nabraxas Posted October 15, 2012 Oct 12, 2012 The controversial war on drugs not only costs a lot, it has done almost nothing to curb the drug addiction rate since 1970, according to this stunning chart by documentary filmmaker Matt Groff comparing the cost of drug control to the drug addiction rate. Groff used the rate of addiction to illicit drugs from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, pairing it with federal drug control budget spending numbers from the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy. Groff, who made the chart for his new documentary on the drug war The 1315 Project, says that it shows the costly war on drugs simply isn't working. A note: The numbers on this chart alone don't add up to $1.5 trillion, which represents a more inclusive count of drug control spending, with prison costs and state level costs determined by the Office of National Drug Control Policy, but instead to $800 billion. Groff included that $1.5 trillion because the chart appears in the documentary as a source discusses that more complete amount. As you can see, while the blue illicit drug addiction rate line has remained relatively steady at about 1.3 percent, the green line for drug control spending has skyrocketed. The increased spending did not correlate to lower addiction rates. "Drug use and abuse exists on a spectrum and as a society we must accept that some portion of the population will be addicted to drugs even if we don’t like it," Groff says. Chart by Matt Groff h/t Reason http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2012/10/chart-says-war-drugs-isnt-working/57913/ 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Heretic Posted October 16, 2012 It [ the war ] is a futile waste of time , money , and resources that cause countless people untold misery . Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nabraxas Posted October 16, 2012 that cause countless people untold misery yeah, saw this story today & just thought: "Fuck, if pot were legal he'd still be alive" October 14, 2012A 22-year-old man with severe food allergies died in the Snohomish County jail after a pot bust, and now his mother says she wants to know why. Michael Saffioti died a day after turning himself in to face a misdemeanor marijuana charge on July 2, The Herald newspaper of Everett and KIRO-TV of Seattle reported. The Snohomish County medical examiner's office determined last week that he died from bronchial asthma brought on by his milk allergy. Based on the accounts of two inmates, Saffioti's mother, Rose Saffioti, believes the attack may have been brought on by what he had for breakfast July 3. She said her son brought along a bag of medications needed to control his allergies and asthma when his brother drove him to the Lynnwood Police Department, where he turned himself in on a warrant that was issued when he missed a court date. He was transferred to the county jail because it has a medical unit, but once there, he was placed in the general population, Rose Saffioti said. The next morning, she received a call from a doctor at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett that her son was dead. "He was scared," she said. "I said, `You are doing the right thing. They are going to take care of you.' He said, `I have a bad feeling that they are not going to take me seriously.'" http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2019430865_apwasnohomishjaildeath2ndldwritethru.html Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
