Amount spent annually in the

U.S. on the war on drugs:

More than $51,000,000,000

The Real-life War on Drugs

Since 1993, the U.S. war against illegal dugs has been coordinated by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). The director of the ONDCP plays the real-life role of America's Drug Czar, a spot currently held by Deputy Director Donald R. Vereen Jr., M.D., M.P.H. Original Drug Czar Barry R. McCaffrey served during the Clinton Administration from 1993-2000.

Under the coordination of the ONDCP, the following federal agencies play key enforcement and advisory roles in drug fighting:

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services; Federal Bureau of Investigation; Bureau of Justice Assistance;Drug Enforcement Agency; United States Customs Service; National Institute on Drug Abuse; U.S. Coast Guard

According to the U.S. Customs Service, the following quantities of marijuana, cocaine and heroin have been seized along our southwestern border, Florida and Puerto Rico:

Marijuana Seized (Pounds)

• • FY 1997 - 726,199;

  • FY 1998 - 954,936;

  • FY 1999 - 1,179,031;

  • FY 2000 - 1,288,650

Cocaine Seized (Pounds)

• • FY 1997 - 157,924;

  • FY 1998 - 157,035;

  • FY 1999 - 160,353;

  • FY 2000 - 149,844

Heroin Seized (Pounds)

• FY 1997 - 2,445;

• FY 1998 - 2,953;

• FY 1999 - 1,919;

• FY 2000 - 2,552

Assets Seized - During 1997, the latest reported period, U.S. law enforcement agencies also seized $511,680,150 in illegal drug trade related cash and property.(Source: ONDCP)

Drugs Not Seized - If that much illegal dope is being seized,

how much is getting through? No statistics.

Price of the War - Since spending $1.5 billion in 1985, the federal budget devoted to drug-fighting has increased to over $17.7 billion in FY 2000. (Source: ONDCP)

Price of the Drugs - If you sell it, they will pay... $10.41 for a gram of marijuana, $169.25 for a gram of cocaine and $1,798.80 for a gram of heroin. (Source: DEA Drug Buys & Seizures 1998)

Number of people arrested in 2011 in the U.S. on nonviolent drug charges:

1.53 million Americans

Number of people arrested for a marijuana law violation

in 2011: 757,969

• Number of those charged with marijuana law violations

• who were arrested for possession only: 663,032 (86 percent)

Number of Americans incarcerated in 2009 in

federal, state and local prisons and jails:

2,424,279 or 1 in every 99.1 adults,

the highest incarceration rate in the world

Fraction of people incarcerated for a drug offense in

state prison that are black or Hispanic,

although these groups use and

sell drugs at similar rates as whites: 2/3

Number of states that allow the medical use of marijuana:

18 + District of Columbia

Estimated annual revenue that California would raise if

it taxed and regulated the sale of marijuana: $1,400,000,000

Number of murders in 2010 in Juarez, Mexico, the epicenter of

that country’s drug war:3,111, the highest murder rate of any city in the world

Number of students who have lost federal financial aid eligibility

because of a drug conviction: 200,000+

Number of people in the U.S. that died from an

accidental drug overdose in 2007:27,658

Tax revenue that drug legalization would yield annually,

if currently-illegal drugs were taxed at rates comparable to those

on alcohol and tobacco: $46.7 billion

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that

syringe access programs lower HIV incidence among people

who inject drugs by: 80 percent

One-third of all AIDS cases in the U.S. have been caused by

syringe sharing: 354,000 people

U.S. federal government support for syringe access programs:

$0.00, thanks to a federal ban reinstated by Congress in 2011

that prohibits any federal assistance for them

More Resources

Get additional facts at the Drug War Facts website.

http://www.drugpolicy.org/drug-war-statistics

What are "drugs"?

Let me suggest some opening pointers that might help in the discernment process. First, we need to actually define what we are talking about. Our efforts to ask what is going on will prove futile if we try to resolve the ambiguity of the human relationship with drugs by either emphasising one aspect (they are bad or they are good) or by claiming they are neutral. Drugs are never neutral: they have concrete effects upon us, effects which may promote or diminish human flourishing or do both simultaneously. Thus, we must heed the musings of the Friar in Romeo and Juliet (a play in which the dramatic device turns on the ambiguous nature of a drug) when he states: "Within the infant rind of this weak flower / Poison hath residence, and medicine power." We must also avoid the tendency to scapegoat drugs users or any particular section of society, including doctors, pharmaceutical companies, or "drug barons" for the problems drugs can cause.

-shared from http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2014/01/06/3921285.htm on 1/6/14 at 1100

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