cannabisnews.com: Counting the Costs of the Drug War





Counting the Costs of the Drug War
Posted by CN Staff on May 07, 2004 at 17:54:39 PT
By Ann Harrison, AlterNet
Source: AlterNet
The costs of the war in Iraq can be measured daily in deaths, injuries and decreasing support for U.S. policies. But how do you measure the costs of America's other war – the war on drugs. Each year, the U.S. government spends more than $30 billion on the drug war and arrests more than 1.5 million people on drug-related charges. More than 318,000 people are now behind bars in the U.S. for drug violations. This is more than the total number of people incarcerated for all crimes in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain combined.
At a May 6 forum sponsored by the Independent Institute, an Oakland, California, think tank, analysts tried to quantify the real costs of drug war. Have these efforts actually deterred drug abuse or reduced crime? Boston University economist Jeffrey A. Miron, who spoke at the forum, applied an economic analysis to determine whether drug prohibition is a more effective public policy than legalization – which would tax and regulate drugs. Miron, author of the new book Drug War Crimes, says the true costs of prohibition should be measured not just by the billions of dollars spent for enforcement of drug laws, but the overall impact on drug consumption, crime, public health and unseen moral consequences. One of the major goals of prohibition is to increase the cost of drugs and thereby reduce demand and drug consumption. But Miron says this approach has failed. He points out that the price of drugs has actually fallen by 80% in the past 25 years. Despite millions of drug arrests, Miron says prohibition has had a relatively small effect on both the supply and consumption of drugs. He says the government's claims of a fifty percent drop in consumption due to prohibition are exaggerated. "Prohibition reduces access of drugs to some people, but there is no evidence that suggests a large effect," says Miron. Miron also disputes claims by the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) that drug use makes people violent and contributes to crime. He says prohibition increases violence because people involved in the drug trade have no recourse to the legal system to settle their disputes and are more likely to settle it themselves with force. "There is no evidence that merely consuming drugs makes you go out and do criminal things," says Miron. Throughout history, Miron says periods of escalating violence have been sparked by attempts to prohibit certain commodities such as drugs, alcohol, gambling or prostitution. In instances where prohibition does increase the cost of drugs, he says drug users are more likely to steal or rob to pay for drugs. Police efforts to curtail violence are often diverted to enforcing drug laws. Miron also notes that the drug trade enriches only the sellers who are exempt from paying taxes on their products or minimum wages to workers. Drug sellers are not required to engage in quality control, which leads to more overdoses and accidental poisonings, says Miron. And he notes that there are other social consequences that make prohibition more costly than the legalization. "Because prohibition is a victimless crime, there is strong incentive for police to impede civil liberties and do racial profiling," he says. Miron adds that resistance to needle exchange programs under prohibition also increases the spread of HIV. The effects of drug use on third parties such as unborn children or those involved in drug-related traffic accidents are exaggerated, says Miron, and not significantly different from the negative effects of alcohol or forgoing sleep for late-night TV. As for those who think that drugs are inherently immoral, Miron argues that the concurrent violence, damage to civil liberties and decreased respect for law which follows prohibition have a larger negative moral impact on people who are innocent bystanders to the drug war. According to Miron, the paternalistic attitude that people need to be protected from themselves opens a Pandora's box of government intervention. "There is no reason to think that the benefits of reducing myopic drug use balances the costs that prohibition places on society," says Miron. "The best policy is to legalize drugs and do it sooner rather than later." The Drug War Crimes forum also looked at the impact of prohibition on police forces. Joseph McNamara, former police chief of San Jose and now a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, says police have been greatly influenced by federal escalation of the drug war. He says financially strapped local police departments now receive significant funding and much of their training from federal officials who encourage them to continue to make drug arrests. "It is a jihad, it is a holy war you have to fight," says McNamara. McNamara says local police are also encouraged by city officials to seize the assets of suspected drug criminals to fund their departments. "In San Jose when I was given zero dollars in the budget they said 'you guys seized four million dollars last year, I expect you to do better this year,"' says McNamara. McNamara says police are under pressure from citizen groups who worry about the impact of open outdoor drug markets on children in the neighborhood. He emphasized that these concerns cannot be dismissed. But he says current drug policies have vastly increased police corruption, and created a culture of "gangster cops." Protected by a code of silence and supported by an attitude from top