Pyrrhic Victors

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Anybody think it's a bad idea to cut food stamps when reported unemployment is hovering close to 10% and real unemployment is probably closer to 25%.  The latter unemployment figure  counts the invisible people who have given up after filling out that 600th application that didn't get a call back and now  are living on somebody's couch or worse. It includes the guy standing near the off ramp whose sigh reads "will work for food."  Real unemployment also counts people who are working part time to survive, but used to have full time work.  It is a non-official statistic that could show how many of us are struggling and need the social safety net to be securely in place.

The food stamp program was cut to free money to pay for retaining teachers and the new anti-obesity programs.  But is it smart to cut funds to a program that feeds poor people during tough times? Since we are supposed to have government "for the people," some of that trillion dollar a year defense budget could be repurposed to fight hunger at home.

Or maybe  we could eliminate a major non-defense $17 billion federal program that hasn't helped to control its intended target, unfairly punishes the poor and minorities, and actually increases violent crime.   Easy decision, right? Apparently not for Washington.  Every time the vote to fund the War on Drugs comes up, it passes at great cost to the people of America.

With a million people in prison for non-violent crimes in the US, we rank as the most incarcerated people on the planet.  It's a societal choice that is costly in the sense of money -$20,000/prisoner- wasted.  It is also a horrible waste of  human potential to achieve and contribute the community.

Perhaps having draconian laws could be justified if they actually resulted in a reduction in drug use. But for all the money spent and lives interrupted,  drug use continues, apparently unabated.   In a 2006 article  Joseph Rutledge wrote,

"The most recent updates that we can receive from the government about how much money they are spending on illicit drug control is from the ONDCP (Office of National Drug Control Policy) in 2003 which states: "combined expenditures by federal, state, and local governments exceed 30 billion dollars." In fact we have been spending that much on an annual basis since 1991, which adds up to a grand total of 450 billion dollars of taxpayers money, while the illicit drug market at production levels is around 13 billion annually. In contrast only 1 billion was spent in 1981. On top of this 1.5 million people were arrested for drug violations, almost half (736,000) arrested for marijuana (88% for possession alone). A total of 237,000 were sent to prison on drug charges, if you multiply this by the low estimate cost of housing one prisoner for one year ($20,000), you get a figure of over 948 billion. Has the money thrown at this war had any affect on illicit drug use in this country? No. An estimated 36 million people in this country, aged 12 and older, will use some form of illegal drug this year, which is up from 25 million in 1990. As added food for thought: 83 million Americans reported using marijuana regularly in their lifetime, which means more than likely, someone close to you has used marijuana on a monthly basis at some point in their lives."

One would think that a program that is so ineffective and expensive would draw opposition in Congress.  However, since it targets mainly a voiceless, powerless underclass of the poor and minorities,  it continues to be rubber stamped for passage. A Human Rights Watch report, “Targeting Blacks: Drug Law Enforcement and Race in the United States” reveals that black men serve prison sentences for drug crimes 11.8 times more than white men. The black/white ratio for women is 4.8 to one.

If the unjust and ineffective drug war were ended, we would save the money we currently spend on enforcement and incarceration. By ending  prohibition, the government could profit  from marijuana as we now do with alcohol and tobacco. Their use is regulated, restricting use to adults, and sales are taxed. Professor Jeffrey A. Miron in The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition estimates it would bring in $5.2 billion a year.

As a nation, we are strapped for cash and ways to generate it.  Isn't ending the Drug War an idea whose time has finally arrived.

http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000230

http://www.physorg.com/news157280425.html

http://www.redding.com/news/2009/may/10/editorials/

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n667/a01.html, http://www.drugsense.org/wodclock.htm)

(http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2007/11/09/the-longest-and-most-costly-war-in-american- history/

http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=61



ttp://www.associatedcontent.com/article/52739/the_war_on_drugs_part_1_monetary_effects.html?cat=17

http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000230

http://economics.about.com/od/incometaxestaxcuts/a/legalize_pot.htm