While this process is recognized throughout the state for its openness and its collaborative nature, it lacks the comprehensive, systems-wide approach suggested by the legislation leading to the development of funding for counties to engage in alcohol and drug problem reduction master planning.

The Master Plan project, as designed by the state and agreed to by San Mateo County, is a systems approach that considers the impact of alcohol and other drug problems on the four larger systems at the state and county levels - - Health, Social Services, Education, and Criminal Justice - - and the efforts made by those systems to reduce problems. The systems are considered in their broadest contexts, including both the public and the private sectors, and including agencies, organizations, groups, and individuals that either experience or make contributions to the reduction of alcohol and other drug problems.

Nine strategy areas were put forward by the state for review and analysis within each of the four systems described above. In San Mateo County, these areas were placed in the following order, reflecting a need to draw emphasis in the focus group discussions toward those strategies that often do not receive adequate attention in a public planning process:

1. Public Policy;
2. Evaluation;
3. Planning;
4. Prevention;
5. Research;
6. Intervention;
7. Recovery;
8. Treatment; and
9. Enforcement.