Supply and Demand
From Augusta to Colombia, the drug war has many fronts
Whether you buy drugs or not, you're paying for them.
Federal and state prisons. County jails. Salaries for police officers, prosecutors and judges. Courthouses. Public assistance. Indigent hospital care. Homeless shelters.
They all consume taxpayers' money, and they're all on the front lines of America's war on drugs.
The U.S. government and local agencies spend billions each year in the fight against drugs at home and abroad. In Augusta, the fight is waged by law enforcement agencies that lock up dealers and junkies and by drug-rehabilitation workers who try to break the cycles of addiction.
Law enforcement officials estimate that 80 percent to 90 percent of criminal cases in Augusta involve narcotics, meaning the war on drugs is becoming one with the war on crime.
"It makes a huge impact on our quality of life because it directly impacts our economy," District Attorney Danny Craig said. "For every individual who falls off the productive side of our economy and into the unproductive side, whether we like it or not, we are called upon to support that person."
The U.S. government is trying to stop the flow of drugs where it starts. In Colombia, where virtually all of the coca used to make Augusta's crack cocaine is grown, the U.S.-backed Colombian military is charged with stomping out drug producers, while government social workers try to persuade impoverished farmers who raise coca - the plant from which cocaine is derived - to grow other crops.
On both fronts, the drug war poses herculean challenges. Today The Augusta Chronicle looks at the battlefields, from the coca farms in war-torn Colombia to devastated lives in Augusta.