From: Jim Rosenfield <[j n r] at [igc.apc.org]> Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs Date: 24 Mar 93 08:02 PST Subject: Cost of the War on Drugs (rev.1) /* Written 8:02 am Mar 24, 1993 by jnr in igc:alt.drugs */ /* ---------- "Cost of the War on Drugs (rev.1)" ---------- */ Save Our Liberties Sunnyvale CA (415) 964-3655 We have asked Milton Friedman, who recently came out for major revision of the punishment oriented drug policies to review these statistics and to make recommendations. E-mail messages to me have expressed some doubts as to the veracity of the stats and the dangers of publicizing "fantastic" numbers. As a first cut at this subject, I think these numbers are pretty good. Your input and criticism is cheerfully requested. I believe this chart may provide one of the most powerful tools we have to support overturning the existing policies. Cost of the War on Drugs $s Billions Year `89 `90 `91 `92 `93 `94 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Stolen 148 154 160 168 176 184 2 Incarceration 73 80 88 96 104 112 3 Lost taxes 41 43 45 47 49 51 4 Construction 20 21 23 25 25 25 5 Federal War 7 10 12 13 20 25 6 Extra Welfare 13 14 15 16 17 18 7 Harrassment 10 11 12 13 14 15 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Totals 312 333 355 378 405 430 Reagan's 8 years: $1.860 Trillion Bush's 4 years: $1.378 Trillion Explanation 1. Value of goods stolen. Most of these goods are probably later replaced at additional cost by owner or insurance. Some people just take the loss. The dollar value stolen approximately equals the street value of the drug sales. "Marijuana, the New Prohibition", Pocketbooks, Kaplan, John, Prof Law, Stanford U. 2. Total for additional police, judges, courtrooms, prosecutors, court costs, maintenance of jails, guards, probation personnel, and the entire police, justice and prison system required to deal with the WoD. Cost of one individual incarceration in California is $42,000. San Jose Mercury News, May 9, '91 "Corrections Program Called Utter Failure", Chairperson of Legislature Criminal Justice Committee John Burton, Assemblyman Bill Lockyer(Senate Judicary Committee), . Prison Population reaching 100,000 in CA. National is 10X that (about 1 million in 1991, 1.3 million now. Department of Justice Figures). Police and Court costs are estimated at an additional $35,000. 3. Taxes lost on the sale of drugs: Estimate of $160 Billion in sales of illicit drugs. Suppose, if legal, price of drugs would be 1% of that or less. The remaining 99% would then be spent on other licit goods raising tax revenues about one-third the retail value. 4. Construction of new jails and other facilities to deal with burgeoning case load. This figure is derived from projected bond sales already ont he books. 5. Federal WoD consists of arming and paying interdiction forces along with international efforts to stem flow of drugs. Congressional allocations. Election of Clinton may moderate future expenditures. 6. Extra welfare needed to support families of drug offenders while they are in prison. Estimate by authors. 7. Harrassment: costs for society from people who don't go through jail but are arrested and released, such as lost wages, taxes on wages, increased welfare, loss of job, Estimate by authors. 1994 figures are projected, of course. Other costs which could be added to this chart: Lost productivity of perpetrators. Because families are distressed, development of children of the offenders and their future productivity (or cost) to society will suffer. Carnegie institute says one-quarter of all children are seriously at risk of not reaching productive adulthood.. SF Chron, 3/10/93. How much worse for children of imprisoned offenders? Cost of lives lost to drug associated crime, plus productivity and taxes associated with those lives. We estimate 2,000 innocent lives (1989, Cato Institute #121 "Thinking About Legalization") 1680