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Marijuana
About 140 million people--nearly 2.5% of the world's population--smoke marijuana.
Source: Associated Press, "U.N. Estimates Drug Business Equal to 8 Percent of World Trade," (1997, June 26)
Marijuana was first federally prohibited in 1937. Today, nearly 70 million Americans admit to having tried it.
Sources: Marihuana Tax Act of 1937; National Household Survey on Drug Abuse: Population Estimates 1996, Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (1997), p. 23, Table 3A.
In 1996, 641,642 Americans were arrested for marijuana offenses; that's approximately one arrest every 49 seconds. About 85% of those were for simple possession--not manufacture or distribution.
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports for the United States 1996, Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office (1997).
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Prison
As of 1996, there were 5.5 million adults under some form of correctional supervision--prison, jail, probation or parole. This translates into 1 of every 35 adults.
Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Nation's Probation and Parole Population Reached Almost 3.9 Million Last Year, (press release), Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice (1997, August 14).
As of June 1997, there were 1.7 million inmates nationally: 1.2 million in state and federal prisons and one-half million in local jails.
Source: Cilliard, D.K & Beck, A.J., Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 1997, Washington D.C.: Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice (1998, January).
In 1985, our incarceration rate was 313 per 100,000 population. Now it is 645 per 100,000, which is three to 10 times higher than rates of the other modern democratic societies. The largest single factor contributing to this imprisonment wave is an eight-fold rise in drug arrests. In 1980, when illicit drug use was peaking, there were about 50,000 men and women in prison for violating drug laws. Last year, there were about 400,000.
Source: Reinarman, C. & Levine, H.G., "Casualties of War," San Jose Mercury News, (letter), (1998, March 1), Sect. C, p. 1.
Assuming recent incarceration rates remain unchanged, an estimated 1 of every 20 Americans (5%) can be expected to serve time in prison during their lifetime.
Source: Bonczar, T.P. & Beck, A.J., Lifetime Likelihood of Going to State or Federal Prison, Washington D.C.: Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice (1997, March), p. 1.
In June 1995, drug law violators constituted approximately 25%, or 388,000, of adults serving time.
Source: Washington D.C. Coffin, P., (1995), Research Brief: Drug Prohibition and the Prison System, New York, NY: The Lindesmith Center. (Number of drug offenders estimated as 25% of total incarcerated population. Sixty-one percent (61%) of federal inmates, 22% of state inmates, 23% of jail inmates).
Over 80% of the increase in the federal prison population from 1985 to 1995 was due to drug convictions.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Statistics, Prisoners in 1996, Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office (1997).
From 1984 to 1996, California built 21 new prisons, and only one new university.
Source: Ambrosio, T. & Schiraldi, V., "Trends in State Spending, 1987-1995," Executive Summary--February 1997, Washington D.C.: The Justice Policy Institute (1997).
In 1993, nearly 17% of the total federal prison population were drug-offenders with no prior criminal history.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, An Analysis of Non-Violent Drug Offenders with Minimal Criminal Histories, Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office (1994), p. 3.
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Treatment
Treatment is 10 times more cost effective than interdiction in reducing the use of cocaine in the United States.
Source: Rydell, C.P. & Everingham, S.S., Controlling Cocaine, Prepared for the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the United States Army, Santa Monica, CA: Drug Policy Research Center, RAND (1994).
A recent study by the RAND Corporation found that every additional dollar invested in substance abuse treatment saves taxpayers $7.46 in societal costs.
Source: Rydell, C.P. & Everingham, S.S., Controlling Cocaine, Prepared for the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the United States Army, Santa Monica, CA: Drug Policy Research Center, RAND (1994), p. xvi.
The same study found that additional domestic law enforcement efforts cost 15 times as much as treatment to achieve the same reduction in societal costs.
Source: Rydell, C.P. & Everingham, S.S., Controlling Cocaine, Prepared for the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the United States Army, Santa Monica, CA: Drug Policy Research Center, RAND (1994), p. xvi.
Treatment decreased welfare use by 10.7% and increased employment by 18.7% after one year, according to the 1996 National Treatment Improvement Evaluation Study.
Source: Center for Substance Abuse and Treatment, National Treatment Improvement Evaluation Study, Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office (1996), p. 11.
According to CASA (National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse), the cost of proven treatment for inmates, accompanied by education, job training and health care, would average about $6,500 per inmate. For each inmate that becomes a law-abiding, tax-paying citizen, the economic benefit is $68,800.
Source: National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, (1998, January 8), Behind Bars: Substance Abuse and America's Prison Population, New York, NY: National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, Foreword by Joseph Califano.
For every addtl. $1.00 Spent On: Societal Benefits Are:
Source-Country Control A LOSS of 85 cents
Interdiction A LOSS of 68 cents
Domestic Enforcement A LOSS of 48 cents
Treatment A GAIN of $7.46.
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