It's too bad this is on a blog!

But at least it is a blog affiliated with the Washington Post.

My question is, why isn't this THE news?

The following chart shows that even as we've locked up more and more people in prison and jail, the price of cocaine and heroin is falling.

 



One of the stated goals of drug policy is to drive UP the prices of these drugs. As they get more expensive, less people will be able to afford them, thereby driving down use.

Clearly this has not happened.

And when you consider that, during these same years, we've spent more and more and more money every year fighting the drug war (now in the tens of billions of dollars every year!), what you see is that what we're getting for our money is money inmates (which costs us more, obviously, in the tens of billions of year every year as well).

Drugs are not less available. Drug use is not down. We are not saving lives (more people are dying every year from drugs).

So why are we still fighting this failing war? And where is the media on this?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/29/the-most-embarrassing-graph-in-american-drug-policy/