McCaffrey, Barry R.

Appointed by President William Clinton and confirmed by Congress in 1996, General Barry R. McCaffrey (1942–) served as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), or “drug czar,” from 1996 to 2001. McCaffrey served during a period of rapid expansion of the ONDCP's role and personally embarked on a campaign to raise the office's national profile.

Prior to McCaffrey's appointment, during the tenure of Lee P. Brown, McCaffrey's immediate predecessor as ONDCP director, President Clinton signed Executive Order (EO) 12880, which clarified and expanded the authority and responsibilities of ONDCP. Among other things, the order established an interagency working group on international counternarcotics activity, required that the ONDCP director designate a drug interdiction coordinator to ensure that resources dedicated to interdiction were sufficient and were effectively coordinated, and required ONDCP to develop and implement National Drug Control Strategy outcome measures [Page 501]that included long-range goals for reducing drug use and its consequences. The order also expanded ONDCP budgetary, planning, and coordination authority and instructed the director to provide budget recommendations to department heads and agencies under the National Drug Control Program by July 1 of each year and certify the adequacy of agency budget requests to implement the provisions of the annual National Drug Control Strategy. Finally, EO 12880 charged the director with coordinating efforts to monitor and evaluate the quality, administration, effectiveness, and accountability of substance abuse treatment, prevention, and education, and other demand reduction activities and to ensure adequate access to those services. This EO set the stage for McCaffrey's entry. The expanded role for the agency allowed for greatly raising the ONDCP's profile. The retired army general Clinton appointed cut a figure that effectively met administration ends while blunting criticism from the right. McCaffrey was a proponent of enforcement strategies and provided a stark contrast to Lee Brown's regime, which had stressed treatment and prevention over enforcement.