The War on Drugs Part 1: Monetary Effects

We now find ourselves in the midst of the third decade of the war on drugs, as families are destroyed and millions of people are rounded up like swine and placed in your local prisons for drug convictions. Over half of the growth in the prison system over the past two decades is based solely on drug convictions. I believe it is time we assess this war, it's casualties, and the money involved in making this war against our own people possible. I intend to make this a weekly/monthly article, using this first entry for introductory purposes.

The most recent updates that we can receive from the government about how much money they are spending on illicit drug control is from the ONDCP (Office of National Drug Control Policy) in 2003 which states: "combined expenditures by federal, state, and local governments exceed 30 billion dollars." In fact we have been spending that much on an annual basis since 1991, which adds up to a grand total of 450 billion dollars of taxpayers money, while the illicit drug market at production levels is around 13 billion annually. In contrast only 1 billion was spent in 1981. On top of this 1.5 million people were arrested for drug violations, almost half (736,000) arrested for marijuana (88% for possession alone). A total of 237,000 were sent to prison on drug charges, if you multiply this by the low estimate cost of housing one prisoner for one year ($20,000), you get a figure of over 948 billion. Has the money thrown at this war had any affect on illicit drug use in this country? No. An estimated 36 million people in this country, aged 12 and older, will use some form of illegal drug this year, which is up from 25 million in 1990. As added food for thought: 83 million Americans reported using marijuana regularly in their lifetime, which means more than likely, someone close to you has used marijuana on a monthly basis at some point in their lives.