1. The War on Drugs
Officially began in 1970 under President Nixon: “Public enemy #1 in the U.S. is drug abuse” (Nixon 1971).
First budget: $100million; today $15.1billion

2. Interdiction: reducing the flow of illegal drugs into the country
Interdiction: reducing the flow of illegal drugs into the country. Eradication: reduce production of illegal substances in other countries.

3. Source: U.S. National Institute of Health
Drug Abuse – an intense desire to use drugs to the exclusion of other activities (8-10%)
Drug Addiction – physical dependence on a drug (2-3%)
Recreational user– occassional usage
Source: U.S. National Institute of Health

4. According to the Associated Press (AP) over the past 40 years . . .
$20 billion spent to fight drug gangs in their home countries
$49 billion for law enforcement along the borders
$33 billion in marketing “Just Say No” campaigns to U.S. youths while usage in teens remains the same as 1970, while O.D.'s have “risen steadily” (CDC 2010).

5. According to the Associated Press (AP) over the past 40 years . . .
$121 billion to arrest more than 37million nonviolent drug offenders, 10 million of them for marijuana possession
$450 billion to lock those people up in federal prisons alone - ½ the federal prison population

6. The Justice Department estimates the consequences of drug abuse include: “an overburdened justice system, a strained health care system, lost productivity, and environmental destruction” costing the U.S. $215 billion a year.

7. Treatment
Law Enforcement

8. Why no change if rehab is cheaper and better?
Easier for politicians to get elected by being “tough” on drugs and crime
Treatment seems like “coddling” criminals
Ignorance on the facts behind the war.

9. The current drug “war” is actually causing the crime, not the drugs themselves. According to Father Joseph Kane, a Roman Catholic priest who for the past twenty years has lived and served in a drug infested neighbor, “It’s not the drug that causes the crime, but the need to obtain the drug” (Stossel, 2002).

10. The War on Drugs Must End
Robert Kelber
Brooklyn High School
April 27, 2011

11. War on Drugs 12
Reference Page
Stossel, J. (2002). “A War on Drugs, A War on
Ourselves.” Retrieved from ABC News.com
Zonby, T. (2005). “Drugs are Dangerous.” retrieved from USA Today.com