DEA fails White House budget review

February 12, 2003 6:18 PM

DEA fails White House budget review.(PDF) Busy raiding the homes of disabled medical marijuana users, the DEA has been, in the words of the White House Office of Management and Budget, "unable to demonstrate its progress in reducing the availability of illegal drugs in the U.S." [via MPP]
posted by botono9 (7 comments total)

A surprisingly candid assessment. Doesn't look like it will change anything, unfortunately: "In response to these findings, the Administration will ensure that DEA collects appropriate performance information."
posted by Zonker at 6:36 PM on February 12, 2003

My prediction: this will be spun as proof that the department is terribly underfunded, and needs much more money in order to do an effective job.
posted by Dirjy at 6:39 PM on February 12, 2003

What? The DEA hasn't been successful in winning the war on drugs???? When did this happen??!!??
posted by lazaruslong at 7:07 PM on February 12, 2003

The most interesting part of that report, in my opinion, is that nobody had previously attempted to measure the reduction in drug flow. They apparently were basing their success solely on how many people got put behind bars which is, in my opinion, the only metric I can imagine that would show them as a success.
posted by mosch at 8:00 PM on February 12, 2003

No, no. The correct metric is the profitability of private prisons. The "War on Drugs" exists to provide prison funding, vis-a-vis per-inmate payments to the companies that run American prisons.

Were there no "War on Drugs", these private companies would fold.
posted by five fresh fish at 8:29 PM on February 12, 2003

Were there no War on Drugs, not only would the private companies fold, but think about the jobs that have been created on the public level: additional police, correction officers, rehab facilitators, the list goes on and on. In a country where more prisons have been built and staffed than places of education for the last twenty years, one must assume economic collapse in reversing current drug laws which are used to fill said prisons, etc. What would the government do with that level of unemployment. Face it, we're stuck with this monster we've created.
posted by LouReedsSon at 9:36 PM on February 12, 2003

Indeed. It is one's patriotic duty to smoke pot, get busted, and spend time in in big house -- it's what keeps the wheels of commerce turning in America!

[cue soaring mom-and-apple-pie music]
posted by five fresh fish at 8:11 AM on February 13, 2003