Drugs - Drug Mountain

In 1970, the year when Congress passed the Comprehensive Drug Abuse and Control Act — but the year before President Nixon declared his War on Drugs — 415,000 people were arrested for drug offenses. Thirty years later, total arrests had increased to 1,579,600, up 280%. The population, in this period, increased by less than 35%. The war on drugs created "drug mountain," shown in the chart above. It has its peaks and valleys — but at ever higher elevations. Most of the increase has been among adults. Adult arrests have grown three times as fast as juvenile.

Drug arrests, of course, are just one measure of this phenomenon — but the one most expressive of governmental resolve. Note that arrests have both declined and grown under administrations of both major parties. They grew under Nixon, Reagan, and Clinton — most dramatically under the last two. They declined under Carter and they both rose and fell under the elder President Bush.

Drug violations are not included in the official crime rate. If they were included, the crime rate would be rising. Therefore when you hear authorities bragging that they are bringing the crime rate down, they don't mean drug offenses. Indeed, drug-related law enforcement and corrections have become an important driving force in the total justice system. Among the top seven arrest categories, drug abuse violations lead all the rest, followed by driving under the influence. More than 20% of all state prisoners are in prison for drug offenses, 60% of Federal prisoners, and more than 20% of those in local jails. To be sure, those imprisoned are a tiny fraction of those arrested, but all of those arrested must be handled: they are finger-printed, tested (blood tests, urine analysis), processed (paperwork, notices, record keeping), sometimes held, charged, tried, and administratively managed until disposition — either by release, probation, or by trial, and later, possibly by incarceration — with all the costs associated with the housing, feeding, clothing, and guarding of prisoners, including their medical care.

And the arrests, while a very high number in 2000 (at least compared with the number for 1970) represent but a small fraction of potential offenders. In 2000, an estimated 24.5 million people had used drugs in the year just past (at the time of survey). Possession of drugs is against the law. Therefore, with about 1.6 million people arrested, less than 7% of offenders were actually caught. Obviously the war on drugs has unusual aspects. We shall try to present those in the panels in this chapter.

Drug Arrests per 100,000 People

Before we do so, we present in the chart to the left the same arrest data shown above, but this time normalized by demographics. The data show drug arrests per 100,000 population for the same period, 1970 to 2000. As can be seen from this graphic, the rise in drug arrests has not been due to the mere increase in population. In 1970 we arrested 203 people per 100,000, in 2000 the number was 572. The peak was reached in 1997, when we arrested 591 out of a hundred thousand. As we shall see in coming panels, the drug-using population has been declining. Those arrested for possession are 81% of arrests, those charged with sale or manufacture are 19% of total. Blacks are disproportionately represented among those arrested — and even more among those incarcerated.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime in the United States, annual, Uniform Crime Reports, downloaded from http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/dcf/enforce.htm.