Office of National Drug Control Policy

ONDCP Excel One Hundred Sixth Row

Action Item Number: 
Action Item Name: 
Improve the National Survey on Drug Use and Health
Action Item Description: 

SAMHSA’s NSDUH is the Federal government’s primary survey on substance use (including illicit drugs, alcohol, and tobacco) and related health conditions among the United States population.

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Data from NSDUH have been used to examine a wide array of issues, including trends in youth drug use, co-occurring illness, the prevalence of substance abuse and dependence, risk and protective factors, and marijuana market characteristics. Important steps to preserve sample size and flexibility (i.e., the ability to generate State-level estimates) have already been taken, but further opportunities to strengthen NSDUH remain. Through its interagency workgroup process, ONDCP will work with SAMHSA to make design improvements to NSDUH, including considering whether it would be feasible and valuable over the long term to transition to conducting its general population survey only every other year, and conducting surveys of other important populations (e.g., people in recovery; residents of rural areas; the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender population; drug-using individuals who are incarcerated; homeless individuals who are not in shelters) in the intervening years.

Lead Agency: 
HHS
Component(s): 
SAMHSA