Domestic policy issues

Reducing Drug Use, Reducing Reoffending [March 2008]

What Research Tells Us About the Reasonableness of the Current Priorities of National Drug Control [2008]

National Drugs Strategy 2001 – 2008 [2008]

'Drugs: protecting families and communities' - 2008-2018 strategy [2008]

The drug strategy aims to restrict the supply of illegal drugs and reduce the demand for them. It focuses on protecting families and strengthening communities. 68-page PDF [Home Office, UK]

'Drugs: protecting families and communities' Action plan 2008-2011 [2008]

The drug strategy covers a ten-year period to 2018, but its delivery is underpinned by a series of three-year action plans. 32-page PDF [Home Office, UK]

Rehabilitation Required [2008]

Russia’s Human Rights Obligation to Provide Evidence-based Drug Dependence Treatment [Human Rights Watch]

Monograh #15 Priority areas in illicit drug policy: Perspectives of policy makers [March 2007]

The impetus for the work was the second stage of the Drug Policy Modelling Program (DPMP), a research program aimed at improving the evidence-base for Australian drug policy. The identification of priority areas can inform the DPMP workplan for the next five years. Whilst the project had this overt purpose, the findings are also useful for a number of audiences other than the DPMP research team.

It will be of interest to funding bodies and committees that consider illicit drug policy – to review the extent of concordance between the priorities raised here by bureaucrats and those of their own funding body or committee.

It is also rich fodder for those seeking a relevant research topic – it will hopefully engage and excite a researcher or new student to pick up a drug-related research area.

Finally, it provides a snapshot of the state of play as at 2006 – hopefully in a few years time we will be able to tick off some of the areas, assess progress on relevant research, or review the extent to which priorities have changed over time.

The Market for Amphetamine-type Stimulants and Their Precursors in Oceania

National Drug Threat Assessment 2008

89-page PDF [United States Department of Justice]

The winnable war on drugs: The impact of illicit drug use on families

The Family and Human Services Committee tabled its report on the inquiry into the impact of illicit drug use on families entitled The winnable war on drugs [Parliament of Australian]

Cannabis in Australia - Use, supply, harms and responses

This monograph was written to provide an overview of the cannabis situation in Australia at the present time, including patterns of use, supply, harms and legislation. 475KB PDF [Drug Strategy Branch, Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, Australia]

National Drug Policy 2007-2012

The key goal of the National Drug Policy is to minimise the social, economic and health harms of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs [Ministry of Health, New Zealand]

National Development Plan 2007-2013. Transforming Ireland: A Better Quality of Life for All

Some €319 million will be available over the period of the Plan under the National Drugs Strategy Sub-Programme to continue the fight against the causes and consequences of the abuse of illegal drugs. 265-page PDF [Government publicatioon, Ireland]

Hepatitis C Action Plan for Scotland - Phase I

Hepatitis C Action Plan for the period September 2006 – August 2008 [Scottish Executive, UK]

Director's Report to the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse - February, 2007

[NIDA, USA]

National Drug Control Strategy

FY 2007 Budget Summary [ONDCP, USA]

National Cannabis Strategy 2006-2009

The National Cannabis Strategy 2006-2009, has been developed within the existing legislative framework and focuses on prevention, supply reduction and treatment in a partnership framework PDF [Australian Government]

Drug Situation Report - 2006

The Drug Situation Report 2006 provides a strategic overview of the illicit drug trade in Canada. This year, the Report features two new sections: Drug-generated Proceeds and Emerging Trends [Royal Canadian Mounted Police]

2007 National Report (2006 data) to the EMCDDA by the Reitox National Focal Point

The structure and content of this annual report are pre-determined by the EMCDDA to facilitate comparison with similar reports produced by the other European Focal Points.. 246-page PDF [UK Focal Point on Drugs - Department of Health]

Monograph # 13 Scoping the potential uses of systems thinking in developing policy on illicit drugs [December 2005]

Monograph #12 Popular culture and the prevention of illicit drug use: A pilot study of popular music and the acceptability of drugs [December 2005]

Monograph # 4 Australian illicit drugs policy: Mapping structures and processes [December 2005]

Monograph # 2 Drug policy interventions: A comprehensive list and a review of classification schemes [December 2005]

