Should We Continue to Fund the War on Drugs?

1
Should We Continue to Fund the War on Drugs?

• Amy Chamberlain
• Paul Fleischer
• Alcione Frederick
• Nick Hager

2
Do you remember?

• Prohibition, the move to decrease alcohol
  consumption in 1919
• National Prohibition Act (Volstead Act or 18th
  Amendment) was passed by Congress in 1919
• The law prohibited the manufacture,
  transportation and sale of beverages containing
  more than 0.5 per cent alcohol, particularly beer
• Beer consumption reduced dramatically

3
Prohibition Consequences

• However, this created the market for hard liquor
• Moonshine, bath-tub gin, home brewed spirits,
  etc.
• In addition, the following happened
• An increase in
• Substance-related deaths
• Government spending to enforce the law
• Judicial caseloads
• Prison population
• Violent crime, including murder
• The alcohol production and distribution became
  decentralized and democratized
• Organized crime boomed as criminals jumped at the
  chance to quench the demand for liquor
• However, most of the production and distribution
  was done on a smaller scale by average citizens

4
The End of Prohibition

• When the American people saw what Prohibition was
  doing to them, they supported its repeal through
  the 21st Amendment in 1933
• Made the rules and regulations surrounding
  alcohol control a State matter
• Within a few years, the production and
  consumption of alcohol fell by 50
• Instituted the Three -Tier System
• Producers, wholesalers, retailers

5
Drug War Clock as of Friday 10/22/04

• Money spent on the War On Drugs in 2003
• 19.179 billion at a rate of approx. 600 per
  second
• People arrested for Drug Law offenses this year
• 1,279,214
• People incarcerated for Drug Law offenses this
  year
• 191,773

6
History of Drug Laws

• 1875 Anti-Opium Ordinance, San Francisco the
  smoking of opium was forbidden in opium dens
• 1914 Harrison Narcotics Act at face-value
  this was a law for the orderly marketing of
  opium, morphine, heroin, and cocaine in small
  quantities over the counter, and in larger
  quantities on a physician's prescription in the
  course of his professional practice only
• 1936 - Reefer Madness is released and shown to
  school children as a deterrent for drug use
• 1937 Marijuana Tax Act - purpose of the Act is
  to levy a token tax of 1 per ounce for
  authorized transfers on all buyers, sellers,
  importers, growers, physicians, veterinarians,
  and any other persons who deal in marijuana
  commercially, prescribe it professionally, or
  possess it

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History cont.

• 1960s Counterculture revolution!!! Recreational
  drug use becomes fashionable among young, white,
  middle class Americans
• 1970 - Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and
  Control Act - consolidates previous drug laws
  and reduces penalties for marijuana possession.
  It also strengthens law enforcement by allowing
  police to conduct "no-knock" searches
• 1971 - Soldiers in Vietnam develop heroin
  addiction
• 1971 - Nixon declares war on drugs. At a press
  conference Nixon names drug abuse as "public
  enemy number one in the United States." He
  announces the creation of the Special Action
  Office for Drug Abuse Prevention (SAODAP)

8
Controlled Substances Act

• Schedule I (Most Dangerous)
• PCP
• Ecstasy
• Heroin
• Marijuana
• LSD
• Quaaludes
• Peyote
• Magic mushrooms

• Schedule II
• Codeine
• Cocaine
• Coca leaves
• Amphetamine
• Crack
• Morphine
• Oxycodone
• Opium poppy and derivatives

9
Controlled Substances Act

• Schedule III
• Anabolic steroids
• Barbituric acid and derivatives
• synthetic THC in sesame oil/soft gelatin
• Testosterone
• Morphine combos
• Codeine combos

• Schedule IV
• Valium
• Barbitone
• Propacet
• Halcion
• Schedule V (Least Dangerous)
• Codeine preparations
• Ethylmorphine preparations
• Opium preparations

10
Whos using?

• According to the DEA, there are approx. 30-40
  million US citizens who have used an illegal drug
  within the last year or so this number,
  however, is speculated to be significantly higher
• The U.S. has 5 of the Worlds population but
  consumes 60 of its illicit drugs

