business as usual
On Monday, the Bush administration released its 2008 fiscal year budget. As was to be expected, no one has learned anything regarding the war on drugs and in fact, more money will be wasted this year than any other year since Nancy Reagan Just Said No.
The breakdown:
$1.6 billion for prevention programs (which the National Office of Drug Control Policy calls "stopping drug use before it starts"); $3.1 billion for drug treatment; and $8 billion for law enforcement. That is nearly a two-to-one ratio between spending for law enforcement versus prevention and treatment.
Controversial and unproven programs had their budgets dramatically increased, such as a $7.5 million increase in funding for the random testing of high school students, bringing its total to $18 million. The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign (This Is Your Brain On Drugs!) now has a budget of $130 million, up from $100 million last year.
The DEA will have its budget increased from $1.684 billion to $1.803 billion, while the Justice Department's Organized Crime & Drug Task Force is up $24 million from last year, to an all-time high of $509 million.
Programs with cut funding include the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, slashed by 20%; the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, down 12%; and state grants under the Safe & Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act, which went from a budget of $345 million to $100 million. It is significant to note that the budget completely zeroes out $32 million in school grants for the Alcohol Use & Reduction program. Remember, kids: we're talking about drugs here, but only those untaxed drugs.
Interdiction is love. However, also keep in mind that ONDCP (the Office of National Drug Control Policy) puts the overall drug budget at $12 billion, a figure that fails to include the cost of imprisoning over 100,000 nonviolent drug offenders, and also fails to include nearly $10 billion military and black budget programs used in the drug war.
Call your Congressman and help get this budget hacked to slimy little pieces before Bush's little fantasy wish-list puts a SWAT team outside of your grandmother's door. Don't laugh: it's happening every day in every city. Lobbying groups are already urging Congress to keep in place the Byrne Justice Assistance Grants Program and to give it a budget of $1.1 billion. For those unfamiliar with the Byrne program, it specifically funds multi-agency no-knock drug raids all across the country: the proud bands of warriors and true believers that eradicate scores of children and senior citizens based on false or faulty tips from informants, botched and fudged surveilllance and outright incompetence.
Isn't Justice grand?
The breakdown:
$1.6 billion for prevention programs (which the National Office of Drug Control Policy calls "stopping drug use before it starts"); $3.1 billion for drug treatment; and $8 billion for law enforcement. That is nearly a two-to-one ratio between spending for law enforcement versus prevention and treatment.
Controversial and unproven programs had their budgets dramatically increased, such as a $7.5 million increase in funding for the random testing of high school students, bringing its total to $18 million. The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign (This Is Your Brain On Drugs!) now has a budget of $130 million, up from $100 million last year.
The DEA will have its budget increased from $1.684 billion to $1.803 billion, while the Justice Department's Organized Crime & Drug Task Force is up $24 million from last year, to an all-time high of $509 million.
Programs with cut funding include the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, slashed by 20%; the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, down 12%; and state grants under the Safe & Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act, which went from a budget of $345 million to $100 million. It is significant to note that the budget completely zeroes out $32 million in school grants for the Alcohol Use & Reduction program. Remember, kids: we're talking about drugs here, but only those untaxed drugs.
Interdiction is love. However, also keep in mind that ONDCP (the Office of National Drug Control Policy) puts the overall drug budget at $12 billion, a figure that fails to include the cost of imprisoning over 100,000 nonviolent drug offenders, and also fails to include nearly $10 billion military and black budget programs used in the drug war.
Call your Congressman and help get this budget hacked to slimy little pieces before Bush's little fantasy wish-list puts a SWAT team outside of your grandmother's door. Don't laugh: it's happening every day in every city. Lobbying groups are already urging Congress to keep in place the Byrne Justice Assistance Grants Program and to give it a budget of $1.1 billion. For those unfamiliar with the Byrne program, it specifically funds multi-agency no-knock drug raids all across the country: the proud bands of warriors and true believers that eradicate scores of children and senior citizens based on false or faulty tips from informants, botched and fudged surveilllance and outright incompetence.
Isn't Justice grand?