DoD Involvement in the Counterdrug Effort

<p>One of the major social issues facing the United States is the flow of illegal narcotics into our country. The costs of this illegal activity are significant. Costs can be measured in the lost health and productivity of individual users as well as the costs required to fight the criminal activity perpetrated both by individual users and the large criminal organizations attracted by the profitability of the drug trade. These costs caused the U.S. Government to declare a War on Drugs in 1989 and to greatly increase the budget allocated to the interdiction of the drug supply. Since the DOD possessed numerous assets that were perfectly suited to interdiction operations the DOD became heavily involved in the War on Drugs. This involvement was extensive from 1989 to 1993 and was instrumental in the successful capture of tons of illegal drugs. In 1993 the Clinton administration decided to shift the emphasis away from interdiction to other areas and decreased the interdiction portion of the budget for FY94. This decrease has continued to the present and according to some observers has reduced the success of the DOD interdiction effort. This paper briefly examines the extent of the overall drug problem in the United States describes the DOD's contribution to America's drug control strategy and its challenges to success and finally addresses why that effort though useful does not need to be increased to previous levels.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>