Dr. Carl Hart on drug policy: what the evidence says · JRE #1593
SUBJECT: DRUG POLICY
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
we spend $40 billion a year on this kind of thing. Most of the money goes to law enforcement, prison industry, the sort of businesses that have been built up around that, like phone companies
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
Hart asserted that the US spends about $40 billion a year on the drug war, with most of it going to law enforcement, prisons, and adjacent businesses such as prison phone companies. The federal government's own budget documents put total federal drug control funding at roughly $33-35 billion for FY2018-FY2020, in the same range as Hart's figure, spread across DOJ, DOD, HHS, ONDCP, and several other agencies; this does not include additional state and local spending on drug enforcement and incarceration, which independent estimates put in the tens of billions more per year. However, that federal budget breakdown does not show a clean majority of funding going specifically to law enforcement and prisons as opposed to health and treatment agencies (HHS, SAMHSA, VA also receive large shares), so the precise claim that "most" of the $40 billion goes to law enforcement, the prison industry, and businesses like phone companies could not be confirmed from this source. The overall order of magnitude is consistent with government data, but the allocation breakdown in the quote remains unverified.