United States General Accounting Office

Report to the Chairman, Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives

Confronting the Drug Problem

Debate Persists on Enforcement and Alternative Approaches

July 1993

A summary by page researched by: Debby Moore, Founder Kansas Environmentalists for Commerce in Hemp Kansas Political Action Headquarters State Education Center 2742 E. 2nd Wichita, KS, 67214 (316) 681-1743

1 P2-Critics of the enforcement emphasis of the federal strategy contend that an increased reliance on such approaches as drug use prevention, drug tretment, and options to traditional incarceration could more effectively address the drug problem. Other critics of the federal strategy, while recognizing the need for government controls, question the necessity of maintaining a total prohibition on the sale and use of illegal drugs. P5-Several indicators suggest that the United States continues to have a serious drug problem. Cocaine, heroin, and marijuana remain readily available nationwide, according to a federal drug intelligence assessments. 2 P2-Drug arrests place serious burdens on the criminal justice systems, and the District of Columbia system, all of which have inmate populations that exceed prison capacities. Results 2 P3-The federal government has steadily increased its annual drug control budget from $2.8 billion in 1986 to $12.0 billion in 1992, approximately 70 percent of which has supported drug enforcement efforts and about 30 percent, drug use prevention and treatment. P5-increasing use of penalities other than traditional imprisonment, such as boot camps, intensive supervision probation, civil penalities, and fines, for less serious drug offenders. 3 P4-authorizing a regulated drug market in which legitimate businesses could sell one or more currently illegal drugs to adults under controlled conditions. 7 Abbreviations: AIDS acquired immune deficiency syndrome DAWN Drug Abuse Warning Network DEA Drug Enforcement Administration DUF Drug Use Forecasting FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation HHS Department of Health & Human Services HIV human immunodeficiency virus NIDA National Institute on Drug Abuse NNICC National Narcotics Intelligence Consumers Committee ONDCP Office of National Drug Control Policy OTA Office of Technology Assessment TASC Treatment Alternatives to Street Crime TC therapeutic community TOPS Treatment Outcome Prospective Study 10 P4-Although most federal drug enforcement efforts focus on drug traffickers, some are aimed at durg users. According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, over 10,000 federal defendants were convicted from 1984 through 1990 on a criminal charge of "simple possession" (e.e., of possessing a personal use amount of a drug). Since 1988, under federal law, civil fines up to $10,000 can be imposed inaddition to, or instead of, criminal sanctions for simple possession. 11 P3-The State Department estimated that in 1991, about 12,000 of 33,000 hectares of marijuana crops were eradicated in Latin America. Further, about 2,400 metric tons of an estimated 6,000 to 7,000 metric tons of cultivated marijuana crops were eradicated in the United States by DEA in conjunction with other federal, state, and local authorities in 1991. P4-In addition, DEA reported the seizure of about 107,000 kilograms of cannabis in fiscal year 1991. 12 P1-The Federal Bureau of Investigation estimated that annual state and local arrests for drug violations more than doubled from about 661,000 to about 1,362,000 between 1983 and 1989, then declined to 1,010,000 in 1991. Federal DEA drug convistions increased approximately 60 percent from about 10,000 in 1983 to about 16,000 in 1991. DEA reported that a substantial number of drug violators among those arrested and convicted at the federal level from 1983 to 1991 were high-level dealers, such as heads of illicit drug distribution organizations, financiers, and laboratory operators who were capable of distributing and\or producing large amounts of drugs. Federal DEA drug enfoircement efforts led to about 6,600 such arrests and about 5,500 such convictions in 1991.