officials that police should not be impeded in their duties, McNamara says prohibition gives rise to a range of police abuses. McNamara says this has been illustrated in series of police corruption scandals including one at his former employer, the New York City Police Department. Investigators there, he said, found that narcotics officers had been robbing drug dealers and stealing their drugs. Confronted by the reality that the country is still flooded with drugs, he says police sometimes develop the attitude that "it's hopeless we can't do anything about it, why shouldn't we all benefit." Despite the impact on prohibition on the stability of social institutions, the US government rarely looks at the unintended consequences of the drug war, says Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA). "The absence of critical analysis on the part of the administration and Congress is worse now than ever," says Nadelmann who once worked for the US State Department analyzing the laundering of drug money. Nadelmann says the DPA has been building a political movement to shift public opinion concerning drug prohibition. "We want to end prohibition as we know it and reduce the harms of drugs," says Nadelmann. "Nobody should be punished in any way for what we put in our bodies, that should be a fundamental human right and is sound public policy." According to Nadelmann, one of the greatest concerns about drug legalization is "loss of control." He says that the government's prohibition policies have resulted in greater overall loss of control and regulation and taxation of drugs is the answer to this concern. Since the majority of drug arrests take place for marijuana, he says the dismantling of prohibition has started there. He says the DPA has taken the initiative to the states and helped support the passage of state medical marijuana laws and asset forfeiture reform. DPA also helped pass California's Prop. 36 which significantly reduced the number of people sent to jail for drug crimes by offering treatment as an alternative. Nadelmann noted that countries with more permissive drug laws have not seen an increase in drug use. When an audience at the panel asked about age limits on drug access, Nadelmann says there was support for age limits such as that which exist for alcohol and cigarettes. But he noted that children would still get access, as they do now to both drugs and alcohol, and it is important that these concerns be addressed by families. Nadelmann says the marijuana reform movement mirrors the gay rights movement in that it is pushed forward by those who put a human face on the issue by coming out of the closet as marijuana smokers. He says this had helped shift public opinion in which 41% of those polled support the idea that marijuana should be taxed and regulated with numbers approaching 50% in Nevada and Alaska. As an increasing number of states take steps toward regulating medical cannabis, Nadelmann says the next question will be "what is medical?" He notes that some people use cannabis to generate the same effect as Viagra, to treat depression, or to relax at the end of the day as one would with a cocktail. According to Nadelmann, the next evolutionary step in the repeal of drug prohibition is the Oakland Cannabis Initiative, a ballot initiative in Oakland, Calif. which would make marijuana enforcement the lowest police enforcement priority and support a statewide effort to tax and regulate the drug. Supporters of the initiative are still gathering signatures to place it on the November ballot. Another challenge for those who wish to overturn drug prohibition is to end policies that encourage the hatred of those who consume or distribute drugs. Nadelmann notes that under prohibition, these people are not only imprisoned, but they have property confiscated, driver's licenses taken away and are cut off from access to educational funding. These measures, says Nadelmann, violate the right of Americans to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He reminded the audience at the Drug War Crimes forum that the first laws supporting drug prohibition were put in place in 1914 by "fundamentalist groups who inserted their concept of sin into the penal code." "It is not up to the government to tell us what rights they will dole out to us," said Nadelmann as the audience cheered. "We were born with those rights." Ann Harrison is a freelance reporter working in the Bay Area. Source: AlterNet (US)Author: Ann Harrison, AlterNetPublished: May 07, 2004Copyright: 2004 Independent Media InstituteContact: letters alternet.org Website: http://www.alternet.org/DL: http://alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18641Related Articles & Web Site:Drug Policy Alliancehttp://www.drugpolicy.org/Hoover Institution http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/A Prison State, If Not a Police State http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18794.shtmlPro-Marijuana Advocates Seek Oakland Vote http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18371.shtmlAdvocates Get Down To Grass Taxhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18363.shtml
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Comment #16 posted by afterburner on May 19, 2004 at 08:37:04 PT
Target: Wages, Jobs, Benefits, Pensions, Liberty
Retirees' benefits under siege
"A former civil servant has filed what one lawyer calls a 'groundbreaking' class-action suit against the Ontario government in a bid to keep what was promised, WALLACE IMMEN writes" WALLACE IMMEN - 
