The War On Drugs
By Harris R. Sherline
November 24, 2008
Albert Einstein is credited with making the observation that "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
That's what the government appears to be doing with the War on Drugs, as the nation's drug problem continues to expand. The War was launched by President Nixon in 1971, and after 37 years of increasingly draconian punishment and confiscatory laws, we don't seem to be any closer to winning. If anything, the problem is worse, much worse.
The Drug War Clock notes the following facts, among others, about the War on Drugs:
"The U.S. federal government spent over $19 billion dollars in 2003 on the War on Drugs, at a rate of about $600 per second...State and local governments spent at least another $30 billion."
"Arrests for drug violations in 2008 are expected to exceed the 1,889,810 arrests of 2006. Law enforcement made more arrests for drug law violations in 2006 (13.1 percent of the total number of arrests) than for any other offense."
"Police arrested an estimated 829,625 persons for cannabis violations in 2006, the highest annual total ever recorded in the United States, according to statistics compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Of those charged with cannabis violations, approximately 89 percent, 738,915 Americans were charged with possession only. An American is now arrested for violating cannabis laws every 38 seconds."
"Since December 31, 1995, the U.S. prison population has grown an average of 43,266 inmates per year. About 25 percent are sentenced for drug law violations."
"Nearly 4,000 new HIV infections can be prevented before the year 2009 if the federal ban on needle exchange funding is lifted this year."
Another consequence of the War on Drugs is forfeiture of property that's connected with violations of drug laws. Property has often been confiscated and sold, even though the owner was not involved in any way. They do not even have to be accused or charged with a crime. The police are able to go to court and, without a trial, obtain a court order to confiscate the property of someone who is suspected of a drug crime. The mere fact that the property is involved in some way is sufficient.
The theory that makes forfeiture possible is based on "a technicality in the law that allows the government to claim that it is suing only the item of property, not the property's owner."
Congressman Henry Hyde noted in June 1993 that "80 percent of the people whose property (was) seized by the federal government under drug laws (were) never formally charged with any crime." Research literature on the subject is replete with examples of American citizens whose property has been confiscated and sold by law enforcement officials at every level of government, Federal, state and local, often without having been convicted of any crime, while between 1980 and 1985, incarceration for drug-law violations in the U.S. grew tenfold.
Dealing with America's drug problem is complicated, involving such considerations as mandatory sentencing laws that can incarcerate people for many years for simple "possession" to dealing with those who abuse destructive drugs, such as cocaine, crack, ecstasy, heroin, meth, or morphine.
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