The unwinnable drug war: What Clausewitz would tell us

World Policy Journal

Volumn 13, Issue 4, 1996, Pages 41-51

  Bertram, Eva ^a   Sharpe, Kenneth ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0040898980     PISSN: 07402775     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (19)

1. Office of National Drug Control Policy, National Drug Control Strategy (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1995), pp. 17-20.
2. Estimates are from: President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, Narcotics and Drug Abuse (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1967), pp. 2-8; Office of National Drug Control Policy, National Drug Control Strategy (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1994), pp. 1, 12-14; and Office of National Drug Control Policy, National Drug Control Strategy, 1995, pp. 18-20, 138, 143. These statistics underestimate the number of hard-core users because the household survey data and high school surveys on which they are based do not include the homeless, persons in prisons or other institutionalized settings, or high school dropouts, groups that account for many such users.
3. Estimates are from: President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, Narcotics and Drug Abuse (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1967), pp. 2-8; Office of National Drug Control Policy, National Drug Control Strategy (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1994), pp. 1, 12-14; and Office of National Drug Control Policy, National Drug Control Strategy, 1995, pp. 18-20, 138, 143. These statistics underestimate the number of hard-core users because the household survey data and high school surveys on which they are based do not include the homeless, persons in prisons or other institutionalized settings, or high school dropouts, groups that account for many such users.
4. Estimates are from: President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, Narcotics and Drug Abuse (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1967), pp. 2-8; Office of National Drug Control Policy, National Drug Control Strategy (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1994), pp. 1, 12-14; and Office of National Drug Control Policy, National Drug Control Strategy, 1995, pp. 18-20, 138, 143. These statistics underestimate the number of hard-core users because the household survey data and high school surveys on which they are based do not include the homeless, persons in prisons or other institutionalized settings, or high school dropouts, groups that account for many such users.
5. Administration statistics show that the metric tons of coca leaf produced between 1989 and 1994, when drug-war outlays were at their peak, remained essentially stable, decreasing by about 1 percent.
6. The street price in 1994 dollars of a gram of pure cocaine plummeted from roughly $1,100 to about $175; of a gram of pure heroin from about $3,800 to roughly $1,000 (Eva Bertram et al., Drug War Politics: The Price of Denial [Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996], appendix B).
7. Cited in Coletta Youngers, "The Andean Quagmire: Rethinking U.S. Drug Control Efforts in the Andes," March 1996, Washington Office on Latin America, Washington D.C., p. 2.
8. Mark H. Moore, "Supply Reduction and Drug Law Enforcement," in Drugs and Crime, ed. Michael Tonry and James Q. Wilson (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990).
9. Youngers, "The Andean Quagmire," p. 2.
10. Peter Reuter, "Can the Borders Be Sealed?" The Public Interest 92 (summer 1988), p. 57.
11. Ralph A. Weisheit, Domestic Marijuana: A Neglected Industry (New York: Greenwood Press, 1992), pp. 31-39; Eric Schlosser, "Reefer Madness," Atlantic Monthly, August 1994, pp. 59-62; Michael Pollan, "How Pot Has Grown," New York Times Magazine, February 19, 1995, p. 32.
12. Ralph A. Weisheit, Domestic Marijuana: A Neglected Industry (New York: Greenwood Press, 1992), pp. 31-39; Eric Schlosser, "Reefer Madness," Atlantic Monthly, August 1994, pp. 59-62; Michael Pollan, "How Pot Has Grown," New York Times Magazine, February 19, 1995, p. 32.
13. Ralph A. Weisheit, Domestic Marijuana: A Neglected Industry (New York: Greenwood Press, 1992), pp. 31-39; Eric Schlosser, "Reefer Madness," Atlantic Monthly, August 1994, pp. 59-62; Michael Pollan, "How Pot Has Grown," New York Times Magazine, February 19, 1995, p. 32.
14. "Seizing Opportunities," report of the Inter-American Commission on Drug Policy, Institute of the Americas and the Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies, University of California, San Diego, June 1991, p. 32.
15. Youngers, "The Andean Quagmire," p. 2.
16. U.S. Congress, Report of the House Committee on Government Operations, "United States Anti-Narcotics Activities in the Andean Region" (Washington D.C.: GPO, November 30, 1990), pp. 53-57.
17. Melvin Burke, "Bolivia: The Politics of Cocaine," Current History 90, no. 553 (1991), p. 67.
18. Reuter, "Can the Borders Be Sealed?" pp. 51-65.
19. Mathea Falco, The Making of a Drug-Free America: Programs That Work (New York: Times Books, 1992), p. 8.