AP Bombshell: "US Drug War Has Met None of Its Goals"

[Derechos]

The Associated Press has just dropped a bombshell on America's longest running war and the headline says it all: "The US Drug War has Met None of its Goals".

The extensive piece reviews the last 40 years, starting with President Nixon's official launch of the War on Drugs all the way to President Obama's annual strategy released this week.

I have been the director of media relations at the Drug Policy Alliance for ten years and this is one of the hardest hitting indictments against the drug war I've ever seen. And because the story comes from the Associated Press, it will run in hundreds of papers around the world, reaching tens of millions of people.

The piece packs a punch from the start: "After 40 years, the United States' War on Drugs has cost $1 trillion dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives, and for what? Drug use is rampant and violence more brutal and widespread."

Using Freedom of Information Act requests, archival records, federal budgets, and interviews with leaders and analysts, the AP tracked where that money went -- and found that the U.S. repeatedly increased budgets for programs that did nothing to stop the flow of drugs. The AP article states that in 40 years taxpayers spent more than:

•$20 billion to fight the drug gangs in their home countries. In Colombia, for example, the United States spent more than6 billion, while coca cultivation increased and trafficking moved to Mexico - and the violence along with it.

•$33 billion in marketing "Just Say No"-style messages to America's youth and other prevention programs. High school students report the same rates of illegal drug use as they did in 1970, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says drug overdoses have "risen steadily" since the early 1970s to more than 20,000 last year.



•$49 billion for law enforcement along America's borders to cut off the flow of illegal drugs. This year, 25 million Americans will snort, swallow, inject and smoke illicit drugs, about 10 million more than in 1970, with the bulk of those drugs imported from Mexico.



•$121 billion to arrest more than 37 million nonviolent drug offenders, about 10 million of them for possession of marijuana. Studies show that jail time tends to increase drug abuse.



•$450 billion to lock those people up in federal prisons alone. Last year, half of all federal prisoners in the U.S. were serving sentences for drug offenses.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tony-newman/ap-bombshell-us-drug-war_b_575587.html?utm_source=Daily Brief

[Judi Lynn]

1. Absolutely floored AP took the initiative to do something like this! What's up?

Such a good report, however, and stunning coming from an organization which has been such a propaganda conduit.

Just did a search to see if anyone else has anything out on this yet, and only the Huffington Report has done it at the moment.
Looking forward to their official piece on this from AP.

Don't doubt the numbers for a moment. They're probably whitewashed by AP, if anything.

It would be a great idea to cross post this in LBN. If the moderator won't allow it for some reason he/she will move it to General Discussion or Editorials, etc.

Lotsa eyes need to see this.

Thank you for posting it here. Can't wait to see the reaction.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Recommending. #1.

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:

[protocol rv]

3. LOL

I was starting to think I was the only oxygen breather around here. So why don't you legalize the stuff and use the money to help the addicts?

[immoderate]

4. It sure didn't work on me.

:smoke:

--imm