Effectiveness of the War on Drugs

By the government's own standards, are we wining the war on drugs?

No. In 2000, federal and state governments will spend more than $40 billion fighting the drug war - a dramatic increase since 1980, when federal spending was roughly $1 billion and state spending just a few times that. Yet, despite the ballooning costs of the drug war, illicit drugs are cheaper and purer than they were two decades ago, and continue to be readily available. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), nearly 57% of the population report that marijuana is fairly or very easy to obtain. In 2000, 47% of eighth graders and 88.5% of senior high school students say marijuana is easy to obtain. Additionally, approximately 24% of eighth graders and nearly 48% of seniors report powdered cocaine is easy to get.(1)

How has the drug war fueled America's prison boom?

Drug law violators - most of whom are non-violent and many of whom are first time offenders - are the fastest growing segment of incarcerated Americans. In August 2001, the Department of Justice released a report revealing that on December 31, 2000, State prisons were operating between full capacity and 15% above capacity, while Federal prisons were operating at 31% above capacity.(2) The U.S. now incarcerates almost as many people for breaking a drug law as it incarcerated in 1980 for all offenses, and more than Western Europe, with a greater population than the U.S., incarcerates for all offenses.

• In absolute numbers, an estimated 251,200 inmates in State prison at yearend 1999 were there as a result of a drug conviction. According to the Bureau of Prisons, as of March 2001, federal drug offenders constituted 56.3% of the total federal prison population.(3)
• Between 1990 and 1999, drug offenses represented a 20% increase in the total growth of sentenced prisoners under State jurisdiction. During that same time period, drug offenders were responsible for 60.9% of the federal prison population growth.(4)

What are the public health costs of the drug war?

• By the end of the 20th century, more than 250,000 cases of HIV/AIDS were associated, either directly or indirectly, with the use of unsterile syringes by injection drug users. Still, the federal government refuses to lift its ban on funding for life-saving needle exchange programs.(5) More than one-third of all AIDS cases - and more than one-half of those among women and children - are linked to injection drug use. Despite numerous government studies showing that needle exchange programs reduce risky injection behavior without increasing illegal drug use, such programs remain underfunded, underavailable, and illegal in many states and localities.
• According to White House estimates, 57% of Americans in need of drug treatment do not receive it, in spite of its proven, superior cost effectiveness compared to criminal justice approaches in reducing drug abuse and related social costs. A study conducted by the RAND Drug Policy Research Center for the U.S. Army and the ONDCP found that treatment is 10 times more cost effective than interdiction in reducing the use of cocaine in the United States. The same study found that every additional dollar invested in substance abuse treatment saves taxpayers more than $7, and that additional domestic law enforcement costs 15 times as much as treatment to achieve the same reduction in drug abuse and related social costs.(6)

How are communities of color affected by drug law enforcement?

• While African-Americans constitute 13% of the nation's monthly drug users, they represent 35% of those persons arrested for drug possession, 55% of drug possession convictions, and 74% of those sentenced to prison for drug possession.(7) According to a recent Human Rights Watch report, in no state are black men incarcerated at rates even close to those of white men. In fact, nationwide, black men are incarcerated at 9.6 times the rate of white men.(8)
• Under federal legislation enacted in 1986, it takes 1/100 as much crack cocaine as powder cocaine to trigger equal mandatory minimum sentences. In 1995, although American crack users were 52% white and 38% African American, blacks accounted for 88% of those sentenced for crack offenses and whites just 4.1%.(9)
• Almost 1.4 million African-American males, or 14% of the adult black male population, are currently disenfranchised as a result of felony convictions. Black men represent more than 36% of the total disenfranchised male population in the U.S., although they make up less than 15% of American males.(10)

How does the drug war impact American youth?

When the drug war wins, education loses. Because prisons and universities generally occupy the portion of a state's budget that is neither mandated by federal requirements nor driven by population, they often must "fight it out" for funding.(11)

• From 1987 to 1998 state spending on corrections increased by 30% while spending on higher education decreased by 18.2%.(12)
• State prison budgets are growing twice as fast as spending on public colleges and universities.(13)

The drug war perpetuates failed youth drug "prevention" strategies.

• A 1998 University of Illinois study found that kids enrolled in the D.A.R.E (Drug Awareness and Resistance Education) program used the same amount of drugs as non-D.A.R.E students. Researchers also found that D.A.R.E actually has an adverse effect on drug activity in suburban communities. Suburban students who were exposed to DARE had significantly higher levels of drug use than the suburban students who did not get the D.A.R.E program.(14)
• "Levels of drug use did not differ as a function of whether students participated in D.A.R.E. Every additional 36 hours of cumulative drug education…were associated with significantly more negative attitudes towards police…more positive attitudes towards drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes, and more delinquency."(15)

The drug war unfairly limits young people's access to higher education.

The Higher Education Act, passed by Congress in 1998, restricts eligibility for any federal grant, loan or work assistance program for students convicted of a drug related offense, including simple marijuana possession. Murderers and rapists are not subject to sanction under the act.

NOTES:

1. SAMHSA, 2000 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Washington, D.C. 2001. See table G.75; SAMHSA, Monitoring the Future: Overview of Key Findings 2000, Washington, D.C. 2001. See table 8.
2. Allen J. Beck and Paige M. Harrison, Prisoners in 2000, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. August 2001
3. Allen J. Beck and Paige M. Harrison, Prisoners in 2000, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. August 2001; U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Quick Facts and Statistics, www.bop.gov.
4. Allen J. Beck and Paige M. Harrison, Prisoners in 2000, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. August 2001. See tables 17, 19.
5. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report, 11(No. 2). Washington, D.C. 1999
White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, "National Drug Control Strategy: 2000 Annual Report", Washington, D.C., 2001.
6. C.P Rydell and S.S. Everingham, RAND Corporation Drug Policy Research Center, Controlling Cocaine, prepared for the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the U.S. Army. Santa Monica, CA. 1994
7. Marc Mauer and Tracy Huling, Young Black Americans and the Criminal Justice System: Five Years Later, The Sentencing Project, 1995, p. 12.
8. Human Rights Watch, Punishment and Prejudice: Racial Disparities in the War on Drugs, Vol. 12 No. 2 (G). May 2000.
9. Dan Weikel, "War on Crack Targets Minorities Over Whites; Cocaine: Records Show Federal Officials Almost Solely Prosecute Non Whites. U.S. Attorney Denies Race is a Factor," Los Angeles Times, May 21, 1995
10. Human Rights Watch and The Sentencing Project, "Losing the Vote: The Impact of Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States", Washington, D.C. 1998
11. Sourcebook for Criminal Justice Statistics 1998, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1999. P. 462
12. National Association of State Budget Officers, "1995 State Expenditures Report". April 1996. Pp. 55
13. David Phinney, "Prison Funding Explodes in Growth" www.ABCNEWS.com. July 9, 1999
14. NBC Nightly News. March 18, 1998
15. D.P. Rosenbaum and G.S. Hanson, Assessing the Effects of School-Based
Drug Education: A Six Year Multi-Level Analysis of Project D.A.R.E., Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 35:4, pp 381-412, 1998.; Joel Brown, Youth, Drugs, and Resilience Education, Journal of Drug Education Center for Educational Research & Development, Berkeley, CA. Pp. 91.