GAO: Data too fuzzy to measure drug war

[DoYouEverWonder]

December 24, 2005

MIAMI - It has never been easy measuring success in the drug war. It's an illegal trade after all, and no one on Wall Street is tracking its performance.

But now comes a disturbing new congressional report that raises doubts about recent upbeat claims by the White House.

The 52-page report released this month by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, questions the reliability of key U.S. government drug trafficking data. Official stats are so sketchy and unreliable as to be almost worthless, the report says.

"Data to assess whether operations ... contribute to ... disrupting the illicit drug market or the overall goal of reducing the rate of drug usage in the United States are problematic," the report found.

Little effort is being made to evaluate performance of the 50 to 60 agencies involved, in violation of a federal law that requires them to be accountable, the GAO added.

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/12/24/Worldandnation/GAO__Data_too_fuzzy_t.shtml


The war on drugs - what a joke.

[aquart]

1. It's always been a grubby, pointless waste of money.

Just get the CIA to stop selling the stuff.

[jody]

2. Article says drug czar manipulated reports.

QUOTE
The drug czar's office sat on a November 2004 report it commissioned by the Rand Corp., a California-based nonprofit research organization, which found that drugs were more available than ever and that prices had in fact fallen.

The drug czar's office turned around and commissioned a second report from the Virginia-based Institute for Defense Analyses, which found prices were rising.

"They (the drug czar's office) lack credibility unless they can explain such a wide difference," said Peter Reuter, a University of Maryland drug expert who directed Rand's research.

He noted that the Rand report was well documented and peer reviewed. Reuter said he was also "generally skeptical" of data in the IDA report. Accurate data takes months to compile, he said.
UNQUOTE

[rodeodance]

3. he is such a joke.

........Little effort is being made to evaluate performance of the 50 to 60 agencies involved, in violation of a federal law that requires them to be accountable, the GAO added.

[bemildred]

4. The drug war reduces the drug trade like outsourcing creates jobs. nt

[Demeter]

5. If BushCo Says It, It's A Lie

and you can take THAT to the bank!

[DrBloodmoney]

6. The drug war is a monumental failure...

...wake up sheeple.

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. We know

BushCo needs the money to run their black ops. That's why we had to invade Afghanistan, the Taliban were taking that anti-drug nonsense too seriously and it was hurting the stock market.

[Triana]

8. It'a a stupid money pit, just like the "war on terror"

They can't measure success - just like the "war on terror". What a bunch of IDIOTS. Think of all the wonderful things they could do - successes they could measure, if they stopped all these rediculous "wars on 'insert your favorite cause here'".

And we taxpayers get to foot the bills, of course, and our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. For essentially - nothing.

[fshrink]

9. Stubborn facts run the GAO.

This office has issued several reports clearly showing that this administration does an outstanding job at screwing everything up. Which the mass media consistently ignore, of course. Shouldn't take too long before the idiot throws a another calligulesque tantrum to get heads chopped.

[meganmonkey]

10. I haven't had any trouble getting pot

for the last 15 years, so I'd say - it's not going so good. Give it up, fools, and stop sending folks to jail for harmless substances, and as for the more harmful ones, either get them some help or leave them alone!!!

:smoke:

[DoYouEverWonder]

11. Imagine if everyone could grow pot in their backyard or closet?

The economy would crash so fast we wouldn't know what hit us. But at least it wouldn't matter.

[fshrink]

17. Yeah. Prozac is so much better.

[FlyByNight]

12. Prohibition already failed once before

And now, due to the Drug War (on untaxed narcotics), we have fewer rights and more drug-addicted people to show for it. This is a public health issue, not a law enforcement issue. Sick people don't get better by throwing them in jail.

Cigarettes and alcohol kill more people than all of the illegal/untaxed drugs combined. And cigs and booze are still legal.

Pure madness. (And too many law enforcement agencies and "spin-off industries" have become wealthy/well-funded because of it...)

:rant:

[High Plains]

13. And where are our Democrats on this issue?

Can you say "bipartisan consensus"?

Support for marijuana legalization is polling in the high 40s in the Pacific West. Not quite over the hump, but close enough for some progressive politician to take up the cause. Anyone?

[0007]

14. Until you're religious bigots wake up to the money lords

it will be a war.