Monograph # 1 What is Australia's "drug budget"? The policy mix of illicit drug-related government spending in Australia [December 2005]

Assessing U.S. Drug Problems and Policy

A Synthesis of the Evidence to Date

Research brief RB-9110-DPRC, 2005 RAND

Beckley Briefing Paper 14. 'The Effects of Decriminalisation of Drug Use in Portugal'

In 2004, the Beckley Foundation reported on the legal changes that took place in Portugal in 2001, which effectively decriminalised the possession and use of all drugs, and diverted those arrested into education or treatment programmes (Allen, Trace, & Klein, 2004). This report aims to provide an updated overview of the effects of these changes. 10-page PDF [IDPC]

Inquiry into the manufacture, importation and use of amphetamines and other synthetic drugs (AOSD) in Australia

This report provides an overview of the production and consumption of AOSD in Australia and discusses the extent to which organised crime is involved in manufacture and distribution. It examines the National Drug Strategy, reviews its main aims and effectiveness, and provides a brief overview of the key policy and research bodies that oversee and have input into the policy [Australian Policy Online]

Drug Control

U.S. Assistance Has Helped Mexican Counternarcotics Efforts, but the Flow of Illicit Drugs into the United States Remains High. 29-page PDF [GAO, USA]

U.S. Counternarcotics Strategy for Afghanistan

Compiled by the Coordinator for Counternarcotics and Justice Reform in Afghanistan, Ambassador Thomas A. Schweich, U.S. Department of State

EMCDDA publishes Country situation summaries for 28 countries

Country situation summaries provide a quick, structured overview of the trends and characteristics of national drug problems [EMCDDA]

London: The highs and the lows 2

A 198-page PDF report from the [Greater London Alcohol and Drug Alliance, Greater London Authority, UK]

London: The highs and the lows 2 - Executive summary

A 12-page PDF report from the [Greater London Alcohol and Drug Alliance, Greater London Authority, UK]

The Intergovernmental Committee on Drugs National Drug Strategic Framework 2004-05

This is the sixth annual report on Australian, state and territory governments’ progress under the [National Drug Strategy, Australia]

Treating Doctors as Drug Dealers: The DEA's War on Prescription Painkiller

The media began reporting that the popular narcotic pain medication OxyContin was finding its way to the black market for illicit drugs, resulting in an outbreak of related crime, overdoses, and deaths. Though many of those reports proved to be exaggerated or unfounded, critics in Congress and the Department of Justice scolded the U.S.Drug Enforcement Administration for the alleged pervasiveness of OxyContin abuse. The DEA responded with an aggressive plan to eradicate the illegal use or "diversion" of OxyContin. The plan uses familiar law enforcemet methods from the War on Drugs, such as aggressive undercover investigation, asset forfeiture, and informers

Policy Analysis no. 545 CATO Institute 2005

Coca or Death? Cocalero Movements in Peru and Bolivia

Following Bolivia's 2002 parliamentary elections, the success of the political party headed by cocalero leader Evo Morales, rekindled debate regarding cocaleroorganisations in the Andes and their vindications. Disinformation around these organisations has contributed to a rise in terms like narcoguerrilleros and narcoterroristas, etc. being applied to the various cocalero peasant movements

TNI Drugs & Conflict Debate Papers 10, April 2004 [Transnational Institute]

An Analysis of UK Drug Policy (executive summary PDF 93KB)

Commissioned from international experts to inform UKDPC's work programme, the report brings together evidence on the effectiveness of drug policies throughout the UK [UKDPC]

An Analysis of UK Drug Policy (full report PDF 1.6MB)

Commissioned from international experts to inform UKDPC's work programme, the report brings together evidence on the effectiveness of drug policies throughout the UK [UKDPC]

National Drug Control Strategy

FY 2007 Budget Summary [ONDCP, USA]

A Fresh Approach to Drugs Policy

A 23-page PDF Policy Brief from the [Bow Group, UK]

Update onDrug Policy issues in Bolivia

WOLA and the Andean Information Network (AIN) provide a November 2006 update on counternarcotics policy in Bolivia. 8-page PDF [WOLA]

Russia International Narcotics Control Strategy Report

In 2004, the Government of Russia (GOR) intensified its counternarcotics efforts. President Vladimir Putin and other leaders frequently highlight the drug trade as a threat to Russia's national security in their public remarks. The State Committee for the Control of Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances (GKPN), which had been created in 2003, was reorganized and renamed the Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN)...

