From harelb@math.cornell.edu Fri Apr 24 01:58:54 1992 Date: Fri, 24 Apr 92 00:52:25 EDT From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (Harel Barzilai) To: 75300.3112@CompuServe.COM Subject: drugs/crime pos. paper "In 1970, drug treatment, prevention and education claimed 56 percent of the federal drug budget, but only 27.2 percent in 1991." this and other stats&info here may be useful, even if you don't end up doing a drugs/crime position paper. Have you heard the feds are trying to shut down Chrsitic with some S.L.A.P.P.-type tactics, btw? (Andy Lang, editor of _Convergence_ (c. 40,000) is an old-time "electronic friend" -- in fact it was he who introduced me to PeaceNet's Director back in '90). More good stuff (ideas, more than hard figures, in this case) in Z magazine, April '92, _Venting Spleen_, "Election Program" by Michael Albert under "drugs" Harel ENCL ################################################################## Now in capture mode; type 'c' to switch back, 'r' to redraw whole message. Conf? r - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Topic 93 CAUSES & CURES: FACTS ON DRUG WAR christic christic.news 12:44 pm Apr 8, 1992 ------------------------------------------------------------------- CAUSES AND CURES: FACTS ABOUT THE WAR ON DRUGS Christic Institute, Washington, D.C., April 8, 1992 * * * LAW ENFORCEMENT AND THE WAR ON DRUGS In 1970, the federal government spent about 44 percent of its anti-drug money on law enforcement and interdiction. By 1991, the percentage claimed by law enforcement had swollen to 68.3 percent. The prison population in the United States has tripled in the last ten years. Today the incarceration rate in the United States is the highest in the world at 426 per 100,000--even higher than South Africa at 333. This increase in the prison population is for the most part the result of drug-related crime. But the strategy of jailing small-time users and dealers is not working. Violent crime--including drug-related crime--increased by 10 percent from 1990 to 1991. Addiction to illegal drugs has increased by 30 percent since the ``War on Drugs'' was proclaimed. The federal prison population is expected to nearly double again by 1995, with the percentage of drug offenders increasing from 47 percent to 70 percent. The average cost of keeping a drug offender in a federal prison for one year is $50,000. The cost of treating a drug addict for one year is between $3,000 and $15,000. A total of 92 percent of those arrested for crack possession were black while 85 percent arrested for possession of powder cocaine were white. Crack penalties are extremely severe, however, while penalties for cocaine possession are relatively lenient. Distribution of five grams of crack, worth about $125 on the street, results in a five-year mandatory sentence. A white dealer or user would need to possess 500 grams of powder cocaine, worth about $50,000, to earn the same sentence. * * * TREATMENT AND PREVENTION In 1970, drug treatment, prevention and education claimed 56 percent of the federal drug budget, but only 27.2 percent in 1991. According to estimates from the National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors, over 5 million women were turned away from treatment in 1989--250,000 of whom were pregnant. Less than 1 in every 100 drug treatment facilities provide the child and obstetric care needed to treat addicted mothers and pregnant women. Treatment is available for only one-fourth of drug addicts in prison, meaning that 300,000 addicts who have served time since the ``War on Drugs'' was proclaimed have been, or soon will be, released into the population without any opportunity to cure their addiction. * * * ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CAUSES Between 1980 and 1988, the number of Americans living in poverty increased by 23 percent from 26 million to 32 million. In 1990 the income share of the richest fifth of the United States population was the highest ever recorded, while the share of the poorest fifth had fallen to its lowest level since 1954. Between 1979 and 1987 the nation lost more than a million manufacturing jobs. A 1985 Field Foundation study found that one half of all black men between the ages of 16 and 65 are chronically unemployed. * * * DRUG PRODUCTION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES Military operations in drug-producing countries have not reduced the supply of cocaine or heroin in the United States. The D.E.A. reports that cocaine production in South America nearly tripled >from 1988 to 1990 and increased by another 28 percent in 1990. Coca has become the most profitable cash crop in the Americas, replacing even coffee as chief export. Wages in the Colombian cocaine industry are estimated to be 10 times higher than comparable work in the legal economy. Economic collapse in underdeveloped countries forces peasants and workers into the drug industry. The U.S. State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics Matters spends approximately 45 percent of its budget on crop eradication, 35 percent on interdiction, and only 3.6 percent on crop substitution and development assistance. * * * COVERT OPERATIONS AND DRUGS A 1975 Government Accounting Office Study concluded that 70 percent of all heroin smuggled into the United States and Western Europe in 1970 originated from areas ``controlled by C.I.A. mercenaries.'' The United States supplied more than $1 billion in military aid to the fundamentalist mujahedeen guerrillas in Afghanistan. By 1991, the New York Times reported, one in three heroin deals in the United States originated in opium produced in regions controlled by the mujaheddin. In April 1989, the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on narcotics and terrorism concluded that there was ``substantial evidence''of drug trafficking by the Nicaraguan contras. * * * The Causes and Cures _Policy Report_ is available for $7. Each section of the report is the result of work by expert panels on covert operations, the social and economic causes of drug addiction, and drug production in the Third World. Citations are included. For a catalogue of books, magazines and videos on drug trafficking, addiction and treatment, please use one of the e-mail addresses posted below or write us at the following address: Causes and Cures Campaign Christic Institute 1324 North Capitol Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20002 (202) 797-8106 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Andrew Lang 151251507 CHRISTIC telex Christic Institute christic PeaceNet Washington, D.C. christic@igc.org Internet 202-797-8106 voice uunet!pyramid!cdp!christic UUCP 202-462-5138 fax cdp!christic%labrea@stanford Bitnet Conf?