Sgt. 1st Class Mark A. Karandang

Sgt. 1st Class Mark A. Karandang is a current member of the National Guard’s Counterdrug Task Force assigned as the Drug Demand Reduction Coordinator and a prevention lead with the Northern CA High Intensity Drug Tracking Area (NCHIDTA) based out of San Francisco, CA. With 20 years of active federal service, Mark Karandang is scheduled to retire on December 31, 2020. Although new to the prevention world, he brings vast experience of affecting our nation’s drug control problem, having spent most of his CD career assisting law enforcement partners with dismantling drug trafficking organizations. He brings a unique insight in assisting community-level organizations with minimizing the impact of illicit drug use. Understanding fully well how his career has come full circle; from dismantling the supply of illicit drugs, to reducing the demand of them, he knows more is yet to be done. Shifting gears and focusing on helping like-minded individuals and coalitions which impact the demand for drugs has given him a much larger perspective in this fight and he hopes to continue his prevention work in some capacity upon his retirement.