I'm not sure if they calculated it the same way as I did, but the figure of £16 billion per annum in the UK matches my own guesstimate of £1.6 bn x 2 x 5.
Addaction describes itself as a charity, but its accounts show that nearly all its income comes from the state, via local councils, grants and the Big Lottery fund.
DrugScope also describes itself as a charity but gets nearly all its income from government grants as well, of course.
Monday 25 February 2008
Cost of the war on drugs
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3 comments:
Did you or they factor in the costs, not just of fighting crimes committed by drug addicts or dealers etc, but in fighting the drugs themselves? For instance, imprisoning dealers and users, searching people for drugs, destroying recovered drugs, police raids, rehab etc etc.
I think their figure covers the second half, my figure covers the first half, I'm not sure to what extent they overlap or not, i.e. true total cost might be their £16 bn plus my £16 bn = £32 bn (or 2% of GDP) assuming no overlap whatsoever.
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