Published by the State Department's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), March 2005

Plan Colombia’s Drug Eradication Program Misses the Mark

If reducing drug use at home and fighting terrorists abroad are vital U.S. interests in the Americas, our current policy in Colombia is failing

[Americas Programme. Adam Isacson and John Myers. July 18, 2005]

Evaluating U.S. Policy in Colombia

In recent years, U.S. interests and goals in Colombia have covered a broad range of areas: counter-narcotics; counterinsurgency and counterterrorism; peace and regional stability; democracy, human rights, and the rule of law; and socio-economic development and humanitarian needs. What is less clear is whether current U.S. policies further these objectives. A full evaluation must take into account both the intended and unintended consequences of our policies

Virginia M. Bouvier.

A Policy Report from the IRC Americas Program.May 11, 2005.

War and Drugs in Colombia

Drugs finance the left-wing insurgent Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the far-right United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) to a large degree, and thus are an integral part of Colombia's conflict. But while the state must confront drug trafficking forcefully, President Alvaro Uribe's claim that the conflict pits a democracy against merely "narco-terrorists" who must be met by all-out war does not do justice to the complexity of the decades-old struggle. Fighting drugs and drug trafficking is a necessary but not sufficient condition for moving Colombia toward peace. The view that anti-drug and anti-insurgency policies are indistinguishable reduces the chances either will succeed and hinders the search for a sustainable peace

International Crisis Group. Latin American Report N°11 27 January 2005

U.S. Nonmilitary Assistance to Colombia Is Beginning to Show Intended Results, but Programs Are Not Readily Sustainable

Despite the progress made by the three nonmilitary assistance programs, Colombia and the United States continue to face long-standing management and financial challenges.

[U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO). July 2004]

International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Budget Justification

Fiscal Year 2004

[US Department of State]

The War on Drugs, HIV/AIDS, and Violations of Human Rights

A violent state-sponsored “war on drugs” is jeopardizing Thailand's long struggle to become one of Southeast Asia's leading rights-respecting democracies. Officially launched in February 2003, the government crackdown has resulted in the unexplained killing of more than 2,000 persons, the arbitrary arrest or blacklisting of several thousand more, and the endorsement of extreme violence by government officials at the highest levels

Human Rights Watch

HRW Index No.: C1608 July 8, 2004

How the Drug War in Afghanistan Undermines America’s War on Terror

There is a growing tension between two U.S. objectives in Afghanistan. The most important objective is—or at least should be—the eradication of the remaining Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in that country. But the United States and its coalition partners are now also emphasizing the eradication of Afghanistan’s drug trade. These antidrug efforts may fatally undermine the far more important anti-terrorism campaign

Ted Galen Carpenter, vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute

CATO Institute November 10, 2004 Foreign Policy Briefing no. 84

Pointless War Drugs and Violence in Brazil

In this issue of Drugs & Conflict, the background to the drugs-related violence in the North-East marijuana cultivation area, as well as in the favelas in Rio, is described. The new drug law that is being evaluated in Congress is also reviewed. Although the new law is a step forward for making a clear distinction between a trafficker and a user, the question remains whether that will effectively address the problem give the limited scope of the new law

TNI Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 11, November 2004 [Transnational Institute]

Drugs and Democracy in Latin America: The Impact of U.S. Policy

The United States has been fighting the war on drugs for decades, across the nation and throughout the hemisphere. Police officers, prosecutors, doctors, social workers, soldiers, counselors and countless others have invested their energy and expertise—and have even risked their lives—to combat drug trafficking and drug abuse. Their efforts are impressive and appreciated. Twenty-five years and 25 billion dollars later, however, we are no closer to solving the problem—that is, to reducing drug abuse and availability in the United States. In fact, we seem to be farther away than ever

Coletta A. Youngers and Eileen Rosin, Editors

A WOLA special report 2004

AFP Drug Harm Index

The AFP Drug Harm Index was developed to provide a single measure that encapsulates the potential value to the Australian community of AFP drug seizures. The index represents the dollar value of harm that would have ensued had the seized drugs reached the community. In the five years from 1998-99 to 2002-2003, the AFP and its partners saved the Australian community approximately $3.1 billion in harm through its disruption of illicit drug importations. Because the Harm Index is based on the benefits associated with an estimated reduction in consumption, it can be generalised to measuring the benefits of other drug interventions

Australian Federal Police

Research Note 5 2004. ISSN 1447-9621

Is the Addiction Concept Useful for Drug Policy?

