By using the Freedom of Information laws, the Associated Press has learned how some of our first trillion dollars in the failed "war on drugs" was spent. Here are the figures:

*$20 billion to fight the drug gangs in their home countries. In Colombia, for example, the United States spent more than $6 billion, while coca cultivation increased and trafficking moved to Mexico — and the violence along with it.
*$33 billion in marketing "Just Say No"-style messages to America's youth and other prevention programs. High school students report the same rates of illegal drug use as they did in 1970, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says drug overdoses have "risen steadily" since the early 1970s to more than 20,000 last year.
*$49 billion for law enforcement along America's borders to cut off the flow of illegal drugs. This year, 25 million Americans will snort, swallow, inject and smoke illicit drugs, about 10 million more than in 1970, with the bulk of those drugs imported from Mexico.
*$121 billion to arrest more than 37 million nonviolent drug offenders, about 10 million of them for possession of marijuana. Studies show that jail time tends to increase drug abuse.
*$450 billion to lock those people up in federal prisons alone. Last year, half of all federal prisoners in the U.S. were serving sentences for drug offenses.
*At the same time, drug abuse is costing the nation in other ways. The Justice Department estimates the consequences of drug abuse — "an overburdened justice system, a strained health care system, lost productivity, and environmental destruction" — cost the United States $215 billion a year.

http://bestoftheblogs.com/Home/29456

Quote:


You know some people would just call you a 'quitter'.

The simple fact of the matter is that drugs cost society in so many ways, not just financially.

I must admit to having some pretty grave concerns about speed, because people go off their flippin' rockers when they use that stuff for long, but I am sure they could work out some way to monitor it, and if there were lots of alternative ways to get off your tits that did not require the consumption of drugs that make you go all psychotic, then people would probably make do with that.

We will have to face the fact that we cannot change human nature, and the government could probably make some new cocktail drug up that would satisfy nearly everyone.

The money is the key, once you take the money incentive away, nobody will have a desire to see people become addicted.

Once it is not illegal, then taking drugs will not be cool, or rebellious, just a need, and it would be a need that could be managed far better than we currently do.

I really think that if all drugs were legalised, we would likely see a drop in the use of many of the more harmful drugs, plus we would see far fewer people running foul of the law, and judges could give sentences for real criminals based on what was most appropriate, without the pressure of worrying about over crowded jails, and a lack of facilities.

mozzaok wrote on May 15^th, 2010 at 9:16pm:


LOL, and proud to be one in this case. 8 years next month.

merou wrote on May 16^th, 2010 at 8:48am:

Is it a case of 7 years, 10 months, 12 days, 9 hours, 6 minutes and 16... 17... 18 seconds?

We need to make the prisions profitable.

There are some rehab centers to cure

Drug Rehab

And let's make that one trillion and one dollars shall we?
I'm going for a drive in my suped up V8 with whale-skin hubcaps  

I dont think the war was ever intended to be won.