Counter Drug Helps Combat Illicit Narcotics in our Communities
Pennsylvania’s Counterdrug Joint Task Force (CJTF) is a federally funded, joint program consisting of both Army and Air National Guardsmen, which has been in existence for over 30 years and provides various areas of support to law enforcement and community-based organizations to assist in combatting illicit narcotics in our communities. The Counterdrug program is specific to the National Guard and all 54 states and territories operate a program, although each state’s program is different based on state priorities, funding, and force structure. CJTF consists of more than 80 personnel broken into two mission sets, State Plans and the Northeast Counterdrug Training Center (NCTC).
State Plans is the direct support to law enforcement and anti-drug coalitions, which operates on a $6.5 million budget with nearly 50 personnel stationed all throughout the state. Personnel provide direct mission support to narcotics interdiction cases through analytics, technical equipment expertise, and aerial and ground reconnaissance. On the prevention front, CJTF supports the Governor’s Prescription Drug Takeback program with the collection of unused medicine for destruction at an Environmental Protection Agency authorized incineration site.
This year, the section has supported the safe destruction of over 150,000 pounds of unused prescriptions. Additionally, CJTF supports 17 anti-drug coalitions with evidence-based prevention measures through our Drug Demand Reduction Outreach section.
NCTC is the training arm of the counterdrug mission. Pennsylvania operates one of the five National Guard Counterdrug Schools. NCTC is a regional asset located on Fort Indiantown Gap and operates on a roughly $5 million budget.
The school trains law enforcement officers on a wide array of courses related to narcotics, from undercover operations to drug identification to analytics. Over the last year, NCTC has run more than 300 courses and trained over 19,000 students across our 19-state region in the Northeast.
These programs are free of cost to both our students and the supported agencies. The Counterdrug program continues to evolve with the changing illicit narcotics trends to help make our communities safer and provide much needed support to partnered agencies.