Taxpayer and Public Policy Groups Urge Halt to Failed “War on Drugs”

The heads of two leading organizations promoting alternatives to the drug war today called upon the U.S. Congress to defund and halt the failed 40-year-old “War on Drugs.” A major taxpayer organization was praised for pointing out the enormous waste of taxpayer dollars that flow into the pockets of bureaucrats who make their living fighting this so-called “war.”
“The war on drugs has cost taxpayers more than a trillion dollars and yet drugs are still readily available and in most cases cheaper and more potent than 40 years ago,” said Bill Piper, Director of National Affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), the nation’s leading organization promoting alternatives to the drug war. Read more

Wilmette School Board Objects to Saving Taxpayers’ Money

CHICAGO–Yesterday, the Wilmette School District 39 Board successfully objected to a move by Taxpayers United of America (TUA) which would have saved the taxpayers thousands of dollars.
TUA had moved to consolidate two of the referendum cases it has filed so they could be heard as one case.  The lawsuits involve both Wilmette School District 39 and Oak Park School District 97.  Attorneys for both Boards objected to the consolidation.
In a hearing yesterday before Judge Moshe Jacobious at the Richard J. Daley Center, TUA argued that consolidation was in the interest of judicial economy and should be consolidated in order to avoid confusion that could result from two different Judges coming to conflicting decisions in the two cases. Read more

Misguided “War on Drugs” Has Cost Taxpayers $1 Trillion

After 40 years, the United States’ war on drugs has cost $1 trillion and hundreds of thousands of lives. Drug use is rampant and violence even more brutal and widespread, according to a Fox News report issued last year.
The waste of taxpayer dollars is staggering, and the cost of human lives is truly depressing. The Fox news report listed these drug war failures:

  • $20 billion to fight the drug gangs in their home countries. In Colombia, for example, the United States spent more than $6 billion, while coca cultivation increased and trafficking moved to Mexico — and the violence along with it.
  • $49 billion for law enforcement along America’s borders to cut off the flow of illegal drugs. This year, 25 million Americans will use illicit drugs, about 10 million more than in 1970, with the bulk of those drugs imported from Mexico.
  • $450 billion to lock those people up in federal prisons alone. Last year, half of all federal prisoners in the U.S. were serving sentences for drug offenses. Read more