Fewer DEA Agents For Greater Economic Growth?

DEA Go Away

With our private sector now officially falling short of “just fine,” the failed war on marijuana is something both Obama and Congress should revisit.  Squandering precious federal resources, which in our nation’s fiscal shape means borrowing and paying interest on, for marijuana-related crimes is well past insane at this point.

Here are just a few depressing tidbits on the money sucked out of our economy just to fund the DEA:

• The total cost of the DEA from 1972 to 2009 according to the agency website was $536,367,800,000.00 with 10,784 employees in 2009. For the data available for the years 1986 to 2009, the average cost per arrest made was $9,893.09
• The first budget listed on the DEA’s website is for 1972 with a  budget of $65,200,000.
• The 2011 Budget from the DEA’s website was $2,020,000,000.
• The 2011 DEA Budget is nearly 31 times larger than the 1972 budget.
• The official inflation calculator says inflation from 1972 to 2011 represents a 5.4x increase from 1972.  The DEA’s budget has increased near 31x vs 5.4x for inflation over this 39 year period.

In 2010 alone, there were 853,839 marijuana arrests in the US.  What’s the future GDP impact on our economy when these criminals take a hit to their lifetime earning potential due to having a record and serving time?

A March 2012 Forbes article, cites great statistics and examples on how it impacts businesses, investors, and individuals.  Here’s some food for thought from Forbes on the impact of creating a drug prison society:

“Today, tens of millions of Americans — would-be consumers – because they have been convicted of a drug offense, aren’t earning what they could earn without a record. Our prison population, estimated as high as 2.3 million persons, is out of the car market. Ford and GM should calculate how many cars they could sell in the U.S. if our imprisonment rates were close to those of their European or Japanese competitors (instead of 7-to-10 times higher). How many cars could they sell if tens of millions of Americans did not have a conviction-suppressed income? A reduced average household income and credit capacity suppresses sales of goods and services for almost every American business. While most of those offenses were instances of youthful bad judgment, the consequences for the economy last for decades.”

Stop funneling taxpayer money into the failed war on marijuana to cater to special interests of the few who profit from inflicting prohibition upon us.  Prohibition is causing emotional, physical, and financial harm all over our country.  It’s hard it argue that the costs of prohibition far outweigh the benefits to society given all the human suffering.

Source Articles and Statistics: 

• http://www.justice.gov/dea/agency/staffing.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_Enforcement_Administration
• http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Crime#Total