Illegal Drugs, Government Spending, and the Failed War

As of today, May 18, 2007, our federal government has spent nearly $8 billion this year fighting the “War on Drugs”. State governments have spent nearly $12 billion. Over 600,000 people have been arrested for drug-related offenses with more than 300,000 being marijuana-related. Over 4,100 “criminals” have already been sent to prison. We are only into the fifth month of the year and these staggering numbers will continue to rise. You can watch the clock tick at DrugSense.org and see these numbers accumulate by the second.

By the end of this year, our local, state, and federal governments will have spent over $50 billion on law enforcement for our drug policies. Over 1.7 million arrests may be made and nearly 12,000 more inmates will be added to our prison systems. Despite all of these statistics, drug use and abuse remains fairly constant from year to year.

The monetary figures cited do not represent the total cost of our anti-drug policies. They do not factor the damages done to people or property, such as the theft and robbery committed in order to obtain money for drugs, or the disputes between users or dealers and those fighting for control of a neighborhood in which their drugs are pushed. Asset seizures by the government and losing friends or family members to incarceration are also not included in this total. Our society has paid, and is still paying dearly for our drug policies and there appears to be no end in sight.

The government has failed to adequately address the issue of drug use and abuse. It is time for our politicians to get off of their puritanical high-horses and produce a policy that will effectively reduce addiction by the way of treating addicts. Estimates have shown that over 80 million Americans have tried drugs at some point in their life, but that just over one percent of them are addicts or abusers. This tells us that our government will spend over $50 billion to enforce anti-drug laws being perpetrated by a fraction of one percent of our total population. That equates to about $30,000 per arrest and approximately $4 million for each new incarceration.

What will all of this accomplish? Besides an increased burden on our prison facilities and law enforcement agencies and vast amounts of wasted tax dollars, along with a growing list of criminal offenses for people who are addicts (much like alcoholics or cigarette smokers) and an increase in crime rates because of the unintended consequences of prohibition which has created a black market for drugs and has perpetuated violence in this highly competitive illegal market, it seems the answer is, “Not much.”

Over 80% of drug-related arrests in 2005 were due to possession, not sales or manufacturing.

Nearly 38% of all drug violations in 2005 were arrests for marijuana possession.
U.S. Department of Justice – Bureau of Justice Statistics

Despite what pre-conceived notions you may have about “pot”, nobody has ever overdosed and died from using it and only a minute percentage of users have progressed to more “hard-core” drugs. Nevertheless, someone possessing a few ounces of marijuana for personal consumption is criminalized for it. As a matter of fact, all drug users are said to be committing a crime, but what exactly is that crime? They made a conscious decision - a business transaction between a willing buyer and willing seller - to purchase the drug and use it. Any harmful side-effects are the sole responsibility of the user, just like cigarettes, alcohol, and over-the-counter medicine. Many people refer to drug use as a victimless crime. If there is no victim, how can it be a crime? Who is being hurt other than the user?

Some people will argue that the “victim’s” family is hurt by their actions; therefore it justifies their anti-drug position. This is nothing more than sheer nonsense. Anyone can make a bad investment in the stock market and it can negatively affect the rest of their family, but we don’t outlaw stock purchases. Several hundred thousand people die every year from alcohol- and cigarette-related health problems, but both of those drugs are legal. Prohibition was tried in the past and it failed miserably. In fact, it created more crime. We can all be “victims” of poor decision-making but I don’t think we’re about to criminalize terrible judgment in general. We have numerous types of programs for people with problems like alcoholism, smoking, anger issues, gambling, and sexual addiction, but drug addicts are criminalized first and allegedly rehabilitated by a prison sentence.

People who use drugs but are otherwise law-abiding citizens and can still function in every day life are considered, by law, to be criminals. Aside from the fact that the government made the sale and use of drugs illegal, the user is breaking no laws. It would seem, as a result of analyzing the statistics, that the arrest and prosecution of these “criminals” is only done to justify the spending on anti-drug programs. They pose no real threat to society. The threat originates from the fact that the drugs are illegal and it requires dangerous, illegal activities to obtain and distribute them, not to mention the dramatic markup in price which makes the market very alluring and competitive and contributes to more violent crimes.

