Bee Bea Sharper on Drugs
Year of the passage of the Harrison Tax Act, which started the U. S. “War on Drugs”: 1914
Year in which the non-medical sale or possession of marijuana was made illegal in the U.S.: 1937.
Year of the Nixon Administration’s Comprehensive Drug Abuse and Control Act, which begins the current era of drug-related legislation: 1970.
According to Nixon, drug abuse was “America’s public enemy number: one.”
Amount spent on the Drug War by the Nixon Administration in 1969: $65,000,000.
Amount spent on the Drug War by the Clinton Administration in 1999: $17,700,000,000.
Percentage of high school seniors who in 1999 said they could find marijuana “fairly easily”: 88.9%
The total number of Americans behind bars in 1970: 200,000.
The total number of Americans serving time for non-violent drug offenses in 2000: 450,000.
Approximate percentage of federal inmates in 2000 who are drug offenders: 60%.
Fraction of these federal drug prisoners who are non-violent, first-time offenders: 1/2.
Amount the U.S. will spend to keep drug law violators behind bars in the year 2000: $24,000.000.
Change in marijuana use among eighth graders during the height of Clinton’s 1991-1996 anti-marijuana crusade: up 300%.
Number of regular American illegal drug users in 2000: 12,000,000.
Cost of putting a single drug user in prison for five years: $500,000.
Number of drug offenders who could be treated with the money it costs to incarcerate a single non-violent drug offender for five years: more than 100.
Percentage of 12th graders who say it is harder under current drug laws to buy marijuana than to buy beer: 25%.
Number of “drug war orphans”–children with one or both parents serving time for a drug offense–in the year 2000: 1,000,000 plus.
According to FBI figures, number of Americans arrested for marijuana violations alone in 2000: 734,498.
Likelihood that “drug war orphans” will themselves end up on prison, as compared to other children: 5 times.
Percentage of the U. S. population that is African American: 12%.
Percentage of total U. S. drug users who are African American: 13%.
Percentage of total U. S. citizens who are arrested for drug offenses that are African American: 35%.
Percentage of total U. S. citizens that are convicted of drug offenses that are African American: 55%.
Percentage of total U. S. citizens who are incarcerated for drug offenses that are African American: 74%.
Rate at which black men are sent to state prisons for drug offenses as compared with white men: 13 times.
Percentage of Americans who in a 2001 survey said they thought the war on drugs was a failure: 72%.
Average federal sentence for a drug offence in 1997: 78 months.
Average federal sentence for manslaughter in 1997: 30 months.
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, the number of Americans being drugged as treatment for depression in 1987: 1.7 million.
Number of Americans being drugged for treatment of depression in 1997: 6.2 million.
Of every 100 Americans, the number that are now being treated for clinical depression: 2.3.
Percentage of emergency room visits by older Americans that are caused by adverse reaction to legally prescribed drugs: 11%.
Percentage of Americans 65 and over who according to one study are taking at least one prescription drug: 90%.
Average number of prescription drugs being taken by Americans sixty-five and over: 4.
Number of Americans who die each year from taking legal prescription drugs, not not counting the many thousands who die of medical “accidents” and mistakes: 100,000.
Number who die each day: 270.
Number of Americans who die each day as compared with Americans who die in traffic accidents: Double.
Percentage of Americans who currently take at least one prescription drug: 65%.
Annual expenditure by Americans for prescription drugs: $250 billion.
Amount of “attention deficit drugs” taken by American children as compared with European children: 300%.
Amount spent by the pharmaceutical industry each year to “enlighten” physicians and help with their expenses: $ hundreds of millions.
