Legalizing Illicit Drugs in The United States

Legalizing Illicit Drugs in The United States

As stated by author Theodore R. Vallance (1993): “Practically no one will disagree that America has a serious drug problem with illicit drugs that is very complicated and has several interrelated aspects”(p.1). This statement represents a colossal concern of the United States of America ever since president Richard Nixon officially declared the war on drugs in 1971. Each president following Nixon has continued to pursue the war on drugs, but most have wound up spending billions of dollars annually attempting to enforce drug prohibition tactics as president Nixon had intended when he declared the war on drugs; drug prohibition tactics that, according to Ethan A. Nadelmann (1989): “have had little impact on either drug dealers or the general public. Police now make about 750,000 arrests per year for violations of drug laws. But over three-quarters of these have been solely for possession, typically of marijuana. Those arrested represent less than 2 percent of the 35 to 40 million Americans estimated to consume illegal drugs”(p.21-22). It is quite clear that the United States is in desperate need of a new strategy or a new way of handling the war on drugs entirely. The United States cannot afford to continue to spend billions of dollars each year on drug prohibition policies, when instead, the United States could be making an estimated $10 to $50 billion dollars annually by collecting federal and state taxes on revenue from illicit drug business if drugs were to be legalized in the United States (Nadelmann, 1989, p.22). As Bill Clinton, former president of the United States once said on CNN: “If all you do is try to find a police or military solution to the problem, a lot of people die and it doesn’t solve the problem”. Thus, the case for legalizing drugs in the United States of America is a strong one because it would resolve many of America’s problems financially and socially, without having the oppressive drug prohibitionist enforcement tactics.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) that was created by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act in 1988 is, according to Matthew B. Robinson and Renee G. Scherlen (2007): “the primary federal agency responsible for establishing ‘policies, priorities, and objectives for the Nation’s drug control program…to reduce illicit drug use, manufacturing, and trafficking, drug related crime and violence, and drug related health consequences’—is the one agency that can be held accountable for the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of America’s drug war”(p.153). This is where Joe Biden’s term “Drug Czar” comes into play, because the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy is also commonly known as the Drug Czar whose duties range from being in charge of operating the ONDCP to keeping the president informed on budgeting issues, organization strategies, and a plethora of other business related details (“About ONDCP,” n.d.). The Senate Appropriations Committee recommends the salaries of the employees of the ONDCP as well as the expenditures; the ONDCP may also receive a National Control Budget from the president, as the Office of National Drug Control Policy is this year, according to the Acting Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Michael P. Bottiicelli (2014): “The President’s FY 2015 National Drug Control Budget (Budget) request of $25.4 billion, an increase of $0.2 billion (0.6 percent) over the FY 2014 enacted level of $25.2 billion”(p.8). As it is quite clear from the figure below (Figure 7.20: Trends in ONDCP’s Budget from 1989 to 1998), the budget has grown quite persistently throughout the years of 1989 to 1998, ending all the way at almost about 16 billion in 1998, but now, in the present day United States, the ONDCP budget in 2015 is 25.4 billion dollars.

Figure 7.20: Trends in ONDCP’s Budget from 1989 to 1998 (ONDCP).

Although the goal of the Office of National Drug Control Policy is to, as previously stated: “reduce illicit drug use, manufacturing, and trafficking, and drug related crime and violence, and drug related health consequence”(Robinson and Scherlen, 2007,p.153), then how could it be that throughout the years 1989-1998 and continuing even until this very day, that the multiple billions of dollars that have gone into the Office of National Drug Control Policy have not reduced illicit drug use or drug related health consequences? As you can see from the figure below, the figure that was captured from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), from the years 1990-1998 that there was clearly no decline in the lifetime drug use of inhalants, hallucinogens, cocaine, marijuana, and although not pictured, crack and heroin as well (Robinson and Scherlen, 2007, p.156)

 

Figure 7.1: Lifetime Drug Use Trends, Percentages, Who Used Inhalants, Hallucinogens, Cocaine, and Marijuana (NHSDA).

Yet another large piece of information that the ONDCP has been choosing to ignore, is the amount of deaths that have been attributable to drugs. As you can see, once again, in the figure below, through the years 1979 (in which the U.S population was 225,055,487) and 2000 (in which the U.S. population was 281,421,906). However, in the year 2000 there were only 14 million drug users and 25.4 million drug users in 1979, thus it is quite ironic that there were a great deal more drug induced deaths in 2000 than in 1979. In 1979 the drug-induced death rate per user was 27.96 deaths per 100,000 people, and in 2000 the drug-induced death rate per person was 140.7 deaths per 100,000 people. Thus, the death rate in 2000 was four times greater than the death rate in 1979. Matthew B. Robinson and Renee G. Scherlen (2007) said it best in their book when they stated: “The increased deadly nature of drugs under prohibition led to 15,000 more deaths in 2000 than would have occurred had prohibition not made drugs more dangerous, assuming everything else remained constant”(p140-141).

