## War on Drugs

#### The war on drugs has wasted billions while coinciding with higher drug usage, production, and creation of new criminals while failing to stop substance abuse in any capacity

*   [The Hill: Clark 18](https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/417228-another-decade-lost-to-the-global-war-on-drugs)
    *   **$100 billion a year** is spent waging the war on drugs globally
    *   **$40 billion** of that is spent in the United States alone
    *   Despite this, drug use **rose by 31%** between 2011 and 2016. 
    *   Illegal drug markets have expanded relentlessly to meet this growing demand, with opium and [cocaine] production rising respectively by **130% and 34%** between 2009 and 2018.
*   [Justice Policy Institute: McVay et al. 04](http://www.justicepolicy.org/uploads/justicepolicy/documents/04-01_rep_mdtreatmentorincarceration_ac-dp.pdf) 
    *   Among drug offenders released from prison, **41.2%** will be **re-arrested** on another drug offense.
*   [Center on Addiction 10](https://www.centeronaddiction.org/newsroom/press-releases/2010-behind-bars-II)
    *   Approximately 65% of prison inmates in the US meet the diagnostic criteria for addiction but **only 11%** receive any form of treatment.
    *   _“In 2005, federal, state and local governments spent **$74 billion** on incarceration, court proceedings, probation and parole for substance-involved adult and juvenile offenders and **less than 1%** of that amount—$632 million--on prevention and treatment for them”_
*   [Skywood Recovery: O’Leary 18](https://skywoodrecovery.com/why-imprisonment-is-more-harm-than-help-to-addicted-offenders/)
    *   Widely cited collection of statistics, although not from an academic source and thus should be used cautiously. 
    *   Approximately **95%** of incarcerated addicts will **return to substance abuse** after their release from prison.
    *   **60% to 80%** of them will **commit new crimes.**
    *   Others will become addicted while in prison due to access to **smuggled drugs.**
    *   There have been a number of reports of individuals **dying from severe withdrawal** while in prison.

#### Is the drug war racist?

*   [DPA 16](https://www.drugpolicy.org/press-release/2016/03/top-adviser-richard-nixon-admitted-war-drugs-was-policy-tool-go-after-anti)
    *   Besides disproportionate sentencing, one Nixon aid has openly admitted to the racism behind his administration's policy.


> *The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying. We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."*


~ John Ehrlichman, President Richard Nixon’s domestic policy chief
