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Failure of the Drug War

By Jeralyn, Section Crime Policy
Posted on Mon Apr 28, 2003 at 11:04:30 PM EST
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Sanho Tree, a fellow at the Drug Policy Project of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C., has a wrap-up of the drug war and its consequences in the May-June issue of Sojourner, titled The War at Home.
Until we provide adequate resources for drug treatment, rehabilitation, and prevention, the United States will continue to consume billions of dollars worth of drugs and impoverished peasants around the world will continue to grow them. The enemy is not an illicit agricultural product that can be grown all over the world; rather, our policies should be directed against poverty, despair, and alienation. At home and abroad, these factors drive the demand for illicit drugs which is satisfied by an inexhaustible reservoir of impoverished peasant farmers who have few other economic options with which to sustain themselves and their families.
Tree does offer an alternative approach to the issue of drug abuse, namely, Harm Reduction.

On the other hand, the philosophy of "harm reduction" offers us a way to manage the problem. Briefly put, this means we accept the premise that mind altering substances have always been part of human society and will not disappear, but we must find ways to minimize the harm caused by these substances while simultaneously minimizing the harm caused by the drug war itself. We have reached the point where the drug war causes more harm than the drugs themselves—which is the definition of a bankrupt policy. Drug abuse and addiction are medical problems, not criminal justice problems, and we should act accordingly.
How's this for a statistic:
When Nixon won reelection in 1972, the annual federal drug war budget was approximately $100 million. Now it is approaching $20 billion. Our legislators have been paralyzed by the doctrine of "if at first you don't succeed, escalate."
We could quote forever from this well-written article, but instead, encourage you to read it for yourself. It really makes sense. We need a viable candidate to adopt these arguments.
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