The development of behavioral economics, with its prospect of integrating insights from economics and psychology, is surely one of the most exciting intellectual developments in the social and behavioral sciences in the past 20 years. And if any domain could benefit from this development, it would seem to be the domain of psychoactive drug use, where choices are so often pathological. Thus, one can imagine my surprise and dismay when I was asked to prepare an essay on new policy insights that might follow from the leading behavioral economic theories of addiction1, and I discovered that there weren’t any. Or at least, hardly any

Robert J. MacCoun

Center for the Study of Law and Society Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program. JSP/Center for the Study of Law and Society Faculty Working Papers. Paper 8 January 1, 2003

Race & the War on Drugs Position Paper

American Civil Liberties Union October 17, 2003

Ravaging the Vulnerable: Abuses Against Persons at High Risk of HIV Infection in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is stoking an emerging AIDS epidemic with violent police abuse of sex workers, injection drug users and men who have sex with men

Human Rights Watch

HRW Index No.: C1506 August 20, 2003

Abusing the User: Police Misconduct, Harm Reduction and HIV/AIDS in Vancouver

An anti-drug crackdown by the Vancouver Police Department has driven injection drug users away from life-saving HIV prevention services, raising fears of a new wave of HIV transmission in the city that is already home to the worst AIDS crisis in the developed world

Human Rights Watch

HRW Index No.: 1502B May 7, 2003

Collateral Consequences of the War on Drugs

This 4 pp. brochure outlines some of the collateral consequences of U.S. drug policy: the Higher Education Act, Public Housing, Felony Disenfranchisement, and the Welfare Reform Act

American Civil Liberties Union 01/27/2003

The Dynamic Character of Drug Problems

This paper makes three points. (1) Drug-related measures, such as the number of users, have changed rapidly over time, suggesting that they are not merely symptoms of underlying trends in the economy, demographics, or other aggregates that change more slowly. (2) Drug markets are subject to a wide range of feedback effects that can induce non-linearity into dynamic behavior. (3) There are at least five classes of epidemic models that reflect such non-linear dynamic behavior. Some of those classes tend to be optimistic about the ability of drug control interventions to reduce use; others are pessimistic. It is hoped that this discussion and, in particular, the typology, can inform and elevate the debate about drug policy, but it is unlikely to resolve that debate because of the inability to demonstrate empirically which class(es) are most accurate

Jonathan P. Caulkins

Carnegie Mellon, Heinz School 2002-13, Jan 2002

A 25-Year Quagmire

The War on Drugs and Its Impact on American Society. 33-page PDF [The Sentencing Project, USA]

UK Operations in Afghanistan

Thirteenth Report. 182-page PDF [Defence Select Committee, Parliament, UK]

Drug classification: making a hash of it?

The Government publishes its reply to each of the Committee's findings and concludes that the classification system discharges its function fully and effectively and has stood the test of time. 25-page PDF [Home Office, UK]

The Evidence Base for the Classification of Drugs

This report, prepared by the RAND Corporation for the House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology in the United Kingdom, presents the results of four case studies examining the evidence base for the classification of illegal drugs in the context of the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act [RAND, USA]

National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XI: Teens and Parents

One-third of teens and nearly half of 17-year olds attend house parties where parents are present and teens are drinking, smoking marijuana or using cocaine, Ecstasy or prescription drugs. 73-page PDF [CASA, USA]

Addicted to Failure NGO

We believe that U.S. drug policy in Latin America has been ineffective at achieving its own goals and has generated much collateral damage [WOLA, USA]

Losing Ground - Drug Control and War in Afghanistan

Drugs and Conflict Debate papers No. 15 [TNI]

Drug classification: making a hash of it?

