Police Courts and Corrections

According to Merrill and Fox (1999) the total impact of substance abuse on Federal entitlement programs is more than $77 billion. This constitutes in excess of $66 billion directly associated with substance abuse. Further, the amount of taxpayer dollars spent on substance abuse would accounts for nearly 10% of total Federal spending (Merrill and Fox, 1999). The cost of drug use affects the entire criminal justice system, overburdening current resources at each stage of the arrest, adjudication, incarceration, and post-release supervision process (National Drug Threat Assessment, 2010).

Clearly, police are not equipped to "fight crime" as they are legislatively required to do. Further, the conflicts between state and federal law enforcement components are an unnecessary impedance to effective law enforcement efforts. The importance of effecting change through the various state legislatures, as well as compelling the Federal government to change certain laws according to public desire...
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