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Tax watchdog calls Drug War a waste |
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Written by Alexa Moutevelis
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The Washington DC-based Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) released a report June 26 strongly critical of the Drug War. Wasted in the War on Drugs: Office of National Drug Control Policy's Wasted Efforts takes ONDCP to task for functioning inefficiently and failing to achieve its core objectives.
“Billions of dollars marked for the war on drugs are being wasted on ineffective and counterproductive policies,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz.
The ONDCP was established in 1988 by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act. It funds four primary programs: High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA), the Counterdrug Technology Assessment Center (CTAC), the Drug Free Communities Program, and the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign. Created to reduce marijuana use, the media campaign has been the target of a lawsuit concerning the integrity of the ad agency, a government report detailing the failure of the campaign, and a study showing that the ads have a reverse effect. Despite all this, Congress plans to throw another $120 million at the program in fiscal 2007.
The federal government's war on drugs includes tracking down and persecuting patients where medical marijuana is legal. Even though numerous studies have challenged the assertion that marijuana is a gateway drug, the federal government's obsession with marijuana use continues as the problems with methamphetamine and cocaine worsen.
{quotes right}“The federal government must re-prioritize its drug policies,”{/quotes} noted Schatz .
Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. Wasted in the War on Drugs can be found at its website, cagw.org. It is part of CAGW's series of Through the Looking Glass reports.
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Volume Two 