179-page PDF [House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, UK]

Preventing harm from psychoactive substance use

Recommendations fall under five key prevention priorities: reducing risk factors and increasing protective factors across the life course, community centred prevention, addressing impacts on communities, legislative and public policy change and regulated markets. 98-page PDF [City of Vancouver Drug Policy Program, Canada]

5 INL Regional and Country Programs

The Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) works with law enforcement, judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, border security officials, financial intelligence units, anticorruption units, narcotics control units, economic development organizations, non-governmental organizations, and other counterparts to reinforce partner governments' efforts to promote the rule of law and successfully meet the demands of the 21st Century. INL's programs are tailored to bolster capacities of partner countries around the globe through multilateral, regional, and country-specific programs

[US Department of State]

The Demand for Intoxicating Commodities: Implications for the "War on Drugs"

The best that can be said about the war on drugs (from the 0pint of view of those who run and support it) is that while it will fail, its failure may not be evident. For quite unrelated reasons, demand within the United States for some drugs, especially cocaine and cocaine derivatives, seems to be declining (Bachman et al., 1988, 1990). Since that de cline coincides with rhetoric about the Drug War, apologists for that war will claim credit for the change, suggesting to us that the war Is being won. In this article, we aim to show why such claims are absurd and concentrate Instead upon the most neglected aspect of illicit psychotropic drug use - the demand for drugs.

Pat O'Malley and Stephen Mugford

PAT O'Malley is the director of the National Center for Socio-Legal Studies. La Trobe University, Bundorra Victoria, Australia 3083. STEPHEN MUGFORD Is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology. Faculty of Arts. Australian National University, Oho Box 4, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia 2003

Cross Purposes Alternative Development and Conflict in Colombia

One of the greatest challenges in Colombia today is how to meet alternative development objectives in the midst of war. "Alternative development" refers in this context to the creation of alternative livelihoods for illicit crop farmers

Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 7, June 2003 [Transnational Institute]

Drugs and Conflict in Burma (Myanmar) Dilemmas for Policy Responses

Burma is on the brink of yet another humanitarian crisis. In the Kokang region, an opium ban was enforced last year, and by mid-2005 no more poppy growing will be allowed in the Wa region. Banning opium from these regions in Shan State adds another chapter to the long and dramatic history of drugs, conflict and human suffering in the country

Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 9, December 2003 [Transnational Institute]

Model of Chaotic Drug Markets and Their Control

Drug markets are often described informally as being chaotic, and there is a tendency to believe that control efforts can make things worse, not better, at least in some circumstances. This paper explores the idea that such statements might be literally true in a mathematical sense by considering a discrete-time model of populations of drug users and drug sellers for which initiation into either population is a function of relative numbers of both populations

Doris A. Behrens, Jonathan P. Caulkins, Gustav Feichtinger

Carnegie Mellon, Heinz School 2002-8, Jul 2002

ANCD research paper 5—Drug policy: the Australian approach

84 pages Australian National Council on Drugs

The National HIV/AIDS Strategy 1999-2000 to 2003-2004: Changes and Challenges

Published by Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care

June 2000 PDF available on this page

Counterterror and Counterdrug policies: Comparisons and Contrasts

The problem of preventing repetitions of the September 11th incidents has begun to be called "the war on terror." This suggests analogies to the "war on drugs," and there have been attempts to use these comparisons to draw conclusions about the appropriate shape and likely success of the anti-terrorism campaigns (e.g., Massing, 2001). This essay identifies similarities and differences between the two campaigns

Jonathan P. Caulkins, Mark A. R. Kleiman, Peter Reuter

Carnegie Mellon, Heinz School 2002-15, Mar 2002

Jeff Desimone

Economic Inquiry Vol. 39, No. 4, October 2001, 627-643

How Goes the “War on Drugs

An Assessment of U.S. Drug Problems and Policy [RAND, USA]

Europe and Plan Colombia

This first issue is devoted to the controversies that have arisen around Plan Colombia. It is released at this particular moment to inform discussions on supporting the peace process in Colombia around the third round of the international donor conference in Brussels

Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 1, April 2001 [Transnational Institute]

Interdiction and Incarceration Still Top Remedies

The nation's drug war is viewed as a failure by most Americans, and there is scant hope it will ever succeed. Nearly three-quarters of Americans say we are losing the drug war, and just as many say that insatiable demand will perpetuate the nation's drug habit. Yet this deep sense of futility has not generated more momentum for alternative anti-drug strategies, like establishing more treatment programs for drug users or decriminalizing the use of some drugs

