Economics Of The War On Drugs

The War on Drugs began in 1971 after a press conference held by the then President of the United States, Richard Nixon. There he proclaimed that drug use and drug users were “public enemy number one” (American Presidency Project). This War has persisted throughout the years costing us a total of eleven billion, three hundred sixty-one million, four hundred ninety-five thousand, one hundred ninety dollars (Office of National Drug Control Policy), and proves itself to be a total failure with devastating consequences. It has led to mass incarceration, violence, and systemic human rights abuses throughout the world. It has and continues to negatively affect the lives of millions of people. All of this happens as we continue to contribute millions

Naturally, this means that the main focus of the War on Drugs has been eradicating drug supplies and incarcerating drug users and traffickers. But this ignores one of the most basic factors of economics, supply and demand. If you lower the supply of products but not the demand, the demand increases. This may cause the price of many things to raise, but not drugs. According to Science in Drug Policy, the price of drugs has decreased, while the purity has increased. The efforts to defend against drug traffickers only motivates the producers to create and sell more drugs, which increases availability. This is also known as the “balloon effect”, even if drug producers or a major supply route is destroyed, the end availability of drugs stays the same for the purchaser. An example of this is crystal meth. The American government tried to stop its production by strictly regulating the

When one of Richard Nixon’s advisors was asked about the initial intent of the War on Drugs, he had this to say, “We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities," he continues, "We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did." This quote is consistent with the sentencing of drug users. The average sentencing for possession of a gram of crack cocaine is much greater than that of the sentencing caused by the possession of powdered cocaine despite the two drugs being chemically identical. This has led many to believe that the drug war is actually a war on the poor and disenfranchised instead of