Wednesday, May 19, 2004 http://www.workopolis.com/servlet/Content/qprinter/20040519/CABENE19Companies and governments are eager to steal (or "rollback") retiree benefits due to rising insurance costs and poor investment prospects. Pensions may be next. All the more reason to regulate and tax medical cannabis and to wean healthcare from unaffordable pharmaceuticals. The outsourcing of North American (NA) jobs to India, China, and South America, where workers are paid pennies on the dollar, is having a reverse multiplier effect on the North American economy: for every dollar taken away from NA workers through salary-cuts and layoffs, the GDP is reduced by as much as five dollars. Under Free Trade, NA was supposed to become a region of investors. Then, the Internet Bubble burst, the Information Technology (IT / Computer / Telecommunications) sector melted down. Then, the stock markets crashed with widespread corporate malfeasance. Hence, the confidence of investors, who had collectively lost trillions, went belly-up. Since then, the NA economy has been limping along with potential investors unsure and unwilling or unable to invest. Now, the companies want to steal the benefits and pensions! What the corporate bosses don't seem to understand is that every time they reduce the wages of NA workers or layoff NA workers or trash their benefits or pensions, fewer dollars are available to buy the high-tech devices made in China and the software made in India. Third world countries need jobs and I don't begrudge their workers, but sudden job-shifting to countries with human rights violations and lax environmental standards is hurting NA workers, and our governments are complicit. The same corporate interests, lobbyists, and bureaucrats who support maintaining cannabis prohibition are the same people who are holding back the development of alternative energy and the hemp economy. Instead of embracing future technology, they use "slash and burn" techniques to try to maintain the failed economy of the past and its failed policies. Every job lost to the WOsD also reduces the GDP by the reverse multiplier effect, not just during the present year, but also during the lifetime of those refused college loans or a living wage due to a prison record.
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Comment #15 posted by Jose Melendez on May 10, 2004 at 04:50:22 PT
We won.
Winners don't use drugs:http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n700/a05.html?397http://pipepeace.com/vote
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Comment #14 posted by FoM on May 08, 2004 at 23:17:30 PT
Just A Note
If anyone is having trouble posting that is registered please leave me a message on this board. It will help while I'm trying to figure out what might be wrong. Thanks!Happy Mother's Day to all Moms!http://marthag.proboards20.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&num=1084084067
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Comment #13 posted by kaptinemo on May 08, 2004 at 11:57:43 PT:
Oo-rah for Budsnaxz!
I wish I could have been there; nothing like watching an antis mental gears jam with such a public audience...
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Comment #12 posted by FoM on May 08, 2004 at 11:43:06 PT
Just a Note About Posting
I just emailed Matt Elrod about what I think is a registration problem on CNews. If people are having problems posting that are registered I hope it can be fixed easily and I'm sorry. I'd fix it but I don't know how.
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Comment #11 posted by FoM on May 08, 2004 at 11:06:50 PT
BUDSNAXZ
That is really good news to hear!I just thought of a South Park show and they asked why drugs are bad and the answer was because drugs are bad. 
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Comment #10 posted by BUDSNAXZ on May 08, 2004 at 10:57:58 PT
My Fun Day
This is just too much fun to not share.
I just got back from an ELK's Club drug awareness exhibit and car show in our local park. At the DARE booth they had a display with nothing but marijuana paraphernalia on it and it was covered with little signs that said "Drugs are addictive" "Drugs are dangerous" etc. I promptly explained to the DARE officer that the display board only showed marijuana items and not anything to do with drugs. I then asked him why marijuana was illegal? To which he replied, " it's because people do not like it and don't think it should be legal". This was all happening in front of a crowd that is there to gawk at the DARE goodies, So I proceeded to intellectually rip him and his arguments apart in front of the crowd. I explained all about Harry Anslinger, the racial lies, reefer madness that the government spewed and the billions that all the anti companies spend to keep it illegal. This included a lecture on what industrial hemp can do and why the government won't let us grow it. I gave him and the crowd a true history lesson on prohibition. I told them about LEAP and told the officer he needs to educate himself before he tries to speak intellectually about a subject. (I learned form all of you THANKS!!!) This was so much fun and you should have seen the looks on the people's faces "PRICELESS"This is the second time I've educated so called "drug awareness" people and it won't be the last !Peace and good karma to all BUDSNAXZ
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Comment #9 posted by FoM on May 07, 2004 at 20:16:24 PT
Thanks cloud7
That is a good article. BGreen I can relate to the electronics but not computers just the old satellite systems. Heck the first satellite had a hand crank and you turned a knob to tune in channels like a radio.
