Skip navigation.
Home

Welcome

Drug War Facts

Click on the book cover to go to the table of contents, or browse the chapter list to the left.
"A valuable resource for anyone concerned with drug policy."


— Ira Rosen, Producer, 60 Minutes

"Drug War Facts offers a treasure trove for serious seekers of useful facts and sources about all sides of the drug war."


— Clarence Page, Syndicated Columnist,
Chicago Tribune

"A compendium of facts that fly in the face of
accepted wisdom."


— David F. Duncan, Clinical Associate Professor,
Brown University Medical School

Drug War Facts provides reliable information with applicable citations on important public health and criminal justice issues. It is updated continuously by its Editor, Mary Jane Borden.

Most charts, facts and figures are from government sources, government-sponsored sources, peer reviewed journals and occasionally newspapers. In all cases the source is cited so that journalists, scholars and students can verify, check context and obtain additional information.

Our mission is to offer useful facts, cited from authoritative sources, to a debate that is often characterized by myths, error, emotion and dissembling. We believe that in time an informed society will correct its errors and generate wiser policies.

Drug War Facts is sponsored by Common Sense for Drug Policy. Its directors are Kevin B. Zeese, President; H. Michael Gray, Chair; Robert E. Field, Co-Chair; Melvin R. Allen, JD; David Borden; Balázs Denés, JD; Ernest Drucker, Ph.D.; Kris Krane; and Doug McVay.

To the extent of its copyrights, Common Sense for Drug Policy authorizes and encourages the use and republication of some or all portions of this book. Questions, comments or suggestions for additions and modifications are most welcome and may be addressed to Mary Jane Borden at mjborden@drugwarfacts.org.


Click here for a list of chapters.

Download Adobe Acrobat Reader
A PDF copy of Drug War Facts, 6th Edition is also available.

Did You Know?

Prisons - State "States spent $29.8 billion in 1998 for adult corrections including incarceration, probation and parole. Eighty-one percent of this amount ($24.1 billion) was spent on substance-involved offenders. Of the $24.1 billion, $21.4 billion went to run and build prisons to house substance-involved offenders, $1.1 billion for parole and $695 million for probation for substance-involved offenders. An additional $899 million was spent on state aid to localities for substance-involved offenders."
 
Source: 
National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, "Shoveling Up II: The Impact of Substance Abuse on State Budgets" (New York, NY: CASA, January 2001), p. 15. http://www.casacolumbia.org/absolutenm/articlefiles/379-Shoveling%20Up.pdf