Too Much Spent on Drug War, Not Enough On Drug Rehab?

According to the National Survey on Drug Use & Health 2007, Americans are spending almost $50 billion a year on the War on Drugs, yet the amount of drug use remains stable.

“Unfortunately, it appears that even though we spend a lot of money on drug arrests and incarceration, the root of the problem-why people stay addicted in the first place- is not being addressed,” comments Mary Rieser, Executive Director for Narconon Drug Rehab in Georgia. “Drug addiction is not something that just ‘disappears’ because the person is in jail. In fact, many people coming to the Narconon Drug Rehab state that they were able to get drugs while incarcerated. Treatment, not incarceration, has proven to be much more effective in reducing drug abuse, drug addiction, and criminality.”

The numbers show the trends among drug abuse:

• In 2007, an estimated 19.9 million Americans aged 12 or older were current (past month) illicit drug users, meaning they had used an illicit drug during the month prior to the survey interview. This estimate represents 8.0 percent of the population aged 12 years old or older. Illicit drugs include marijuana/hashish, cocaine (including crack), heroin, hallucinogens, inhalants, or prescription-type psychotherapeutics used nonmedically.

• The rate of current illicit drug use among persons aged 12 or older in 2007 (8.0 percent) was similar to the rate in 2006 (8.3 percent).

• In 2007, there were 2.1 million current cocaine users aged 12 or older, comprising 0.8 percent of the population. These estimates were similar to the number and rate in 2006 (2.4 million or 1.0 percent).

• Hallucinogens were used in the past month by 1.0 million persons (0.4 percent) aged 12 or older in 2007, including 503,000 (0.2 percent) who had used Ecstasy. These estimates were similar to the corresponding estimates for 2006.

• There were 6.9 million (2.8 percent) persons aged 12 or older who used prescription-type psychotherapeutic drugs nonmedically in the past month. Of these, 5.2 million used pain relievers, the same as the number in 2006.

• In 2007, there were an estimated 529,000 current users of methamphetamine aged 12 or older (0.2 percent of the population). These estimates were not significantly different from the estimates for 2006 (731,000 or 0.3 percent).

• Among youths aged 12 to 17, the current illicit drug use rate remained stable from 2006 (9.8 percent) to 2007 (9.5 percent).

• From 2002 to 2007, there was an increase among young adults aged 18 to 25 in the rate of current use of prescription pain relievers, from 4.1 to 4.6 percent. There were decreases in the use of hallucinogens (from 1.9 to 1.5 percent), Ecstasy (from 1.1 to 0.7 percent), and methamphetamine (from 0.6 to 0.4 percent).

• Among those aged 50 to 54, the rate of past month illicit drug use increased from 3.4 percent in 2002 to 5.7 percent in 2007. Among those aged 55 to 59, current illicit drug use showed an increase from 1.9 percent in 2002 to 4.1 percent in 2007. These trends may partially reflect the aging into these age groups of the baby boom cohort, whose lifetime rates of illicit drug use are higher than those of older cohorts.

• Among persons aged 12 or older who used pain relievers nonmedically in the past 12 months, 56.5 percent reported that the source of the drug the most recent time they used was from a friend or relative for free. Another 18.1 percent reported they got the drug from just one doctor. Only 4.1 percent got the pain relievers from a drug dealer or other stranger, and 0.5 percent reported buying the drug on the Internet. Among those who reported getting the pain reliever from a friend or relative for free, 81.0 percent reported in a follow-up question that the friend or relative had obtained the drugs from just one doctor.

• In 2007, there were 9.9 million persons aged 12 or older who reported driving under the influence of illicit drugs during the past year. This corresponds to 4.0 percent of the population aged 12 or older, similar to the rate in 2006 (4.2 percent), but lower than the rate in 2002 (4.7 percent). In 2007, the rate was highest among young adults aged 18 to 25 (12.5 percent).

* Source: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Office of Applied Studies (2008). Results from the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: National Findings (NSDUH Series H-34, DHHS Publication No. SMA 08-4343). Rockville, MD.

“When you look at the amount we are spending on fighting drug abuse, which has been estimated at close to $50 billion annually, you are looking at an amount that exceeds the budgets combined on the Food Stamp Program, the entire General Sciences, Space, and Technology budget,” comments Ms. Rieser. “That amount alone is responsible for our entire country's agriculture, energy, and veteran's programs. Yet the abuse of drugs stays constant? It doesn’t make sense.

“So far, the increases in state spending on corrections increased 30%, while spending on higher education actually decreased 18%. And the large amount of corrections increase is for non-violent drug offenders.”

A study by the RAND Drug Policy Research Center found that treatment is 10 times more cost effective than interdiction in reducing the use of cocaine in the United States, while the same study found that every additional dollar invested in substance abuse treatment saves taxpayers more than $7 in societal costs, and that additional domestic law enforcement costs 15 times as much as treatment to achieve the same reduction in societal costs.

“It behooves us all to push for more funds for drug treatment and less money for incarceration,” concludes Ms. Rieser.

While imprisoning offenders may provide comfort to some in terms of public safety, it does little to reduce the cluster of issues which will see these people cycle in and out of the nation’s corrections system. What is needed is a solution less costly than building more prisons and more effective at reducing recidivism. The good news is, the solution already exists.

Call Narconon Drug Rehab in Georgia at 1-877-413-3073 .
      
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