Drug Use

Drug abuse takes a toll on society that can only be partially measured. While we are able to estimate the number of drug-related crimes that occur each year, we can never determine fully the extent to which the quality of life in America’s neighborhoods has been diminished by drug-related criminal behavior. With the exception of drug-related homicides, which have declined in recent years, drug-related crime is continuing at a strong and steady pace. Numerous …

…the illegal activity that produced them being detected. Money laundering provides financial fuel not only for drug dealers but for terrorists, arms dealers, and other criminals who operate and expand criminal enterprises. Drug trafficking generates tens of billions of dollars a year; the total amount of money involved cannot be calculated precisely. In September 1996, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) estimated that 60 percent of the money laundering cases it investigated during that fiscal year were drug-related.54