DoD Involvement in the Counterdrug Effort

One of the major social issues facing the United States is the flow of illegal narcotics into our country. The costs of this illegal activity are significant. Costs can be measured in the lost health and productivity of individual users, as well as the costs required to fight the criminal activity perpetrated both by individual users and the large criminal organizations attracted by the profitability of the drug trade. These costs caused the U.S. Government to declare a "War on Drugs" in 1989 and to greatly increase the budget allocated to the interdiction of the drug supply. Since the DOD possessed numerous assets that were perfectly suited to interdiction operations, the DOD became heavily involved in the War on Drugs. This involvement was extensive from 1989 to 1993 and was instrumental in the successful capture of tons of illegal drugs. In 1993, the Clinton administration decided to shift the emphasis away from interdiction to other areas, and decreased the interdiction portion of the budget for FY94. This decrease has continued to the present and, according to some observers, has reduced the success of the DOD interdiction effort. This paper briefly examines the extent of the overall drug problem in the United States, describes the DOD's contribution to America's drug control strategy and its challenges to success, and finally addresses why that effort, though useful, does not need to be increased to previous levels.