THE WAR AT HOME

The rules of engagement for Ronald Reagan’s war on crime and drugs were unambiguous, as was the frame he chose to tell Americans who was to blame for the problem and where its solution lay. According to the President: “[T]he war on crime will only be won when an attitude of mind and a change of heart take place in America--when certain truths take hold again…truths like: right and wrong matters; individuals are responsible for their actions; retribution should be swift and sure for those who prey on the innocent” (Beckett 1997:47).

From the time that Reagan declared his first war on drugs in late 1982 the signs of mobilization were clear. Arrests for drug law violations, a measure especially sensitive to police activity, increased from 676,000 in 1982 to 1,579,600 in 2000--a 134% increase (Dorsey 2001). After George Bush Sr. launched his own war on drugs in 1988, spending on drug control increased from $6.6B to $18.8B, a rise of 182% over 14 years (Dorsey 2001). Furthermore, under Reagan’s watch between 1982 and 1988, total federal expenditure on justice increased by 99%. Between 1988 and 1999, however, federal spending on police, courts and corrections really came into its own and ballooned by 210%. Similarly, state law enforcement, correction and justice expenditures between 1982 and 1999 grew by 393%, and local costs increased by 257% (Gifford 2002).

By contrast, per capita justice spending in Canada decreased during the 1990s and in 2000 was 3% lower than it was in 1990 (Taylor-Butts 2002). Similarly, although Statistics Canada reports that the overall rate of police-reported drug offences increased by 12% between 1993 and 1997, the long-term trend generally remained stable over the 15 years between 1983 and 1998, the apex of the drug war years.

While twenty years ago Canadian and American rates were virtually identical, the rate of individuals charged/arrested for drug violations was about three times lower in Canada in 2000 than the rate in the United States. Charges for drug possession account for 56% of all drug offences in Canada, compared to four out of five American drug offences. In 2000, drug possession represented an approximate rate of 454 arrests per 100,000 Americans, compared with 100 per 100,000 in Canada. Since 1980 the American rate of individuals charged/arrested for drug violation has increased by 117% while the Canadian rate has actually dropped by 29% (Gannon 2001).

In the U.S., changes in federal law during the 1980s and 1990s had a significant impact on the processing of drug offenders. Many offenders are subject to statutory minimum sentences and all federal offenders sentenced to a term of imprisonment are required to serve 87% of the sentence imposed. During the past twenty years, the proportion of American drug defendants sentenced to terms of incarceration rose from 72% in 1984 to 89% during 1999, and two-thirds of the latter were subject to statutory minimum sentences. Sentences imposed on drug offenders increased from 62 months, on average, to 74 months between 1986 and 1999. The proportion of the sentence that drug offenders could expect to serve also rose from 48% to 87% during this time (Scalia 2001).

In Canada there was strong variation in sentencing practices from province to province with Yukon, Alberta and Newfoundland leading the country as the provinces that imposed the highest proportions of prison sentences for drug trafficking (these range from 78% to 83%). However, less than six in ten persons in Quebec and Saskatchewan were sentenced to prison. The longest sentences of imprisonment were imposed in Prince Edward Island and Alberta (medians of 12 months and 8 months respectively). In addition, probation was the most serious sentence imposed in 24% of drug trafficking cases, and fines in 9% of cases (Tremblay 1999).

These are not the figures of a massive war-like mobilization of Canadian resources and public will. Given these figures it is clear that one must look elsewhere for evidence of an all out war on drugs in Canada. Alexander (1990:34) produces some specific and out-of-context instances of politicians’ war-like rhetoric, accounts of incidents of legal and illegal police violence, and cites the awarding of William Deverell’s novel Needles with the 1979 Seal First Novel Award as evidence that “extravagant violence by police towards criminals in the War on Drugs appears to bear the seal of approval of Canadian society.” Such sources are as unreliable as barometers of public policy on drugs or the public attitudes that support it, however, as accounts of sensational crimes in the media are indicative of long-term trends in Canada’s crime statistics.