To What End?

To What End?


1. The futility of the current drug war:

If only 10 percent of illicit drugs are seized in any given year, then, based on the figure of 2,412,365 pounds of marijuana seized in 2002, one could estimate that in 2002 the total amount of marijuana that traffickers succeeded in smuggling into the country was roughly 24 million pounds, or about 10,889 metric tons. If one doubles that amount to take into account the domestic production of marijuana that was not seized, then the total amount would be closer to 22,000 metric tons."


(2009 - value of global opiate market)

"At retail level, the total value of the heroin market is substantial at an estimated US$55 billion. The size of the annual opium market is a more ‘modest’ US$7-10 billion.

Consequently, the combined total opiates (heroin/opium) market could be worth up to US$65 billion per year. This amount is higher than the GDPs of many countries. In economic terms, nearly half of the overall opiate market value is accounted for by Europe (some US$20 billion) and the Russian Federation (US$13 billion). Other lucrative markets include China (US$9 billion) and the United States and Canada (US$8 billion)."


(2008 - cost of narcotics trade)

"The narcotics trade has also significantly impeded fiscal growth and stability by diverting scarce resources away from more-productive uses. Between 1981 and 2008, federal, state, and local governments are estimated to have spent at least $600 billion (adjusted for inflation) on drug interdiction and related law enforcement efforts; factoring in costs associated with treatment and rehabilitation, the overall total rises to around $800 billion.34 If one were to also add in “invisible” losses brought about by curtailed job opportunities and reduced workplace productivity, the true cost would be far higher."


(2007 - cost of drug diversion)

"...the estimated cost of CPD diversion and abuse to public and private medical insurers is $72.5 billion a year, 3 much of which is passed to consumers through higher health insurance premiums.

Additionally, the abuse of prescription opioids is burdening the budgets of substance abuse treatment providers, particularly as prescription opioid abuse might be fueling heroin abuse rates in some areas of the United States.


2. Since law enforcement's interdiction efforts have little effect on the flow of illegal narcotics, who really benefits from its effort?

The federal part of the Drug War budget number comes directly from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, including the National Drug Control Strategy Budgets (2002-2009) (adjusted after 2003, for budget structure changes implemented in 2004), and subsequent budgets, the latest of which is the 2011 budget, which indicates that the federal government will spend at least $23.44 billion on the War on Drugs in 2011.

With violent crime rates continuing their decade-long decline, the United States should be able to reduce its prison population. But the still-growing number of men and women behind bars attests to criminal justice policies – including mandatory minimum sentences, three strikes laws, and reduced options for parole – that favor incarceration over alternative sanctions, even for low-level and nonviolent crimes. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) data, 53 percent of all state and federal prisoners are incarcerated for nonviolent crimes. Indeed, an estimated 337,872 men and women are serving state or federal prison sentences because of drug convictions, most of whom are low-level offenders.

At least 37 states have legalized the contracting of prison labor by private corporations that mount their operations inside state prisons.

The list of such companies contains the cream of U.S. corporate society: IBM, Boeing, Motorola, Microsoft, AT&T, Wireless, Texas Instrument, Dell, Compaq, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel, Lucent Technologies, 3Com, Intel, Northern Telecom, TWA, Nordstrom's, Revlon, Macy's, Pierre Cardin, Target Stores, and many more.

All of these businesses are excited about the economic boom generation by prison labor. Just between 1980 and 1994, profits went up from $392 million to $1.31 billion. Inmates in state penitentiaries generally receive the minimum wage for their work, but not all; in Colorado, they get about $2 per hour, well under the minimum. And in privately-run prisons, they receive as little as 17 cents per hour for a maximum of six hours a day, the equivalent of $20 per month. The highest-paying private prison is CCA in Tennessee, where prisoners receive 50 cents per hour for what they call "highly skilled positions." At those rates, it is no surprise that inmates find the pay in federal prisons to be very generous. There, they can earn $1.25 an hour and work eight hours a day, and sometimes overtime. They can send home $200-$300 per month.


(2008 - savings from legalizing drugs in the U.S.)

"The report estimates that legalizing drugs would save roughly $48.7 billion per year in government expenditure on enforcement of prohibition. $33.1 billion of this savings would accrue to state and local governments, while $15.6 billion would accrue to the federal government. Approximately $13.7 billion of the savings would results from legalization of marijuana, $22.3 billion from legalization of cocaine and heroin, and $12.8 from legalization of other drugs."


3. The purpose of foreign wars...control of the black income of the illicit drug market?

At current levels, world heroin consumption (340 tons) and seizures represent an annual flow of 430-450 tons of heroin into the global heroin market. Of that total, opium from Myanmar and the Lao People's Democratic Republic yields some 50 tons, while the rest, some 380 tons of heroin and morphine, is produced exclusively from Afghan opium. While approximately 5 tons are consumed and seized in Afghanistan, the remaining bulk of 375 tons is trafficked worldwide via routes flowing into and through the countries neighbouring Afghanistan.


(2009 - opium income and the Taliban)

"The Taliban’s principal and most lucrative source of income in Afghanistan is its control of the opium trade. The Taliban have long profited off of the ten percent ushr tax levied on opium farmers, an additional tax on the traffickers, and a per-kilogram transit tariff charged to the truckers who transport the product. In recent years, however, they have been “taking a page from the warlords’ playbook,” and regional and local Taliban commanders have been demanding “protection money from the drug traffickers who smuggle goods through their territory.” A 2007 analysis by the Jamestown Foundation described “arrangements whereby drug traffickers provide money, vehicles and subsistence to Taliban units in return for protection.” In addition, at even higher Taliban command levels, “senior leadership in Quetta are paid regular installments from narcotics kingpins as a general fee for operating in Taliban controlled areas.” Through these various forms of taxation and extortion, the Taliban have been estimated to earn nearly $300 million a year from the opium trade."


4. The true costs of the war on drugs:

The presence of illegal narcotics on the streets, first of all, is preventable. Their deliberate proliferation fuels an equally deliberate effort to create an unaccountable source of funds from this lucrative illicit business. The chief benefactors of this underground economic system are the same who feign concern and mount 'efforts' against it.

Mainly, their war allows themselves to pay themselves to combat an enemy they themselves control and protect.

In the end, it is the citizenry who pay the true costs of this war. It is we who have to live with the ravishes of addiction, crime, incarceration and death that are the true price of this 'war'.


Commentary by
@ewjjr


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