About 80 percent of state drug control spending goes to the criminal justice system, compared with 20 percent for education and treatment. A 1997 nationwide poll by Peter Hart Research Associates found that the public is more pragmatic than ideological about drug policies and strongly favors a comprehensive approach, which includes prevention, treatment and job training as well as law enforcement. Above all, the public wants programs that work.
Drugs are the common denominator for most offenders in the criminal justice system.
Drug related crime has climbed during the past decade. Drug use is widespread among the 12 million people arrested for all crimes each year, with 50 to 70 percent testing positive for drugs at time of arrest. Women account for the fastest growing population in jails and prisons, largely because of drug offenses. Incarceration alone has not demonstrated a reduction in the substance abuse tendencies of offenders. Without treatment, three in four offenders are rearrested within three years, continuing the costly cycle of addiction and crime.