The M-Files website is a public information resource by the Northwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (NW HIDTA), sponsored by the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy. HIDTA's mission is to reduce demand for illicit drugs by promoting education, treatment, and prevention programs, and to improve collaboration with law enforcement and the justice system to end drug trafficking and drug-related violent crime.
Because the scope of HIDTA's work includes drug trafficking and other criminal justice aspects of illicit drug use, M-Files includes information not often found on many general drug information sites, e.g. national and regional Threat Assessment reports, and sections describing the collaborative work of law enforcement agencies and the role of drug courts in getting people into treatment instead of prison. The M-Files.org website is maintained by the UW Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute (ADAI) under a contract from NW HIDTA.