Anti-drug strategy as a cybernetic socio-economic system: the role of the meso-level in ensuring adaptive management.

The relevance of this study is related to the growing prevalence of drug addiction among the population, which requires a shift from a normative-descriptive to a systemic-cybernetic approach in managing state anti-drug policy. Considering the Strategy as a governing socio-economic system allows for greater efficiency and adaptability of anti-drug governance. The aim of the study was to substantiate the position of the Russian Federation’s state anti-drug Strategy as a cybernetic governing socio-economic system in order to identify its structural elements, control channels, and feedback loops. The methodological framework: principles of systems analysis and cybernetics (N. Wiener, W. Ashby, S. Beer, L. von Bertalanffy, J. Garaedaghi) and employing comparative-analytical, structural-functional, and modeling research methods. Results. The anti-drug Strategy has been shown to possess all the characteristics of a governing system: a goal-oriented approach, a recursive structure, and the presence of feedback channels and information processors. The key role of the meso-level (regional anti-drug commissions) in ensuring the adaptability and sustainability of the entire system has been identified. Conclusion. The Anti-Drug Strategy is formalized as an adaptive, fractal-recursive, and self-organizing cybernetic control system, operating according to the principles of Ashby’s requisite diversity and Beer’s viable system. The application of a systemscybernetic approach improves the manageability, measurability, and sustainability of the implementation of the Russian Federation’s anti-drug policy.