21 U.S.C. § 1531 — Establishment of drug-free communities support program

This section creates a federal program to help fight youth substance abuse at the community level. (a) The Director must set up a program to help communities plan and carry out long-term efforts to prevent and treat youth substance use and misuse. (b) To run the Program, the Director must make and track grants to recipients. The Director must also provide technical help, training, data collection, and information on effective practices. The Director generally administers the Program. (c) Within 30 days of getting recommendations from the Advisory Commission under section 1542(a)(1), the Director must appoint an Administrator to run the Program. (d) The Director may hire needed staff and enter contracts, including with national drug control agencies, to delegate authority over grants and other activities. The Program's aim is long-term prevention and treatment, not one-time projects.

The source credit indicates that this section originated as § 1031 of title I of Public Law 100–690, but was added later by Public Law 105–20, § 2(a)(2), enacted June 27, 1997, and published at 111 Stat. 226. The credit reflects that the section has since been amended twice: by Public Law 115–271 in 2018 and by Public Law 116–74 in 2019. Beyond these dates and citations, the source credit does not elaborate on the substance of each amendment. Public Law 100–690 is commonly known as the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, a broad piece of federal drug-control legislation enacted amid national concern over drug use and addiction. The 1997 addition of this particular section, however, came through Public Law 105–20, a separate, later enactment sometimes referred to in connection with drug-free communities initiatives. The general understanding is that provisions of this kind were intended to support local and community-based efforts to prevent substance use among young people, often through federal grant-making and coordination mechanisms. The record does not establish the specific legislative reasoning behind the structure or details of this section, including the particular administrative and contracting provisions it contains. Readers should treat the broader historical characterization as general background rather than a documented account of Congress's specific intent for this provision.