|
|
|
Are We Addicted to Drug War Money?
|
|
|
Government Agencies
|
|
Virtually every part of the federal government gets a piece of
the $20 billion annual drug war budget.1
|
|
Prison Industry
|
|
The US spends $50 billion annually on prisons. One-quarter
of prisoners are drug offenders.2
|
|
Treatment Industry
|
|
US Courts force more than 200,000 a year into drug treatment.
37% of all drug treatment admissions are mandated by the
courts. 57.1% of marijuana treatment admissions
are court mandated.3
|
|
Testing Industry
|
|
The $5.9 billion drug testing industry should be replaced
with impairment testing. Discovering marijuana use a week ago
is as irrelevant as finding beer drinking a week ago.4
|
|
Pharmaceuticals
|
|
Profits are protected from medical marijuana competition.
|
|
Alcoholic Beverages
|
|
Profits are protected from social marijuana competition.
|
|
Banks
|
|
Banks process billions in drug money. When asked in court
how a major bank reacted to his arriving at the airport with
$20 million in small bills, the courier responded,
"They sent a limousine."
|
|
Military Suppliers and Contractors
|
|
Manufacturers of herbicides, helicopters and military contractors
(mercenaries) profit from the $2 Billion spent
annually on foreign interventions in the name of the
War on Drugs.5
|
Drug Trafficking represents eight percent of the world's
trade, an untaxed and unregulated $400 Billion
annually.6
1
National Drug Control Strategy, Office of National Drug Control
Policy, February 2002, pp. 29-31 reports a $19.18 Billion
budget for FY2003. Some costs are not included, e.g. the cost of
military personnel fighting the drug war.
2
Gifford, Sidra Lea, US Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice
Statistics, "Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United
States, 1999" (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice,
February 2002), Table 3, p. 4; Beck, et al., US Dept.
of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, "Prisoners in
2000" (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice,
August 2001), pp. 1-2.
3
Treatment Episodes Data Set (TEDS) 1999,
Office of Applied Studies, SAMHSA, "Admissions by primary
substance, according to treatment characteristics," October
2001, Tables 3, 4 & 8.
4
"The American Way," Marianno Costantinou, San Francisco
Chronicle, August 12, 2001, citing Standard & Poors data.
5
National Drug Control Strategy, ONDCP, Feb. 2002, pp. 29-31 reports
$1.894 Billion spent by DOD and Dept. of State on the
drug war. Some funds for intelligence, INTERPOL, ONDCP and the
DEA are used internationally.
6
United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention,
"Economic and Social Consequences of Drug Abuse and Illicit
Trafficking" (New York, NY: UNODCCP, 1998), p. 3.
|
|
|
