National Drug Intelligence Center   Indian Country Drug Threat Assessment 2008   June 2008

Outlook

Most reservations throughout the country will experience increased drug availability and abuse in the near term, largely because of poor socioeconomic conditions within Native American communities and a lack of resources available for law enforcement, drug treatment programs, and drug education campaigns. Additionally, gang proliferation on reservations throughout the country will most likely continue as Native American youth become more exposed to gang culture through the media and personal contact with gang members. Consequently, gang-related criminal activity will quite likely increase on reservations as it has in many other areas of the nation. Native American communities are committed to changing this outlook; they are promoting drug awareness and educational programs, instituting community-oriented public safety programs, and partnering with federal, state, and tribal law enforcement officials. However, without a comprehensive national-level strategy aimed at dedicating greatly needed resources to combating drug trafficking and abuse in Indian Country, including improved data collection methods regarding Indian Country, the overall illicit drug situation on most reservations will deteriorate.

Intelligence Gaps

Analytic efforts for this strategic assessment have identified several intelligence gaps. When possible, information regarding these gaps is being collected for further analysis. Intelligence gaps include the following:

• Drug overdose and mortality statistics for Indian Country.
   
• The extent of the drug trafficking and abuse problem on reservations outside the contiguous 48 states.
   
• The drug trafficking and abuse problem in off-reservation trust lands and in state-designated American Indian statistical areas and reservations.

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