(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today released “Up in Smoke: ONDCP’s Wasted Efforts in the War on Drugs,” an in-depth and ultimately unflattering probe into America’s drug policy.  The report details the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy’s (ONDCP) expensive drug control programs that have failed to produce any meaningful results after 17 years.

“Up in Smoke” shows how ONDCP wastes millions of dollars annually on media advertising and combating state-level legislation.  In fiscal 2005, ONDCP’s $507 million budget will fund recurring programs aimed at cracking down on medical marijuana, subsidizing local law enforcement agencies, and eradicating coca crops in Latin America, all of which have failed to achieve ONDCP’s stated goals of reducing the use, manufacture, and trafficking of illegal drugs. 

“While ONDCP has good intentions, it has become yet another example of the government’s belief that more money will solve the problem,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said.  “The administration needs to remember that the nation’s drug policy is ultimately beholden to the taxpayers for funding, and therefore must exist to serve and protect them — not to fund wasteful programs or extraneous agendas.”        

The report, part of CAGW’s ongoing series of investigative reports entitled Through the Looking Glass, highlights the High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program as an especially wasteful project managed by ONDCP.  The program’s funds were originally targeted to high-intensity areas, concentrating on five “gateway” areas for drugs entering the U.S.: Los Angeles; Houston; New York/New Jersey; South Florida; and the Southwest border.  But as a result of the overly broad distribution of funding — there are now 26 high-intensity areas, including the Midwest (Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska) and the Appalachian Region (Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia) — success in the most vital states has been negligible.  The program has devolved into another method for members of Congress to secure federal tax dollars for pork projects in their districts.  HIDTA dollars are spread so thinly that they offer little help to anyone.

“The High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program was started to combat drugs entering our borders,” Schatz continued.  “But, with non-border states like Colorado and Nebraska receiving money, insufficient dollars are moving to the most at-risk states like Arizona, California, and Texas.”

“Up in Smoke: ONDCP’s Wasted Efforts in the War on Drugs” is available at www.cagw.org.  

Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.