Even ONDCP Director Gil Kerlikowske admits that "Forty years later, the concern about drugs and drug problems is, if anything, magnified, intensified." Attempting to grasp onto his fading limelight and defend the drug war is Kerlkowske's predecessor John Walters, who firmly disagreed.
"To say that all the things that have been done in the war on drugs haven't made any difference is ridiculous," Walters said. "It destroys everything we've done. It's saying all the people involved in law enforcment, treatment and prevention have been wasting their time. It's saying all these people's work is misguided."
That's exactly what is being said. Though he's simply lumping in treatment and prevention professionals to try and save face. Many people involved in that field feel that the war on drugs has been misguided and that it makes their jobs, which is to help people overcome addictions and get back on their feet, much harder.
The money spent on law enforcement of the drug war dwarfs what is spent on treatment and prevention leaving many facilities understaffed. Treatment and prevention specialists have long criticized the far reaching implications of having a drug conviction. After completing treatment, one of the most important things a person can do to help avoid relapse is to stay busy. That's kind of hard to do when you've lost your job after being arrested and can't get a new one because of the conviction on your record. If you were getting financial aid for college at the time of your arrest you can forget about going back to school. Need food stamps or public housing? You can forget about that too.
Walters continues to live in a fantasy world for people who believe that the devastating drug war violence occurring in Mexico is actually a victory for U.S. drug policy. He lives next door to Michelle Leonhardt, acting DEA Director and they both get their paper delivered by Andrea Barthwell while they watch a TV station where Asa Hutchinson actually wins debates. Living in this drug war utopia, they're able to ignore and distort facts like the ones the AP dug up:
Using Freedom of Information Act requests, archival records, federal budgets and dozens of interviews with leaders and analysts, the AP tracked where that money went, and found that the United States repeatedly increased budgets for programs that did little to stop the flow of drugs. 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 than $6 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.
Does the new drug control strategy and budget go far enough to make the changes that we need to reduce drug abuse and the violence associated with the illegal drug trade? No. But did anyone really expect it to? It is a step in the right direction with modest increases in funding for treatment and prevention and we have an administration that is at least able to acknowledge the fact that drug war hasn't solved the problem.
Our focus now should be to urge the Senate to not confirm Michelle Leonhart as DEA administrator.