Pew Research Center March 21, 2001

Interdiction and Incarceration Still Top Remedies

he nation's drug war is viewed as a failure by most Americans, and there is scant hope it will ever succeed. Nearly three-quarters of Americans say we are losing the drug war, and just as many say that insatiable demand will perpetuate the nation's drug habit. Yet this deep sense of futility has not generated more momentum for alternative anti-drug strategies, like establishing more treatment programs for drug users or decriminalizing the use of some drugs

Pew Research Center 2001

Defending An Effective Control on National and International Drug Trade : Challenging the International Drug Conventions

Is the American drug policy the only possible one that would comply with international drug law ? The point here, is not to describe in details what is the American drug policy. It is enough to state that it is a repressive policy, and even an increasing repressive policy. This simple statement is in opposition with another way of dealing with the use of drugs: the “legalization policy”. The question is then: is it possible to legalize drugs within the frame of the current International Conventions on Drugs ?

ChristopheMarchand, Member of the Brussels’s Bar 2000

Drugs: dilemmas, choices and the law

Use of illegal drugs is increasingly common, yet there has been little serious discussion of the underlying causes, or whether existing prevention policies are effective. This summary brings together findings from two inquiries that received support from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and which were designed to consider how UK drugs policy should move forward

Joseph Rowntree Foundation November 2000 - Ref N70

DRUGS AND THE LAW: Report into the Independent Inquiry into the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971

It is nearly 30 years since the main legislation controlling the misuse of drugs in the United Kingdom was enacted. Our task has been to consider the changes which have taken place in our society in that time and to assess whether the law as it currently stands needs to be revised in order to make it both more effective and more responsive to those changes. It has also been our duty to examine the implications of our proposals.

Published by The Police Foundation March 2000, ISBN 0-947692-47-9

The American Drug War: Anatomy of a Futile and Costly Police Action

Our story has two parts. One is about the futility of suppressing the fourth and fifth drives. Public policies that try to frustrate strong motives of consumers and motives of suppliers are frequently overwhelmed like a sand castle by the incoming tide. The other is about why agents who allegedly represent the public’s interests insist on building these doomed sand castles

Bruce L. Benson, David W. Rasmussen

The Independent Institute July 10, 2000

Punishment and Prejudice: Racial Disparities in the War on Drugs. USA

Since the mid 1980s, the United States has undertaken aggressive law enforcement strategies and criminal justice policies aimed at curtailing drug abuse. The costs and benefits of this national war on drugs are fiercely debated. What is not debatable, however, is its impact on black Americans. Ostensibly color blind, the war on drugs has been waged disproportionately against black Americans

Human Right Watch 2000 Vol. 12, No. 2 (G)

Predatory Public Finance and the Origins of the War on Drugs 1984 –1989

Escalation of the war on drugs, when measured by drug arrests relative to Index I arrests, apparently ended in 1989. In the United States the drug arrest/Index I arrest ratio fell from 0.46 in 1989 to a 1990 figure of 0.36, a decline of 24 percent. This decline in drug enforcement is not inconsistent with bureaucratic incentives, however, including those created by asset forfeiture legislation. Police may simply be arresting “smarter,” for example, concentrating on drug offenders with some potential yield via forfeiture

Bruce L. Benson, David W. Rasmussen

The Independent Institute 1996

Keeping Score: The Frailties of the Federal Drug Budget

Total federal government expenditures for antidrug activities have become a centerpiece in the national debate on drug policy ... Given the prominent role that federal budget figures have come to play in the policy debate, it is noteworthy that few have paid any attention to their origins.

Patrick Murphy, issue paper, IP-138, 1994 RAND

Declaring an Armistice in the International Drug War

There is increasing speculation that the Clinton administration may be willing to reconsider some components of Washington's sacrosanct war on drugs. Prominent drug warriors are certainly worried about that possibility. Former drug czar William Bennett has already condemned the president for failing to take the crusade against illicit drugs seriously. New York Times columnist A. M. Rosenthal goes even further, warning that "the concept of a war against drugs is in danger of being dismantled," resulting in "creeping legalization."

Ted Galen Carpenter

Foreign Policy Briefing no. 26 CATO Institute 1993