DrugSense: Drug Law Reform

The U.S. federal government spent over $19 billion dollars in 2003 on the War on Drugs, at a rate of about $600 per second. The budget has since been increased by over a billion dollars.

Source: Office of National Drug Control Policy

State and local governments spent at least another 30 billion.

Source: National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University: "Shoveling Up: The Impact of Substance Abuse on State Budgets," January, 2001.

Source: Jeffrey A. Miron, Department of Economics, Harvard University: "The Budgetary Implications of Drug Prohibition," December 2008.

People Arrested for Drug Law Offenses this Year

Arrests for drug law violations this year are expected to exceed the 1,841,182 arrests of 2007. Law enforcement made more arrests for drug abuse violations (an estimated 1.8 million arrests, or 13.0 percent of the total number of arrests) than for any other offense in 2007.

Someone is arrested for violating a drug law every 17 seconds.

Source: Uniform Crime Reports, Federal Bureau of Investigation

People Arrested for Cannabis Law Offenses this Year

Police arrested an estimated 872,720 persons for cannabis violations in 2007, the highest annual total ever recorded in the United States, according to statistics compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Of those charged with cannabis violations, approximately 89 percent, 775,137 Americans were charged with possession only. An American is now arrested for violating cannabis laws every 38 seconds.

Source: Uniform Crime Reports, Federal Bureau of Investigation

People Incarcerated for Drug Law Offenses this Year

Since December 31, 1995, the U.S. prison population has grown an average of 43,266 inmates per year. About 25 per cent are sentenced for drug law violations.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics

Preventable HIV Infections this Year

Nearly 4,000 new HIV infections can be prevented before the year 2010 if the federal ban on needle exchange funding is lifted this year.

About 10 new cases could be prevented every day.

Source: Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, University of California, San Francisco