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News & ArtsWednesday, February 3, 2010
Drugs Drug War Growing Under Obama's Watch
Posted by Dominic Holden on Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 2:30 PM
Remember when the drug war ended under the watch of newly appointed drug czar (and former Seattle police chief) Gil Kerlikowske? Back in May, Kerlikowske said that he was banishing the concept of a “war on drugs” and shifting to treatment over jail time. Kerlikowske told the WSJ, "We're not at war with people in this country."
Well, yeah... this is what the end of the war looks like:
According to 2011 funding "highlights" released by the ONDCP, the Obama administration is growing the drug war and tilting its funds heavily toward law enforcement over treatment. ...The budget places America's drug war spending at $15.5 billion for fiscal year 2011; an increase of 3.5 percent over FY 2010. That figure reflects a 5.2 percent increase in overall enforcement funding, growing from $9.7 billion in FY 2010 to $9.9 billion in FY 2011. Addiction treatment and preventative measures, however, are budgeted at $5.6 billion for FY 2011, an increase from $5.2 billion in FY 2010.
In short, the Obama administration's appropriations for treating drug addiction are just short of half that dedicated to prosecuting the war.
The budget for enforcement, interdiction, and international campaigns are more than double that of treatment. Treatment funding increased by a hair, but it's a fraction of enforcement. Moreover, in its drug budget (.pdf), the Obama Administration omits the costs of local drug enforcement and incarceration, which is an obvious attempt to minimize the actual cost of the drug war. But no matter how you look at it: The drug war is growing under Obama, not shrinking, and Kerlikowske's attempt to ditch the term "drug war" is laughable.
Much thanks to Nicole for the tip.
1
2
Cause - and effect.
End the drug war now - it will kill off the gangs.
3
I feel great and don't miss either one.
Right now I'm working on food addictions...and those are very real.
People should try to free themselves from all addictions. So the more penalties the better.
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by percentages of the previous amounts - the enforcement budget increased by 2.1%, treatment, etc increased by 7.7%
or the amount of increase in relation to the whole budget amount - treatment saw almost twice as big as an increase in funding treatment 2.6% to enforcement 1.3% .
granted the amount of funding is still the disparity.
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I am shocked, shocked.
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