The Wire

What’s more important: fighting drug dealers, or the effects of drugs themselves? Federal and State/Territory governments seem to believe the former, according to the first major review of Australian drug policy since 2003. The “Government Drug Policy Expenditure in Australia 2009/10” report, by a team from the University of New South Wales, says Australia is now spending around $1.7bn a year on its drug war. But two-thirds of that is allocated to law enforcement, instead of dealing with prevention, treatment and harm reduction.