George Will points out in the Washington Post that : with both alcohol and illicit drugs, about 20 percent of users consume 80 percent of the products.
“Reducing consumption by the 80 percent of casual users will not substantially reduce the northward flow of drugs or the southward flow of money,”
The “war on drugs” is a failed policy. It is making the prision industry rich. California is paying $50,000 per year per inmate and only $9,000 per year per student.
Please share widely!
I’d like to know how much failed “war on drugs” costs the government (state and federal). What is the sum total of:
– Federal money spent on “fighting drugs” in foreign nations (especially South and Central America)
– Domestic anti-drug spending
– Costs to investigate and prosecute drug-related “crimes”
– Costs to incarcerate drug offenders
– Costs of lost wages, broken families, damaged children, etc. resulting from convicted drug offenders
– Costs of crimes committed by drug offenders because drugs are illegal (how much of the “drug problem” is the drugs, and how much is the illegality of the drugs?)
I don’t ask for exact numbers — I’d just like to know how many zeroes are in the result.
and I’m not claiming which side has more zeros, but don’t forget that if drugs were broadly legalized, then these numbers would change…
* Costs to investigate crimes by those currently high or robbing to buy their fix
* Costs of lost wages, broken families, damaged children, etc. resulting drug addicts using legally and more easily
Again, I think a lot depends on the drug in question [ie pot vs. PCP], but there are clearly costs both ways.
decriminalization of marijuana, maybe even legalization. I have my doubts about legalizing hard drugs. Heroin’s health effects are lethal. And crystal meth? Should the government manufacture it and sell it or just regulate it?
I have no doubt that we waste a terrific amount of money on the Drug War. There’s a greater waste of life and money in Mexico. But complex problems often lack simple solutions, and apparently simple solutions often have extreme unintended consequences. Illegal drugs operate in an economy, if there’s money to be made criminals will make it. If we regulate heroin, what stops criminals from creating a more lethal, addictive, and pleasurable alternative? I don’t think the market for hard drugs can be regulated or stopped.
George Will, of course, is a tool. And the 80/20 percentage is a pseudoscientific ratio that uses statistics to say most problems are caused by a few. It’s called the Pareto Principle.