How much has the War on Drugs Cost in TOTAL?

Ive been doing some research.. cause im gunna make signs and stand out on some corners and TRY to inform atleast 1 person of the War on Drugs and its Epic Failure..

BUT

Ive been having trouble finding a TOTAL for the War on drugs.. They have a clock for the Annual cost..

Drug War Cost Clock updated for 2011

But no Total..

Heres our National Debt..

U.S. National Debt Clock

at a growth of 3.98 Billion dollars a day o.O

This LA Times article from 2008 said the War on Drugs had a Total cost of 2.5 Trillion...

This is the U.S. on drugs - Los Angeles Times

But that was in 2008...



Some Fun Facts

The Vietnam War Cost the US 133 Billion Dollars and Lasted 16 years

How much did the Vietnam War cost

How Long Did The Vietnam War Last

In Todays Currency WWII Cost 2091.3 Billion Dollars and lasted 6 Years

World War 2 Timeline 1939-1945 - Worldwar-2.net

How much did World War 2 cost in today's dollars


Richard Nixons War on Drugs costs 50+ Billion dollars a year and is in the Trillions in Total and has lasted 40 Years

Richard Nixon's War on Drugs: Happy Anniversary! Candlelight Vigil Marks the Occasion - Los Angeles News - The Informer

Drug War Cost Clock updated for 2011

So ya..

Anyone got the Total Amount that the War on Drugs has cost?

I don't have any idea on the amount, but I like what your planning on doing here, and will be keeping an eye in this thread (ill take a look for a total $ as well) keep it up man.

We spend way to much. The U.S. Gov doesn't care about citizens, they care about themselves.

We spend way to much. The U.S. Gov doesn't care about citizens, they care about themselves.

The War on Drugs is a business..

A horrible, Expensive business..

 Nixon.jpg   3.84K   16 downloads

Thank the Founder.

Drug War Clock | DrugSense

Not exactly what you want because it's money spent this year but I think you'll find it useful.

You can't ever quantify a total cost, because there are things that can't be calculated exactly. Things that most people don't even think about.

For example, take all of the people locked up for marijuana violations. Not only do they cost the state a certain amount of money to be locked up, but assuming they had jobs when they were arrested, they certainly aren't working them anymore. They're not working, so they aren't paying income taxes. That's another hit for the state. Then when you think about it, what do people do with money? They buy shit. When you buy shit, the state gets a cut of it: sales tax. They aren't participating in this either. And by buying shit, you support businesses, which pay other sorts of taxes as well, besides sales taxes. We're talking about maybe a couple dollars a day here. But multiply that by tens of thousands of people, and multiply that by several years, and the loss is significant.

And then there are smaller things, like not being able to register your car if you're locked up. That's about a $50-$100 loss to the state, per person. And you can't buy gas, which is a little different from the sales and business tax issue, because gas includes a tax to help improve and maintain the roads. Which means the state itself has to shell out more money to fix roads.

If you start looking hard enough at all them money the government funnels out of individuals, that they can't when they're locked up, the cost per year becomes truly phenomenal and unquantifiable.

You can't ever quantify a total cost, because there are things that can't be calculated exactly. Things that most people don't even think about.

For example, take all of the people locked up for marijuana violations. Not only do they cost the state a certain amount of money to be locked up, but assuming they had jobs when they were arrested, they certainly aren't working them anymore. They're not working, so they aren't paying income taxes. That's another hit for the state. Then when you think about it, what do people do with money? They buy shit. When you buy shit, the state gets a cut of it: sales tax. They aren't participating in this either. And by buying shit, you support businesses, which pay other sorts of taxes as well, besides sales taxes. We're talking about maybe a couple dollars a day here. But multiply that by tens of thousands of people, and multiply that by several years, and the loss is significant.

And then there are smaller things, like not being able to register your car if you're locked up. That's about a $50-$100 loss to the state, per person. And you can't buy gas, which is a little different from the sales and business tax issue, because gas includes a tax to help improve and maintain the roads. Which means the state itself has to shell out more money to fix roads.

If you start looking hard enough at all them money the government funnels out of individuals, that they can't when they're locked up, the cost per year becomes truly phenomenal and unquantifiable.

If they have an Annual Expenditure on the War on Drugs why shouldnt they have at least.. a rough total?

I mean i guess i could go year by year and add it up.. thatll be interesting..

But ya The Private Prison system.. I shake my head when im reminded that there are people who Profit ENORMOUSLY from Non-Violent Drug Offenders getting crazy sentences..

Its just.. just fucking crazy. Free Country my Ass.

20 million americans in jail since 1965.