National Guard Counterdrug Program Provides Research Paper

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In addition, the National Guard provides this function at both the counterdrug level and the drug demand level. The drug problem is based in part on the easy supply of illegal drugs and in part on the high demand for illegal drugs. In order to truly address the drug problem, both sides of this equation must be tackled with the same enthusiasm and the same high level of coordination among agencies. The National Guard is well-positioned to fulfill this role and has taken up this mantle.

It should also be noted that a significant portion of the National Guard's effort is aimed at the military community. The Guard delivers courses on the causes and prevention of drug abuse to military personnel as part of its mandate in the war on drugs, and works with the other branches of the military to ensure that substance abuse among military members is reduced (Phelan, 2009). The impact of this is substantial, because not only does reducing substance abuse among military members improve the caliber of the United States military, but it improves the image of these military branches around the world. This can contribute to a strong positive impression of the U.S. military branches in geopolitical circles around the world.

Counterpoints

There are some arguments that can be made that the National Guard is not making a strong enough contribution to the effort in the war on drugs. The first such argument is that the essential crux of the war on drugs is unsuccessfully, ergo any efforts in that direction are also unsuccessful. Drug use and import are on the rise, and this indicates that the current approach to drug prevention is generally a failure. If this is the case, then the ultimate mission of the National Guard is towards this failure, rather than towards a success. It can be argued that given the strong role that the National Guard plays in the coordination of drug prevention and drug demand suppression efforts contributes to a higher level of failure of these efforts -- it spearheads efforts that ultimately fail so bears a greater responsibility for that failure much like a losing football coach or the CEO of a bankrupt company.

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Another counterpoint is that that the U.S. National Guard merely performs the easier tasks involved in the effort. The more difficult tasks -- arresting drug smugglers, performing undercover operations and even raising children who avoid drugs -- are performed by other agencies or groups. The support function is valuable, and not without merit, but is not critical and without it the efforts would be more or less equally successful as with it. Thus, the role of the National Guard is perhaps overstated.

Conclusion

It is reasonable, however, to conclude that the contribution of the National Guard is generally positive. It is worth pointing out that the National Guard does not set drug prevention policy, it merely implements it. Therefore any deficiencies in the policy are not the responsibility of the National Guard -- as a branch of the military it simply follows the orders that come down from the White House. It does it work faithfully and effectively. The programs that it implements are essential components of the strategy to both prevent drugs from entering the country and to reduce the domestic demand for these drugs.

Without the National Guard to play its essential support role, drug policy in the country would be implemented in a highly patchwork manner. There would be only limited opportunity for learning and for sharing information. The result of this would be that the effectiveness of current drug policy would be reduced. The National Guard, therefore, does play an essential role in improving the outcomes of the drug prevention and demand suppression programs that are in place.

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