A few examples:

All of our illicit opiates and cocaine are imported, i.e. smuggled, across our borders. The national demand for those drugs is enormous, requiring huge quantities to come through our ports and border crossings, with the resiquite payola going into various pockets. Once purchased, officials are owned.

This year the DEA, (with its 8,399 staff and 4,146 agents), has requested over $2 billion to fund its "war on drugs" (WOD). (I don't think the drugs will ever surrender.) The $2bil is small when compared to the monies spent by the states on police, courts, incarceration, and drug-related health problems. Add to that the indirect costs of drug-motivated crimes, including burglary, robbery, auto theft, and dealers protecting their own turf or encroaching on another's, (with not a few innocents caught in the cross-fire), in addition to social services and foster care for those whose parents are incarcerated.

Many states have been unable to afford to keep up with the increasing numbers of prisoners, so they are privatizing their prison systems. I'm opposed to that idea only because there is no expectation that the privately-run institutions make any efforts to reduce recidivism (it should be included in their contracts). The largest Political Action Committee in the US is made up of corrections officers.

Keeping track of our WOD requires extensive data collection. When interpreted and used correctly, the data assists in determining where and how to spend our enormous Prevention budgets. Most often, the data is mis-interpreted or ignored, and the ever-changing methods for prevention attest to their ineffectiveness.

For those seeking treatment, there is a huge industry to fulfill their every need, for as much as they think they need to spend to get sober/drug free. While many people require hospitalization during detox, there is normally no reason to spend 28-days in a hospital, other than to max out insurance payments (the 28-days was not based upon empirical clinical evidence; it's the max MediCare would pay).

On the lowest end of the treatment spectrum are the social-model detoxes for public inebriates and drug addicts. They represent the neediest persons in treatment, yet they receive the least help (unlike how we address every other disease). And finally, for those not seeking treatment, the courts often help to keep my fellow counselors employed.

Where do the big bucks go? Wall Street. Any cash transaction involving $10k or more must be reported to the Feds. Unless you want to buy on the Street, where you can bring in a mattress stuffed with $50k, and it's don't ask - don't tell.


Hope you're staying high and dry, Birdy.