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Fri Jan 9 2008 |
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Money Spent on the War On Drugs this Year
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Federal
State
Total
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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.
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People Arrested for Drug Law Offenses this Year
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Arrests for drug law violations in 2009 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
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People Arrested for Cannabis Law Offenses this Year
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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
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People Incarcerated for Drug Law Offenses this Year
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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
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Preventable HIV Infections this Year
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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
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