Defined as being limited to coercive measures on this site. Also called The War On Drugs. Does not include education, treatment or non-coercive prevention programs, all of which would be central parts of any alternative to prohibition.
DEA
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) enforces the controlled substances laws and regulations of the United States. It targets organizations involved in the growing, manufacture, or distribution of illicit substances. It works to reduce the availability of illicit controlled substances on the domestic and international markets.
DTO
Drug Trade Organization [Illegal] in government reports. DTOs range in size from local gangs to international cartels.
IOM/NAS
The Institute of Medicine,
LANCET
The Lancet has generally been regarded as the world's foremost medical journal for more than a century.
Lancet opposes prohibition not only because it is "largely futile" but because it causes peripheral damage and creates a barrier of fear between the health care community and proper prevention and treatment of drug abusers. It seeks open debate on this issue.
Lancet has called for the "legalisation" of marijuana since 1995. It may be of note that they have been able to follow the results of Dutch marijuana policy for decades from a vantage point only a few hours away. They favor added controls, a system "remarkably close to the existing one in Dutch coffee shops" but say "decriminalisation of possession does not go far enough in our view. "
MTF
MTF is an ongoing study of the behaviors, attitudes, and values of students and young adults. Funded by NIDA, MTF annually surveys eighth, tenth, and twelfth graders in public and private schools in the coterminous United States and a subsample of college students and adults from previous graduating classes who participated in the survey as seniors.
NAS
National Academy of Sciences. A private, nonprofit institution chartered by Congress during the civil war, NAS has served as the primary scientific adviser to our government ever since. Among its many arms are IOM and NRC.
NDIC
the National Drug Intelligence Center is a component of the U.S. Department of Justice and a member of the Intelligence Community. The General Counterdrug Intelligence Plan, signed by the President in February 2000, designated NDIC as the nation's principal center for strategic domestic counterdrug intelligence. NDIC issues an annual Drug Threat Assessment.
NIDA
National Institute on Drug Abuse.
NRC/NAS
National Research Council, NRC is one arm of of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS )
NRC/NAS 1982 is the major federal commission on marijuana report "An Analysis of Marijuana Policy." Commissioned by NIDA. The entire report is at druglibrary.org
NRC/NAS 2001 refers to "Informing America's Policy on Illegal Drugs: What We Don't Know Keeps Hurting Us" - commissioned by ONDCP
NSDUH
National Survey on Drug Use and Health (formerly the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse) A project of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) since 1971, it is the primary source of information on the use of illicit drugs, alcohol, and tobacco by the civilian, noninstitutionalized population in the United States.
ONDCP
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy
SAMHSA
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Violence Panel (NAS)
The Panel on the Understanding and Control of Violent Behavior was established by the National Academy of Sciences in 1988 in response to a request made by three Federal agencies: the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The report was made in 1994.
"Alcohol is the only psychoactive drug that in many individuals tends to increase aggressive behavior temporarily while it is taking effect. Marijuana and opiates [such as heroin] temporarily inhibit violent behavior."