After the Drug War:
Toward a Health and
Public Safety Approach
Since the declaration of a “war on drugs” 40
years ago:
• Millions of people have been incarcerated for
low-level drug law violations, resulting in drastic
racial disparities in the prison system.
• Trillions of dollars have been spent on the war
on drugs, yet drug overdose, addiction and
misuse are more prevalent than ever.
• Hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost
to drug overdose because cost-effective and lifesaving
interventions are not sufficiently available.
“With so many of our citizens in prison
compared with the rest of the world, there are
only two possibilities: Either we are home to
the most evil people on earth or we are doing
something different – and vastly
counterproductive. Obviously, the answer is
the latter.”
– Senator Jim Webb, March 2009
The war on drugs is the new Jim Crow:
• While African Americans comprise only 13
percent of the U.S. population and 13 percent
of drug users, they make up 38 percent of those
arrested for drug law violations and 59 percent
of those convicted of drug law violations.
• African American drug defendants have a 20
percent greater chance of being sentenced to
prison than white drug defendants.
• Nearly 83 percent of crack cocaine defendants
in 2007 were African American, yet only
18 percent of crack users in the U.S. are
African American.
Drug Policy Alliance | 70 West 36th Street, 16th Floor, New York, NY 10018
nyc@drugpolicy.org | 212.613.8020 voice | 212.613.8021 fax
The war on drugs drives mass incarceration
of Americans:
• More than 1 of every 100 American adults is
behind bars. In 1980, the total U.S. prison and
jail population was about 500,000 – today, it is
more than 2.3 million.
• The U.S. incarcerates more people than any
country in the world – both per capita and in
terms of total people behind bars. The U.S. has
less than 5 percent of the world’s population, yet it
has almost 25 percent of the world’s incarcerated
population.
• The number of people behind bars for drug
law violations rose from 50,000 in 1980 to more
than a half of a million today – an 1100 percent
increase. There are also hundreds of thousands
of additional people behind bars for drug-related
violations of parole or probation.
• Nearly 2 million people are arrested each year
for drug law violations, most of which are low-level.
• In 2008, over 800,000 people were arrested for
marijuana alone – nearly 90 percent of those
were arrested for simple possession.
• Arrests and incarceration for drugs – even for
first time, low-level violations – can result in
debilitating collateral consequences for an
individual and their family. A conviction for a
drug law violation can result in the loss of
employment, property, public housing, food
stamp eligibility, financial aid for college, and
the right to vote – even after serving time
behind bars.
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Expanding Drug Policies that Work:
A Health-Oriented Approach
The war on drugs is a war on families, a war on
communities and a war on our constitutional
rights. We need drugs policies that move away
from the criminal justice system by addressing
drug overdose, addiction and misuse through a
health-oriented framework.
Expanding access to effective drug treatment
• A study by the RAND Corporation found that
every additional dollar invested in treatment for
substance misuse saves taxpayers $7.46 in
societal costs (crime, violence, loss of
productivity and other factors).
• That same study found that treatment reduces
crime, recidivism and other societal costs 15
times more effectively than law enforcement
alone.
• Incarcerating individuals convicted of lowlevel
drug law violations places huge financial
costs on taxpayers. For example, it costs
approximately $45,000 to incarcerate a person
for one year in New York State, while
community-based treatment costs
approximately $15,000 per year, and is more
effective in reducing crime and restoring
communities.
“Anybody who sees the devastating impact of
the drug trade in the inner cities, or the
methamphetamine trade in rural communities,
knows that this is a huge problem. I believe in
shifting the paradigm, shifting the model, so
that we focus more on a public health
approach.”
– Then-Senator Barack Obama, July 2008
Reducing accidental drug overdose
• In 2006, more than 26,000 people died in the U.S.
from a drug overdose. Overdoses nationwide more
than doubled between 2000 and 2006.
• Overdose is now the 2nd leading cause of
accidental death in the U.S., and results in more
death than homicide. In 16 states it has
overtaken traffic fatalities as the leading cause of
accidental death.
Drug Policy Alliance | 70 West 36th Street, 16th Floor, New York, NY 10018
nyc@drugpolicy.org | 212.613.8020 voice | 212.613.8021 fax
• Most people fear being arrested when they see
someone overdose and often don’t call for
medical help. “Good Samaritan” laws provide
immunity from arrest and prosecution for
people caught in possession of small amounts
of drugs when they call 911. Such laws
encourage people to call for medical help in the
event of alcohol, heroin or other drug
overdoses.
• Distribution of naloxone, a drug that reverses
the effects of overdose, is an effective and
inexpensive way to save lives. It has been
approved by the FDA since 1971, but still needs
to be made more readily available to those who
may be in a position to respond to an overdose.
Reducing disease transmission
• One third of reported HIV/AIDS
transmissions result from the sharing of
syringes. Every year, 8,000 people are
infected with HIV by sharing syringes.
• Syringe exchange programs provide clean
syringes to injection drug users to prevent the
transmission of HIV/AIDS and other diseases.
Such programs also provide vital services such
as HIV/AIDS testing, condoms, counseling
and treatment referrals.
• Numerous government studies have
concluded that syringe exchange programs
decrease the spread of HIV/AIDS, and do not
increase drug use.
• Syringe exchange programs are highly cost-effective.
The lifetime cost of medical care for
each new HIV infection is $385,200; the
equivalent amount of money spent on syringe
exchange programs would prevent at least 30
new HIV infections.
The Drug Policy Alliance is the nation's leading
organization working to end the war on drugs. We
envision a just society in which the use and
regulation of drugs are grounded in science,
compassion, health and human rights. Our mission
is to advance those policies that best reduce the
harms of both drug misuse and drug prohibition
and to promote the sovereignty of individuals over
their minds and bodies.
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