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Comment #8 posted by BGreen on May 07, 2004 at 20:09:50 PT
I Know, FoM
Jose and some others who post here make Stephen King look like a lazy slacker.I studied electronics at Vo-tech in high school, repair all of my own electronics and have built all of my computers since my first IBM 10 years ago.I go for the jokes when I can.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #7 posted by kaptinemo on May 07, 2004 at 20:08:37 PT:
Mr. Larsen's point has been mentioned here many 
many times.And for the same reasons. As our opponents have lost more and more ground, they have become ever more devious, strident and ruthless in their attempts to eradicate cannabis culture. With ever lessened effectiveness. Their actions have in many cases gone beyond the pale of the law they claim to worship religiously. Up to and including the murders of innocent children...children they so loudly claim over and over they are trying to 'save'.They are aware of the dichotomy. They know the harder they fight drug law reform, the worse it gets...for them. But they just keep struggling further and further in the quicksand they've jumped into with both feet and eyes wide open.Yes, they will get even more vicious and deceitful...until the tipping point is reached and an incident causes the public to reconsider the entire effort.Unfortunately, the catalyst for that is usually something so hideous that it shock's the public's sensibilities. It took the bloody "St. Valentine's Day Massacre" to bring home to the public at large the *real* cost of Prohibition 1. I earnestly hope that it doesn't require something similar for America to halt this 90 year long civil war. 
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on May 07, 2004 at 20:02:07 PT
BGreen
That's funny but I don't think that's it. When my husband and I installed satellites years ago back when they were 12 feet we had to do a lot of trouble shooting. We had some hairy experiences too. We got threatened one time by a man who drank a lot of beer. He was always out there you know. He bought a system from us and it kept going on and off and we couldn't figure out what was wrong. To make a long story short we finally found that a mouse had chewed on the cable and punctured it enough to cause intermittent problems. Electronics and computers can be so tempermental.
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Comment #5 posted by BGreen on May 07, 2004 at 19:50:18 PT
Jose has surpassed his yearly billion word limit
Computers weren't meant to handle that volume of intelligence. LOLThe Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #4 posted by cloud7 on May 07, 2004 at 19:24:07 PT
Great cannabis culture editorial
snippet from http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/3424.html"Alcohol prohibition didn't fade away, instead the raids and arrests continued to rise until the very day that the law was changed. In the last days of alcohol prohibition, more speakeasies were being raided, more alcohol was seized, and more people were being arrested than ever before.We can expect the same with the laws against pot. As arrests and persecution continue to climb in the face of shifting public opinion, those who hate marijuana and marijuana users will be forced to more and more extreme measures.The weapons of the prohibitionist regime are fear and violence. Propaganda and police are their only tools, and as public opinion moves away from their perspective, they have no choice but to step up the pressure. We will see more anti-pot ad campaigns, and more marijuana arrests, up until the very day that the war on pot is finally ended.So in a perverse way, we can see increased persecution as a sign of our success. As we force the issue and move towards freedom and normalization of cannabis, we can expect things to get more intense, and the laws to get more strict before they get better.So let's not give up, and instead let us take hope from our successes, and recognize that we are creating a cultural shift, and that our actions and efforts are indeed having a profound impact beyond what we can immediately see.Make no mistake, we are changing the world. Our culture, and our plant, will one day soon be free."
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on May 07, 2004 at 19:24:02 PT
BGreen
That's funny! Jose hasn't been able to post so I thought I'd check and see if I could post. Some people have been having trouble posting that are registered and I wish I knew what was wrong but I just am not sure.
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Comment #2 posted by BGreen on May 07, 2004 at 19:08:29 PT
Why are you testing FoM? *
We're always testing her patience. LOLThe Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #1 posted by Jose Melendez on May 07, 2004 at 19:04:07 PT
testing
Just testing. FoM
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