Executive Order  No. 101: Designating the State Department of Mental Health as the state agency responsible for coordinating all state drug abuse programs and activities, and defining its powers and duties in relation thereto

WHEREAS, drug abuse is a major social problem in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and afflicts its urban, suburban, and rural areas;

WHEREAS, drug abuse seriously impairs individual, as well as societal, health and well-being and substantially contributes to crime;

WHEREAS, the success of drug abuse prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, education, and research programs requires recognition that a consolidated, coordinated approach is absolutely essential to combat this threat; and

WHEREAS, the differences in local drug abuse problems and local responses to such problems are of critical importance and hence, local definition of problems and responses is necessary for successfully dealing with these problems;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Francis W. Sargent, Governor of the Commonwealth, by virtue of the authority vested in me as supreme executive magistrate, do hereby order that:

1. The Department of Mental Health in the Executive Office of Human Services is hereby designated as the single State agency responsible for coordinating all drug abuse rehabilitation, treatment, education, law enforcement, research and prevention activities, even when performed by a State agency or department whose primary mission is not in the field of drugs, under the directorship of the Commissioner of Mental Health. The Department of Mental Health shall report to me through the Executive Office of Human Services and shall be responsible for:
   1. Conducting, and seeing that local authorities conduct, a detailed survey of State and local problems and needs for prevention and treatment of drug abuse and drug dependence, including, but not limited to, a survey of health facilities needed to provide services for drug abuse and drug dependence, and the development of techniques for the assessment of an unduplicated count of chronic drug abusers;
   2. Identifying all funds, programs, and resources available in the Commonwealth from the Federal government, the Commonwealth, its political subdivisions, other public agencies, private agencies, foundations, and other sources, which are currently being used and which could in the future be used to implement drug abuse prevention functions in the Commonwealth;
   3. Developing, or providing for development of, objective devices or methodologies for the evaluation of all drug abuse prevention functions within the Commonwealth;
   4. Establishing a clearinghouse for development and maintenance of a centralized drug abuse data collection and dissemination system for all drug abuse prevention functions, consistent with applicable confidentiality safeguards of Federal and State law;
   5. Developing and maintaining a management information system, and assisting local chief executive officers in building and maintaining local management information systems, which provide an ongoing review of drug abuse problem indicators, drug abuse programs and resources, relationship of resources to drug problem intensity, and analysis of problem indicator dynamics to resource application;
   6. Formulating and administering, or supervising the formulation and administration of, a comprehensive State plan for coordinating all drug abuse prevention functions within the Commonwealth in accordance with regulations promulgated by the Federal government;
   7. Coordinating the delivery of all funding from whatever source, to State and local levels, with regard to drug abuse prevention functions;
   8. Requiring such information and reports as necessary from State and local agencies for planning, management, and evaluation and for otherwise carrying out the mandate of this Order;
   9. Developing and establishing standards for licensing and approving drug abuse treatment programs and facilities within the Commonwealth pursuant to G.L. c. 123, s. 44;
   10. Devising policies and procedures to foster greater cooperation and interaction between the treatment community and the criminal justice system, particularly in the local jurisdictions, through formulation of a long-term plan of cooperation;
   11. Coordinating all drug abuse education and training programs conducted within the Commonwealth through cooperation with State and local boards of education, schools, and other public and private agencies in establishing education programs for the prevention of drug abuse and for training in the treatment and rehabilitation of persons dependent upon and abusing drugs.
   12. Reviewing the State plan at least annually;
   13. Submitting to the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare of the United States an annual analysis and evaluation of the effectiveness of the prevention and treatment programs and activities carried out under the State plan, any necessary modifications in the plan, and any reports which said Secretary may require:
   14. Developing geographically distributed drug abuse prevention and treatment facilities and programs throughout the Commonwealth in order to assure ready access for all people within the Commonwealth;
   15. Exercising its powers and performing its duties with respect to drug abuse prevention under G.L. c. 123, s. 39 to s. 55, inclusive, in a manner which is consistent with the State plan for drug abuse prevention; and
   16. Carrying out such other drug abuse prevention activities as I may delegate to it in writing from time to time.
2. The Department of Mental Health may, with my approval, direct the Drug Abuse Prevention Planning Council created on December 19, 1972, to exercise any powers or perform any duties of the Department hereunder.
3. On the effective date of House 6120 or any successor legislation reorganizing the human service agencies of the Commonwealth, all powers and duties to be exercised and performed by the Department of Mental Health and the Commissioner of Mental Health hereunder shall be transferred to and shall thereafter be exercised and performed by the Department of Human Services and the Secretary of Human Services, respectively
4. This Executive Order shall take effect immediately.
5. This Executive Order shall terminate upon the termination of the Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention in the Executive Office of the President of the United States or July first, nineteen hundred and seventy-five, whichever is later.

Given at the Executive Chamber in Boston this twenty-seventh day of June in the year one thousand nine hundred and seventy-three and the year of the independence of the United States of America, the one hundred and ninety-seventh.

FRANCIS W. SARGENT
Governor
Commonwealth of Massachusetts

JOHN F. X. DAVOREN
Secretary of the Commonwealth