2$ TRILLION + @ decade U.S. Drug War Boondoggle

NOT counting the consequences of market perversion.

http://www.drugwarrant.com/2011/05/national-drug-intelligence-center-fails-intelligence-test/#comments

The U.S. government claims that 'illicit drug use or abuse' costs $189 billion annually, though it's PROHIBITION rather than the drugs' pharmacological effects- e.g. prohibiting and the consequential incarceration is officially spun as 'drug induced incarceration'.

All of this does not even mention the costs of protecting MORE dangerous substances, such as Virginia Bright Leaf Tobacco cigarettes and alcohol, from far safer substances as Coca Leaf and MJ, let alone the perversion of Coca Leaf and Opium into concentrated dosing of cocaine and heroin.

Coca is the safest stimulant, and was banned by the USDA largely over its promotion as a ‘Tobacco habit cure’

http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2011/04/coca-as-tobacco-habit-cure.html

And such Tobacco’ has killed some 100 million in the last century.

So when we look at the govt report above and see nearly $2 trillion spend per decade on the drug war boondoggle, that does not even include the costs of such market protectionism.