Posted on 09/19/2011 7:30:21 AM PDT by eastforker
The U.S. federal government spent over $15 billion dollars in 2010 on the War on Drugs, at a rate of about $500 per second.
Source: Office of National Drug Control Policy
State and local governments spent at least another 25 billion dollars.
Source: Jeffrey A. Miron & Kathrine Waldock: "The Budgetary Impact of Drug Prohibition," 2010.
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People Arrested for Drug Law Offenses this Year
Arrests for drug law violations this year are expected to exceed the 1,663,582 arrests of 2009. Law enforcement made more arrests for drug abuse violations (an estimated 1.6 million arrests, or 13.0 percent of the total number of arrests) than for any other offense in 2009.
Someone is arrested for violating a drug law every 19 seconds.
Source: Uniform Crime Reports, Federal Bureau of Investigation
(Excerpt) Read more at drugsense.org ...
I don’t refrain from drugs because they are illegal and wouldn’t become a druggie if they were legalized. Abusers are not impeded because they are illegal either.
Yup, drug use has been around for thousands of years.
Lots of people are willing to break the law for the sake of their corrupt habits. It makes enforcement expensive and difficult for certain.
So, is the cost of enforcement worth it?
Just a simple question if (is) the WOD is really worth it in money spent VS results in fewer drugs being available.
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Yes.
You said yes, please explain why it is worth the money spent. Do you think it results in fewer drugs on the market?
No. YOU explain why you are taking on this liberal agenda. Are you a RoPaul supporter?
Get off that crap dude, you know I’ve been around long enough than to ask a silly question like that. Nothing more than a simple question, is the WOD cost effective, if you think so, then why. If you cant answer that question then never mind, I will take your simple yes answer as a knee jerk reaction.
That said, the War on Drugs has proven a constitution-shredding, budget busting disaster that has only succeeded in growing the size, power and influence of the federal government on the backs of the citizens, whether they use drugs or not.
Now tell me, who is it that bennefits the most, society or the propegation of bigger government and big brother.
The US government has created the one perfect capitalist system. ATF/DEA and others have systematically eliminated or reduced the power of cartels that control drugs. The purpose of a cartel is to limit competition which keeps the price high. Since the US government has reduced cartels and their paramilitary competition suppressors the US government has moved consistently to create a free market. A free market is the most efficient means of supplying a product. Now, instead of all drugs going through one set of hands, they go through countless diverse hands keeping the price low. Ill wager the street price on drugs has gone down with every increase in enforcement expenditures. WAY TO GO GOVERNMENT!
Look. It’s very simple.
The money spent fighting the WOD is cost effective. Better to spend that money than to spend trillions more in social welfare programs for millions of new dopers and addicts enjoying all that legal weed, meth and cocaine.
But the real issue is not with you’re surrendering in the WOD. What I want to know is WHY you are advancing this libertraian agenda here on Free Republic? That’s why I asked if you are a Paul-tard. And I see I touched a nerve.
Look. Only liberals want to surrender in the War on Drugs.
And there is nothing left to say regarding this.
Good Day.
How can the cost of hundreds of thousands of pounds of drugs being used every year be calculated?
America has a schizophrenic attitude about drug use. Lots of money to kick down doors but an unwillingness to force treatment.
In my view the drug cartels are just as much terrorists as anyone high-jacking airplanes and look what the U.S. has spent warring against them and their cohort.
My post 12 (Excellent post I must say!) applies to you too.
You libs take offense at Ron Paul? I don’t understand. Really I don’t.
He and Barney Frank are your ONLY ALLIES in surrendering in the WOD.
You can come up with evidence supporting the proof you need to waive the white flag, and I can come up with proof that denounces that crack-brained notion.
But at the end of the day... all you pro-dopers have left is Paul and Frank cheering you on.
That’s ****ing pathetic.
millions of new dopers and addicts enjoying all that legal weed, meth and cocaine.............................................................................
Only one more! Is it your belief that the WOD has reduced the number of drug users? Not counting the ones we spend millions of dollars on while they are incarcerated. .......BTW, I am not advancing any agenda here, just a simple question. Because if it is not cost effective, why are we still waging it. From previous post of yours I understand you are for propegation of bigger and more prolific LE, is that your reason for the WOD?
I am not sure if anyone has the answer. I do know we keep throwing money at it but it hasn’t changed much of anything.
LOL! You're an idiot.
Crack would make you smarter. Viagra, taller.
Did I insult you? You called me an idiot. What did I do to deserve that?
Oh. I see. I called you a lib. As in libertarian.
You took offense at that? Well, so would I. God know where I got the idea that you were anywhere near being a libertarian. Maybe the idea that you were repeating the libertarian (lib) mantra.
But seeing that you took offense at being outed as a lib(ertarian)... I apologize.
You want to talk allies. Your allies in the drug war include Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Barrack Obama, Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, FDR, the list stretches on to the horizon.
Every single big government nutjob on the political scene for the last half century supports the drug war. It gives the FBI the right to examine your bank accounts, it gives the police the right to stop your car and search it whenever they want. They can confiscate your car, boat or home, before trial if they suspect you of being involved in the drug trade. If they're wrong, they keep it anyway, to teach you a lesson. SWAT can kick in your door, handcuff your kids and shoot your dog, because some crackhead informer pointed at the wrong house in a photo. And your recourse? Kiss the boot, serf.
It cracks me up that people like you actually think you're conservative and stand for small government. Pathetic.
As a business consultant said to our group of supervisors:
“You can’t get anything done because you don’t know what you’re trying to do”.
Indeed money is being tossed on a bonfire in the hopes of smothering it.
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