Saturday, June 12, 2010

Interesting Stats on the Drug War

Cloaked in a debate on The Factor.
http://reason.com/blog/2010/06/11/sting-cant-be-right-about-the

"A 1994 study (PDF), based on data from the National Comorbidity Survey, estimated that 17 percent of cocaine users qualify for a diagnosis of "substance dependence" at some point in their lives, suggesting that Kelly is off by a factor of more than four. The same data indicate a lifetime addiction rate of 15 percent for alcohol. Data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health also indicatethat addiction rates for alcohol and cocaine are similar.


The entire situation is gut wrenching, and we're a long long way from being willing to admit we're wrong and facing up to the massive change that would result from de-criminalization."


But the simplistic answers are still simplistic.  The affronts to liberty and compromises of government inherent in drug criminalization are too large to pretend they don't exist.

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