 

Figure 6.2: Deaths Attributable to Drugs (Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics)

Aside from the catastrophic issues with the Office of National Drug Control Policy, there are also severe issues in regards to drug policy when it comes to the United States Economy.

“Since 1981 federal expenditures on drug enforcement have more than tripled—from less than $1 billion a year to about $3 billion. According to the National Drug Enforcement Policy Board, the annual budgets of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Coast Guard have each risen during the past seven years from about $220 million to roughly $500 million. During the same period, FBI resources devoted to drug enforcement have increased from $8 million a year to more than $100 million; U.S. Marshals resources from $26 million to about $80 million; U.S. Attorney resources from $20 million to about $100 million; State Department resources from $35 million to $100 million; U.S. Customs resources from $180 million to more than $400 million; and Bureau of Prison resources from $77 million to about $300 million”(Nadelmann, 1989, p.28-29)

The kind of federal expenditures listed above will only continue to get worse, as the war on drugs goes on, and will continue to cost the United States Government as well as its’ Tax Payers money; however, if drugs were to be legalized in the United States, such expenditures would be heavily reduced; along with a reduction in federal expenditures on drug enforcement, there would also be a brand new branch of tax revenue flowing into the U.S. Government from the newly legal production and distribution of the formerly illegal illicit substances, which if legalized will be abe to be taxed by the U.S. government (which has already been estimated to be between $10-$50 billion dollars).

Although all of these perks of legalization sound too good to be true; Portugal decriminalized all drugs 14 years ago, and the statistics that have resulted from the citizens of Portugal living in a society in which all drugs are decrminalized, disprove what most people believe would happen if drugs were to be decriminalized. The first thing people typically think of when drug legalization or decriminalization is brought up is: Everyone would develop a drug habit and turmoil would then ensue. However, to quote Thomas Szasz (1992): “ I believe that the criminal law ought to be used to protect us from others, not from ourselves”(p.18), and to support his point, the figure below displays Portugals proportion of the population that reports having used drugs at some point. Although there was an initial increase after the decriminalization. Overall, there was a decrease over the span of fourteen years among the most at risk population (the Portugese people aged 15-24 years old). Thus, in words of the author, Zeeshan Aleem (2015): “ In terms of usage rate and health, the data show that Portugal has by no means plunged into a drug crisis”(“What’s gotten better?” par.1).

Lifetime prevalence, past-year prevalence and past-month prevalence of drug use among all adults (aged 15-64).

Another relatable aspect of Portugal’s great success with the decriminalization of drugs to the fight for the legalization of drugs in the United States is Portugal’s outstandingly low drug-induced death rate. I think that this graphic display shows quite clearly that it is entirely possibly to live in a country in which all drugs can be decriminalized or even legalized, and still have a lower drug-induced death rate per person than the United States.

Drug legalization, after given the hard facts and comparing the United States to the country that has had drugs decriminalized for fourteen years, seems like a no-brainer. Although, there would have to be some form of rules in place such as: “ No persons under the age of 21 can purchase any schedule 1 or 2 narcotics or even more specific than that such as cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine”. Living without the strict drug prohibitionist enforcement is something completely foreign to many citizens of the United States, that people couldn’t imagine being allowed to just walk into a CVS and purchase (with tax) a bottle of Valium or Ritalin; however, since the war on drugs began such a long time ago, forty-four years ago, and so much has changed since then that legalization of drugs in the United States just might work, and be the answer to an enormous amount of America’s financial as well as social problems.

 

References

About ONDCP. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.whitehouse.gov/ondcp/about

 

Aleem, Z. (2015, February 11). 14 Years After Decriminalizing All Drugs,

Here’s What Portugal Looks Like. Retrieved from

http://mic.com/articles/110344/14-years-after-portugal-

decriminalized-all-drugs-here-s-what-s-happening

 

Botticelli, M. P. (n.d.). FY 2015 Budget Request of the Office of National

Drug Control Policy. Retrieved August 03, 2015, from docs.house.gov

 

Inciardi, J. A. (1991). The Drug legalization debate. Newbury Park, CA: Sage

Publications.

 

Robinson, M. B., & Scherlen, R. G. (2007). Lies, damned lies, and drug war

statistics: A critical analysis of claims made by the office of National    Drug Control Policy. Albany: State University of New York Press.

 

Szasz, T. (1992). Our right to drugs: The case for a free market. New York:

Praeger.

 

Vallance, T. R. (1993). Prohibition’s second failure: The quest for a rational

       and humane drug policy. Westport, CT: Praeger.