11
Drug Usage Among Children

• Since 1992, federal surveys indicate an increase
  in adolescent drug use
• The Office of National Drug Control Policys plan
  for budgeting drug control during the years
  1998-2003 included spending less than 12 on
  youth prevention 12 of the 100 billion planned
• The Research Triangle Institute reported that
  DARE students were no less likely to use drugs
  than students who were not involved with the
  program

12

• In 1975, 87 of youths said it was very easy or
  fairly easy to obtain marijuana. In 1998,
  89.6 said it was easily obtained

13
The Cost of The War on Drugs
Historical Drug Control Funding by
Function (Budget Authority in Millions)
The Domestic Law Enforcement Category consists
of money used for the criminal justice system,
other research, and intelligence.
14
Whats More Important Prevention or Enforcement?
Represents money allocated, does not include
outside budget spending, in reality, figures are
closer to 18 - 20 billion a year
15
Costs of Incarcerating Drug Offenders

• Costs to incarcerate a drug-dealer is as follows
• Arrest conviction - 150,000
• Additional Prison Bed - 50,000-150,000
• Yearly Housing - 30,000 (Note the avg
  sentence is 5 years, which raises the to
  150,000)
• Approx. max. total 450,000
• Cost if estimated 30-40 million yearly drug
  abusers were imprisoned 10-15 trillion

16
Incarceration Rates

• According to the Department of Justice there
  are approx. 2 million people incarcerated in the
  U.S.
• U.S. leads the world in Incarceration Rates
• The number of people behind bars in the United
  States for drug crimes alone now exceeds the
  number of people in prison in Europe for all
  crimes combined

17
Federally Imprisoned by Offense in U.S.
Drug Offenses 59.6 Robbery 9.8 Property
Offenses 5.5 Extortion, Fraud, Bribery
6.8 Violent Offenses 2.7 Firearms,
Explosives, Arson 8.6 White Collar 1
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Discrimination in Incarceration Rates

• Approx. ¼ of young American black men are either
  in prison or on parole. Most of them were
  arrested on non-violent drug charges
• The rate for incarcerated whites is less than ten
  times the rate of blacks

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Arguments FOR the Drug War

• A state cannot tolerate or be involved with the
  distribution of immoral substances
• Recreational use of certain drugs is unhealthy
  and dangerous for the user's body
• Drugs are addictive, they rob the user of free
  will
• A drug user cant make an informed and rational
  decision to continue using drugs
• If illegal drugs were legalized, dealers would
  invent more dangerous and addictive drugs in
  order to maintain their profit

20
Arguments FOR cont

• Drug use is dangerous to people other than the
  user, in the rise of health care costs, violence
  associated with the use of drugs and neglect of
  children by drug-addicted parents
• If drugs were legalized, the companies that
  manufacture and market them would be sued, as
  have the tobacco companies
• Drug use negatively impacts the economy in the
  form of users missing work and doing poor work.
• Soft drugs, such as marijuana, are gateways to
  harder drugs cocaine, heroin

21
Arguments FOR cont

• If illegal drugs are legalized, the FDA will have
  to be shut down, meaning that all health and
  safety restrictions on foods and drugs will be
  eliminated. Massive epidemics of diseases,
  overdoses and accidental drug interactions will
  occur
• Once legalized, corporations would advertise and
  promote addictive drugs to increase profit
• We have to protect the children

22
Arguments AGAINST

• If the goal of a state is to protect citizens'
  health and well-being, drugs should be legalized
  so that their purity can be monitored
• Other countries that have experimented with
  degrees of legalization have had positive
  results
• Prohibition vs. Legalization the U.S. Policy
  vs. programs used in Europe
• Comparison of U.S. to Amsterdam Holland
• US marijuana is outlawed
• Amsterdam marijuana is legal, sales are
  regulated, selling to minors is prohibited
• Holland has 100s of shops where pot is tolerated
• US 38 of adolescents have smoked pot
• Holland 20 of adolescents have smoked pot

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Arguments AGAINST cont

• Drug legalization will decrease organized and
  disorganized crime by putting the distributors
  out of business
• Drug use is a victimless crime which means it
  should be legal
• W.O.D. facilitates police corruption, by
  injecting huge profits into the black market
• W.O.D is hypocritical because only certain drugs
  are targeted. Other drugs, such as alcohol,
  caffeine and tobacco are legal, yet cause many
  more problems than current illegal drugs

