| Description |
1 online resource (vii, 45 pages) : illustrations |
| Series |
Carlisle paper |
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Carlisle papers in security strategy.
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| Contents |
The Nixon and Ford administrations : 1969-77 -- The Carter administration : 1976-80 -- The Reagan administration : 1981-89 -- The George H.W. Bush administration : 1989-93 -- The Clinton administration : 1993-2001 -- The George W. Bush administration : 2001-09 -- The Obama administration : 2009- -- Proposal for an armistice : ending the insanity |
| Summary |
In the 4 decades since President Richard Nixon first declared war on drugs, the U.S. counterdrug strategy has remained virtually unchanged -- favoring supply-reduction, law enforcement and criminal sanctions over demand-reduction, treatment, and education. While the annual counterdrug budget has ballooned from $100 million to $25 billion, the availability of most illicit drugs remains at an all-time high. The human cost is staggering -- nearly 40,000 drug-related deaths in the United States annually. The societal impact, in purely economic terms, is now estimated to be approximately $200 billion per year. The global illicit drug industry now accounts for 1 percent of all commerce on the planet -- approximately $320 billion annually. Legalization is almost certainly not the answer; however, an objective analysis of available data confirms that: 1) the United States has pursued essentially the same flawed supply-reduction strategy for 40 years; and, 2) simply increasing the amount of money invested each year in this strategy will not make it successful. Faced with impending budget cuts and a future of budget austerity, policymakers must replace the longstanding U.S. counterdrug strategy with a pragmatic, science-based, demand-reduction strategy that offers some prospect of reducing the economic and societal impacts of illicit drugs on American society |
| Notes |
Title from title screen (viewed January 2, 2013) |
|
"December 2012." |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 17-45) |
| Subject |
Drug control -- United States
|
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Drug control -- United States -- Costs
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Drug control -- United States -- History
|
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Drug control.
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Drug control -- Costs.
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United States.
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| Genre/Form |
History.
|
| Form |
Electronic book
|
| Author |
Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute.
|
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