Military War on Drugs: Too Many Assets, Too Few Results.

摘要

Over the last two decades more than $179,5 billion have been spent by the Department of Defense (DoD) and other government agencies combating the importation and illegal use of drugs into the United States, The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the U.S. military efforts played either a positive, negative, or neutral role in Drug Enforcement Operations (DEO). To determine the effectiveness of the military contributions several questions are asked and answered, The paper looks at various measures of effectiveness (MOE), total costs to the military, and the outcome of the DoD effort It also provides some background on the counterdrug effort and shows drug abuse in America is nothing new, Current measures of effectiveness (MOE) for drug enforcement operations include the 'retail' or 'street' price of drugs in various US cities, which reflects the supply of illegal drugs, The second government measure is the amount of drugs seized each year, This paper shows how inadequate these measures are for describing the success or failure of counterdrug operations.