LOCAL VIEW: A LOSING BATTLE

Startling stats continue to make the case against war on drugs

Those who have read my columns in this and other local papers know that I
often speak out against the "war on drugs." I am constantly reviewing
documents in order to keep up to date with the various aspects of this
"war," often by consulting several websites (such as www.drugsense.org). I
will summarize some of the most recent literature on drug use, drug abuse
and the impact the drug war is having.

First, it's worth noting the amount of money spent so far this year and the
number of people arrested, convicted and sent to prison for drugs. The
latest figures (as of Sept. 8, 2003) reveal that so far this year we have
spent just more than $27 billion. By the end of the year, it is estimated
that we will have spent about $40 billion, up from about $35 billion last
year and less than $1 billion 20 years ago. Just more than 1 million people
have been arrested for drug law offenses, with just more than half (506,484)
arrested for marijuana alone, mostly possession. A total of 163,290 have
been incarcerated for drug law offenses so far this year (about 648 per
day). Incidentally, more than one-third of the increase in the incarceration
rate over the past 20 years can be explained by drug convictions. By the end
of this year we will have incarcerated about 236,000 people for drug
offenses.

Second, what about recent trends in drug use and abuse? Despite the
increases in spending on the drug war, in 1999 more than half of all
students tried an illegal drug before they graduated from high school.
Surveys sponsored by the National Institute of Drug Abuse have found that
school drug testing has had no impact on student drug use. Moreover,
research on the impact of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign has
found no evidence that it has worked. One report noted that almost 80
percent of kids who use illegal drugs and more than three-quarters of those
who were drunk on more than 50 occasions in the past year "reported being
exposed to prevention messages outside school." Finally, surveys dating to
the mid-1970s have consistently found that at least 82 percent of high
school students find marijuana "fairly easy" or "very easy" to get (88.5
percent said so in 2000). Finally, not surprisingly, evaluations of the
popular DARE program have consistently found that it is totally ineffective,
with some research discovering that those who attend such programs are more
likely to use drugs than those who do not attend.

Third, the most recent statistics on prison populations reveal the most
devastating impact of the drug war to be on racial minorities and women. The
latest prison figures show that of all those serving time for drug offenses,
more than half (57 percent), are black and another 19 percent are Latino.
The most recent research finds that a black male child born today has about
a 33 percent chance of going to prison someday, mostly because the drug war
targets young black males.

This despite another important statistic usually left out of the debates:
Most users of illegal drugs are white (about 72 percent, according to the
most recent research), while only 15 percent are black and 10 percent are
Latino. As for women, the most serious offense for 72 percent in federal
prisons and 32 percent in state prisons is drugs. Between 1986 and 1996, the
number of women in prison for drug offenses increased tenfold, while females
arrested for drugs went up by 95 percent, compared with a 55 percent
increase for males.

The incarceration rate (per 100,000) in the United States is more than 700
(up from about 100 in the early 1970s), while literally every other Western
industrial society is either barely above or below a rate of 100
(neighboring Canada has a rate of 109). More than 2 million are currently
incarcerated. The cost of incarceration continues to rise every day,
including not only the building of prisons and jails but the daily
operational costs. Vital social services (present in significant amounts in
other Western societies, which in turn help explain their low incarceration
rates) are woefully inadequate in our country, since there have been severe
cutbacks in recent years. The war on drugs is only partly to blame, of
course, since increasing punitiveness has characterized our public crime
policies since the early 1970s. Ironically, the overall crime rate today is
about the same as it was 30 years ago, except that violent crime has risen
(a large drop in property crime has helped offset the increase in violent
crime). Meanwhile, expenditures on criminal justice are now approaching $200
billion per year, up from just more than $10 billion 30 years ago.

I hope those who opposed Question 9 (the marijuana question) on last year's
Nevada ballot read this and explain to our citizens why making these drugs
illegal is necessary in light of the facts noted above.

Randall G. Shelden is a professor of criminal justice at UNLV.