If the manufacturing and distribution was controlled and regulated by the government just as they do with prescription medications, the cost and purity of the drugs would improve, consequently minimizing crime rates and ensuring a decrease in death by adverse reactions to impure drugs. The market for drug lords would be pulled out from under them, thus eliminating their previously needed existence. The violence committed by competing traffickers would subside as well as crimes committed by addicts trying to gather enough money to purchase the product at severely inflated prices. Prison systems that have been overcrowded by people convicted of possession crimes would have a chance to alleviate their problems. The focus could be turned to medical treatment for abusers and addicts and society’s attitude may even change enough to convince these people that they are not hated, forgotten, or worthless.

Would we need to legalize all current illegal drugs? No. Some of the drugs that have medical benefits, such as opiates and marijuana, could be legalized. Other drugs could be strictly regulated by the government, perhaps issued as a prescription while the users are documented and sought after for rehabilitation and medical treatment. Our choices are not limited to either absolute prohibition or total legalization.

The most important aspect of drug legislation is to eliminate violent crimes. These crimes are not committed by a business entrepreneur looking for a chance to get “high”. They are not perpetrated by a school teacher who decides to smoke a joint in his living room while watching a movie. The violence emanates mostly from drug lords or dealers battling for “turf” to sell their product. If the drugs are controlled by the government and sold at a much cheaper price (in most cases, a very low, single-digit percentage of the current cost), it would eliminate the need for drug dealers and eventually the violence would diminish.

With less law enforcement pursuing drug activity, more resources would be free to track down serious offenders of the law, like murderers and rapists. After all, people want to feel safe more than anything else. Most people are more worried about their children being shot by a stray bullet from gang violence than what their neighbor is smoking in their bathroom. Not to mention that if their neighbor isn’t doing anything that would deprive someone of life, liberty, or property, it’s really nobody’s business what happens in their home. But the entire debate boils down to people wanting control over others based on their own personal beliefs.

So many people are opposed to the mere thought of legalizing drugs, not because they know and understand the statistics, but because they feel it is immoral to use them. They stand firm on their religiously moral perspective about drugs instead of considering constitutional law and common sense observations of failing policies. Many of the people who complain about liberals attacking religious freedoms and increasing the size of government are the same ones using their religious beliefs to justify criminalizing drug use and therefore growing and further empowering the government. They tell us that using drugs is “wrong”, but have no logical basis for that claim other than to say it is immoral. However, most of these people must change their position when it comes to their own use of alcohol, cigarettes, caffeine, or various over-the-counter drugs.

Don’t expect politicians to make the argument for legalization any time in the near future. They know the statistics can be manipulated to show their constituents that each arrest proves they are “cleaning up the streets” and making their neighborhoods “safer for the children” and they will gladly take the credit for it. They also know the political ramifications for supporting anything other than traditional prohibition. Not only would they be under fire from the “drug use is immoral” crowd, but political opponents would use it to try to portray them as sympathetic towards drug lords, drug dealers, or what have you.

Whether you believe drug use is wrong or not, there is no disputing the facts. We, as taxpayers, are overpaying for law enforcement policies that simply do not work. Drug prohibition is costing taxpayers billions of dollars every month, perpetuating violent crime, turning drug traffickers into multi-millionaires, criminalizing many otherwise respectable citizens, filling our prisons to capacity, and all the while doing practically nothing to reduce the amount of drug use.

It’s time for Americans, and especially our politicians, to adopt a pragmatic approach and to give a genuine analysis of our drug enforcement laws. Drugs and the demand for them are not going away. We need to re-focus our efforts towards something other than strict prohibition. The drug phobia that exists in this country is generally due to citizens being largely uninformed or due to a reluctance to see past their own personal beliefs. Continuing to fight the “War on Drugs” by criminalizing users and imprisoning dealers is not going to create a perfect society. Treatment is needed to cure addiction. It’s more effective, it’s far less costly, and it is just common sense.

We are fighting a losing battle and everyone - from the local patrolman, to the United States Coast Guard, to the politicians in Washington D.C. - knows it.