The Law and Legal Ramifications

Office of National Drug Control Policy

This is the official White House page on our national Drug policy.
This site provides information about the current government policies, interdiction, use, rehabilitation and much, much more.

Center For Cognitive Liberty and Ethics
Mission statement: The right of a person to liberty, autonomy, and privacy over his or her own intellect is situated at the core of what it means to be a free person. This principle is what gives life to some of our most well-established and cherished rights. Today, new drugs and other technologies are being developed for augmenting, monitoring, and manipulating mental processes. Individual and collective freedom is threatened when these technologies are applied or regulated without clear guiding principles that guarantee cognitive privacy, autonomy, and choice.

The Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics (CCLE) is a nonprofit law and policy institute working to advance sustainable social policies that protect freedom of thought. We work to promote public awareness and legal recognition of cognitive liberty -- the right of each individual to think independently, to have decision-making authority over matters affecting his or her mind, and to engage in the full spectrum of possible thought.

Street Drugs
This site is one of the most comprehensive sites on Street Drugs that I have been able to find. It lists the street drugs names, pictures of the various drugs, the legal consequences for possession,(the Controlled Substance Act) warning signs to look for in bahavior changes, and how we can change our behaviors.

The November Coalition

We are a growing body of citizens whose lives have been gravely affected by our government's present drug policy. We are drug war prisoners, their loved ones and others who believe that our present course of war in America has a price that we cannot afford to pay.
Our goal is to make our voice heard, expose the folly of America's War on Drugs, and demand change. We are encouraged by the scores of Federal Judges, physicians, law enforcement officers, lawyers, mayors, governors, educators and legislators who have become outspoken critics of our country's current policy.

Major Studies and Research Reports

Reports and information from the "November Calition"

Drug Policy Alliance
Drug Policy Alliance is the leading organization working to broaden the public debate on drug policy and to promote realistic alternatives to the war on drugs based on science, compassion, public health and human rights. The Alliance was formerly known as The Lindesmith Center - Drug Policy Foundation. The Lindesmith Center, created in 1994, was the leading independent drug policy reform institute in the United States. The Drug Policy Foundation, founded in 1987, represented over 25,000 supporters and was the principal membership-based organization advocating for more sensible and humane drug policies. The two organizations merged on July 1, 2000 with the objective of building a national drug policy reform movement.

Drug Sense

If you have reservations about the War on Drugs, explore DrugSense to become better informed and, if you are so moved, become active in making a positive change.

New Mexico State Law (Controlled Substances)

Drug Policy Reform Issues
This page summarizes the proposed drug policy reform bills currently introduced in the New Mexico legislature. It is meant only to provide a brief synopsis, not to set forth an exhaustive legislative analysis.

The Futility of Drug Prohibition

By Kevin Zeese, Freedom's Phoenix
Posted on December 13, 2006, Printed on December 13, 2006

Since the recent death of economist Milton Friedman, I've been thinking about the times that my life crossed paths with his. I've got a photograph on my bookshelf of me with him at the conference of the Drug Policy Foundation in 1991. In that year we gave him our most prestigious award, a lifetime achievement award named in honor of noted philanthropist and Chicago commodities trader, Richard Dennis.

Continue

Common Sense Drug Polcy

Common Sense for Drug Policy is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to reforming drug policy and expanding harm reduction. CSDP disseminates factual information and comments on existing laws, policies and practices. CSDP provides advice and assistance to individuals and organizations and facilitates coalition building. CSDP supports syringe exchanges, the expansion of Methadone and Buprenorphine availability and other public health measures to reduce harm to users and restrict the spread of HIV / AIDS and Hepatitis C. CSDP advocates the regulation and control of marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol and subject to local option. CSDP favors decriminalizing the use of hard drugs and providing them only through prescription. CSDP also advocates clear federal guidelines for the practice of pain management so that physicians need not fear unwarranted law enforcement scrutiny of medical practices.

What Does the Drug War Cost?

Through its Office of National Drug Control Policy, the federal government spends $17 billion per year fighting drugs.

That's roughly the same thing it spends on the Food Stamp program, which feeds poor Americans, and on our country's entire General Sciences, Space, and Technology budget.

But the actual financial cost of the drug war is much higher, with many drug-reform advocacy groups quoting the cost at $50 billion, which is equal to the combined budgets for all of our country's agriculture, energy, and veteran's programs.

And still, a close examination shows that the total annual costs of the drug war probably exceed $50 billion.

State and local governments contributed $15.9 billion to the fight against drugs in 1991, the last year for which the federal government tallied that figure. At that time federal spending on drug eradication was half what it is today.

Of the $17 billion the federal government directly spends each year to control drug use, 61 percent goes for criminal justice and interdiction, while 30 percent goes for treatment and prevention programs.

Yet the cost of fighting drugs continues beyond the high-profile drug busts and spirited DARE rallies.

The California Department of Corrections has an annual budget of $3.9 billion to deal with 161,000 inmates, 46,655 of whom are being incarcerated for drug offenses at a cost of about $1.1 billion each year.

Nationwide, federal government figures show there are more than 1.7 million people in prisons and jails, 22 to 33 percent of those for drug offenses. At an average annual cost of about $20,000 per inmate, that adds nearly $7.8 billion to the drug war price tag.

And then there are the soft costs of the drug war, which may be impossible to calculate. How much have we paid in welfare and social service costs to families once supported by drug profits? How much have we paid in foreign aid to countries that fight drugs at our insistence? How much money have we removed from the underground economy, especially in drug-growing regions like Humbolt County, by destroying million of pounds of illegal product each year? How many police and court officers could we eliminate if there were no drug laws?

Such questions need to be taken into account during any serious debate over whether the drug war is worth its costs.

From: Costs of the Drug War

The War on Terrorism and the War on Drugs