24

• Tobacco 390,000
• Alcohol 80,000
• Second-hand Smoke from Tobacco 50,000
• All Illegal Drugs Combined 4,500 Marijuana
  0

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Arguments AGAINST cont

• Legalizing drugs will help keep more dangerous
  and addictive drugs from minors, for whom the
  deleterious effects are greater
• Drug legalization will enable users to be certain
  that they are receiving the correct drug
• The strict enforcement of drug laws has led to
  overcrowding prisons and the early release of
  violent offenders
• Legalization would prevent any government excuse
  to ban the industrial use of hemp which can be
  made into about 50,000 products

26
In addition,

• The War on Drugs funds Terrorism and helped bring
  about 9/11
• In March 2002, in a statement before the Senate
  Judiciary Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism,
  and Government, Sen. Jon Kyl (R.-Ariz.) reported
  that opium production in Afghanistan under the
  Taliban accounted for 72 percent of production
  worldwide and was used to shelter Osama bin
  Laden and other al-Qaeda terrorists
• He similarly indicated that bin Laden provided
  protection to heroin-processing labs, was a part
  owner in numerous labs, and part owner of one
  load shipped to the U.S.

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Parallels between

• Prohibition
• An increase in
• Substance-related deaths
• Government spending to enforce the law
• Judicial caseloads
• Prison population
• Violent crime, including murder
• The alcohol production and distribution became
  decentralized and democratized
• Organized crime boomed as criminals jumped at the
  chance to quench the demand for liquor
• However, most of the production and distribution
  was done on a smaller scale by average citizens

• War on Drugs
• Increases
• N/A
• 18 billion annually total 40 billion
  (including State)
• Largest prison pop. with 59.6 drug based
• Added 11,000 murders/yr during 1980s
• Drug production and distribution is decentralized
  and democratized
• No criminal syndicate, however, there are
  large-scale operations
• Most are small-scale entrepreneurs
• In addition, theres a relationship between drug
  prohibition and law enforcement corruption

28
Murder in America Homicides per 100,000
population 1900 - 1997 (FBI Uniform Crime Reports)
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1975
1997
1960
1945
1930
1915
1900
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What Prohibition Teaches Us

• Prohibition causes crime
• the consensus of opinion among criminologists is
  that "prohibition is shown to directly increase
  violent crime, even in cases where it deters drug
  use. The more resources given to the fight
  against drugs, the greater the homicide rate"
• Prohibition encourages waste
• There will always be a market for mind-altering
  substances
• Profits from drugs sold in a similar manner as
  alcohol can go towards treatment and education
• Prohibition ignores the functional drug user
• The 40 million that use drugs and still function
  in society

30
What Prohibition Teaches Us cont

• No amount of legislation or social engineering is
  going to prevent some people from using
  substances others disapprove of
• According to the National Survey on Drug Use and
  Health, Americans still generally use illicit
  drugs with the same frequency they have since the
  drug war began, despite harsher sentences,
  increased funding for law enforcement, more
  prisons, expensive public relations campaigns and
  frightening trespasses on our civil liberties

31
We agree with the widely held belief that the
War on Drugs is the modern-day Prohibition and
therefore should no longer be funded
32
Sources Sources

• http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drug
  s/cron/
• www.addictiondoctor.com
• http//www.druglibrary.org
• http//www.drugwarfacts.org
• http//www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/drugfact/index
  .html
• http//www.erowid.org/psychoactives/statistics/sta
  tistics.shtml
• http//laws.justice.gc.ca/en/C-38.8/37187.htmlrid
  -37237
• http//www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/scheduling.html
• www.theinternetparty.org/issues
• www.lindesmith.org/global/terrorism
• www.capmag.com/articlePrint.asp?ID3435
• www.haciendapub.com/monde.html
• www.lp.org/issues/relegalize.html
• www.faculty/ncwc.edu/toconner/pol/495lect01.htm
• www.drugtext.org/library/articles/craig103.htm

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Sources

• http//serendipity.nofadz.com/wod.html
• http//www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/alcohol/pa-157
  .html