Sunday, December 13, 2009

Failed Drug War

Make of it what you will:

From 1987 to 1995 more drug arrests involved heroin or cocaine than other types of drugs. Since 1996 the number of arrests involving marijuana exceeded that for other types of drugs.
Arrests by drug type [D]
Click on the chart to view the data.
Source: FBI, Uniform Crime Reports, Crime in the United States, annually.
 Drug arrests for sales or possession [D]
The Public opinion poll on the seriousness of the Drug problem is not in line with the Government it seems as shown here:

Date of poll   Drug abuse most serious problem

May 1989   27 %
July 1990   18  
March 1991   11  
March 1992   8  
January 1993   6  
January 1994   9  
January 1995   6  
May 1996   10  
January 1997   17  
April 1998   12  
May 1999   5  
March 2000   5  
January 2001   7  
March 2002   3  
February 2003   2  
June 2004   1  



Correctional Populations[D]

Incarceration Rate Chart [D]


Expenditure by Function Trends Chart [D]

Expenditure by Government Trends Chart [D]

 All of this, especially the drugs a pot seem outrageous.  Especially when you consider our president admits to smoking when he was young and made a point of telling us he had inhaled. 




1 comment:

  1. Interesting charts. Any thoughts as to why the number of arrests involving marijuana exceed the other drugs since 96? Why weed?

    ReplyDelete