Where there's hope
you'll find dope

Where there's dope
you'll find hope"

[niallmac]

15. ...but, but if we didn't have a war on drugs like marijuana

who would pay the $962.56 for ten tablets of the 24mg anti nausea drug Zofran for folks on chemo therapy? Boy, you people just don't seem to care about the drug industry!!
:sarcasm: :grr:

[Journeyman]

16. Back in the '60s, when the "war on drugs" got started. . .

there were lots of drugs available everywhere, and the attendant problems were most severe. Today, 40+ years later, there's an even larger number of drugs available, in even greater quantities, and the attendant problems have only increased in severity. That's only this observer's opinion, of course, but if nothing else there's nothing "problematic" about it. Just a simple observation by a simple man, who can't help but think of Einstein's admonition at this moment, that insanity is defined as doing the exact same thing over and over but expecting different results.

"I don't know about you," said Lenny Bruce, "but I kind of like how society's money is spent to arrest, imprison, re-arrest and imprison these people numerous times, until at last you get them on a charge big enough to put 'em away. I'd just piss it away on beer, anyway."

[meow2u3]

20. The war on drugs CAUSED the drug epidemic

Americans don't like being told what to do. Tell them they're not allowed to do something like smoke pot and they'll smoke it because it's illegal. The fact some drugs are illicit is what attracts users to the stash in the first place. It's simply a matter of forbidden fruit.

The irony of it all is if drugs are legalized, taxed, and regulated, it will stem the epidemic. The forbidden fruit allure is gone.

[Journeyman]

22. Kind of a simplistic approach to a complex phenomenon. . .

don't you think? I mean, I've never used heroin, have no intention of ever doing so, but that decision is in no way influenced by its illegality -- and the proscriptions against it have long been far more stringent than those against the drugs I have partaken of. And throughout my life, alcohol has always been legal, yet I never abused any drug the way I did "the Demon Rum," yet I haven't touched a drop for nigh on two decades. And with all the societal pressures against alcoholism & the like, under your theory I should be drinking more than I ever did.

I do, however, agree with you that legalized drugs will stem their use somewhat, though not for the "forbidden fruit" reason you foresee. Removing the financial incentives from the illicit trade, and separating recreational drugs from the rest, will do far more to reduce their use than removing societal restraints against them. Though this, too, is too simple a look to do the subject justice.

[Clara T]

18. Lotsa' Dollars Here

Narcotics is second to Oil and the Arms Trade.
Trade in opiates constitutes a large share of the worldwide annual turnover of narcotics, which was estimated by the United Nations to be of the order of $400-500 billion. At the time these UN figures were first brought out (1994), the (estimated) global trade in drugs was of the same order of magnitude as the global trade in oil.
Connected to this is the way this drug money finds its way into other markets and that is through a labyrinthine network of money launderers.
The IMF estimated global money laundering to be between 590 billion and 1.5 trillion dollars a year, representing 2-5 percent of global GDP. A large share of that global money laundering as estimated by the IMF is linked to the trade in narcotics.

[DoYouEverWonder]

19. Illegal drugs grease the wheels

of the beast. Legalize marijuana and the beast will die.

[Justsayin]

21. What would happen to the

Prison industrial complex do without more bodies to feed it? that is why it will never end. the prison guard unions and police unions are powerful lobby groups.

[DoYouEverWonder]

23. You mean they might have to imprison

real criminals instead? I'm sure there will be plenty of politicians to replace the potheads once all the Repugs start getting convicted.

BTW: Welcome to DU :hi:

[mrbill]

24. must feed the system................

In my little rural county (population 36,000) in the Northern part of Texas, about 80% of the work of the police/criminal justice system is "drug" related.

Somewhere around 50% of the docket of the local district criminal court is made of various types of meth cases; possession, distribution, manufacture, etc. Lots of dumbasses from the metroplex come to my little county in search of anhydrous ammonia. The clever deputies have motion detectors and video cameras set up by the farmer's tanks. Bingo - another one to feed the criminal justice system.

About 10% of the participants in the local criminal justice system are there for cocaine/crack offenses, then add about 10% for happy grass.

Next comes DWI. second, third, fourth or more offences at 10%.

Hot checks, paper fraud, child support are next with about 10%.

Strangely enough, the robbers, assualters, didilers, car thieves and break-and-enterers only make up about 10% of the workload of the criminal justice system. This small percentage are the scarey people who might actually belong in jail.

The drug war is definately a racket. Jobs for people with a control freek attitude.

The good local citizens of my county recent approved a $14 million bond deal for a big shiney new jail to house mostly drug offenders and a very few really bad guys. My property taxes pay for this damn nonsense.

PS, the local city police agencies and their municipal courts get the paraphanelia action, usually a $250 fine plus court costs. Public intoxication is also a big money maker.

A very wise man who is currently my lawyer said to me twenty years ago, "In the future, there will be four classes of people, the judges, the police, the prison guys and then every body else, aka the prisoners"

Welcome justsayin, may your stay be long and prosperous.