The war on drugs hasn’t even achieved its stated goal of reducing drug use among Americans. But it has led to a dramatic increase in overdose deaths, which have more than doubled in the last decade.
Drug War Facts
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Drug treatment is not available for everyone who wants it because the drug war directs funding toward arrests and incarceration.
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The number of Americans incarcerated for drug law violations today is larger than the total U.S. prison population in 1980.
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Nearly 6 in 10 people in state prison for a drug law violation have no history of violence or high-level drug selling activity.
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African Americans comprise about 13 percent of the U.S. population and 13 percent of people who use or sell illegal drugs, but they are 37 percent of those arrested for drug law violations and 56 percent of those in state prison for a drug law violation.
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Drug arrests have more than tripled in the last 25 years, totaling more than 1.66 million arrests in 2009. More than four out of five of these arrests were for mere possession.
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In President Obama’s budget, 64 percent of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy’s funding is for interdiction, prosecution and incarceration – virtually the same percentage as under President Bush.
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Three quarters of Americans think that the war on drugs is failing.