Needle exchange programme, Portland, Maine 2012. Press Association/Robert F. Bukaty. All rights reserved.The war on drugs has been an expensive failure, but its true price tag can only be measured when we include the indirect costs that far exceed the $100 billion that governments spend each year trying to control the world supply of illegal drugs. The full implications of this wasted expenditure should factor into arguments for an urgently needed and radical redirection of drug policy.
Much of the $100 billion pays for apprehending, processing and incarcerating people for non-violent drug offences. But this figure is far outweighed by the value of the illegal drug market that results from punitive drug wars, a figure estimated at $330 billion, a vast source of funds for corruption and insurgency. Militarised drug disruption programmes in central and south America and Asia have caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, the displacement of significant numbers of people and massive environmental degradation. The global south has also lost significant investment opportunities in their economies and health systems as they pay to prosecute drug wars, often under pressure from the United States.
