Speaking of drugs, Jeralyn linked this New York Times article, about the Senate clearing the way for today's vote, approving the 2010 appropriations bill. The $446,800,000,000 appropriations bill. Jeralyn goes to the Appropriations Commitee, and breaks it down:
Here's the one on crime funding. While there is prevention money in the bill, there's also a lot of funding for the War on Drugs.
Combating Illegal Drugs: $2 billion, $81 million above 2009, to combat illegal drugs through the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). These funds will provide for 128 new DEA positions to help stop the flow of illegal drugs across the Southwest border and to investigate, disrupt and dismantle major Mexican drug cartels.
The FBI does pretty well too, including lots of money for surveillance:
Federal Bureau of Investigation: $7.9 billion, $680 million above 2009, to address national security needs, including cyber crime, potential weapons of mass destruction incidents, and surveillance, as well as criminal law enforcement priorities, such as financial fraud. Included in the total is $101 million for the FBI’s overseas contingency operations, previously funded through supplemental funding requests.
Jeralyn has more, including the funding for immigration enforcement, the Bureau of Prisons, and explicit rules on the Guantanamo detainees. She also breaks down some of the spending on State and Foreign Operations, which includes about a billion dollars for anti-drug "assistance" for our southern neighbors. Including Colombia. For details, go look.
Given teacherken's diary about the misguided priorities of our campaign against drugs, and that little health care issue that's turned into an insurance coverage issue, perhaps it's time we rethought some of our national priorities. How many billions have we now poured into the "War on Drugs?" What do we have to show for it?