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Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day for July 19, 2018
The Number of the Day columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.
July 19, 2018: In 1970, one American out of every 100,000 died of an overdose or related issue. President Richard Nixon declared illegal drugs “public enemy number one,” and Congress created the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 1973. The number of overdose deaths has been rising rapidly ever since. By 2014, 14.7 out of every 100,000 Americans died due to overdoses and related causes. This reflects a 1,370 percent increase in overdose death rates since the creation of the DEA.[1]
In 2014, there were more than 47,000 overdose deaths. Between 2000 and 2014, more people died from overdoses than died in car crashes.
These results are similar to America’s experience with alcohol prohibition. Following the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment banning alcohol in the U.S., consumption of alcohol declined initially before quickly increasing to between 60% and 70% of pre-prohibition levels.
A Cato Institute analysis states that these results are the natural outcome of prohibition policies. The analysis concludes that "prohibition is not only ineffective, but counterproductive, at achieving the goals of policymakers both domestically and abroad. Given the insights from economics and the available data, we find that the domestic War on Drugs has contributed to an increase in drug overdoses and fostered and sustained the creation of powerful drug cartels. Internationally, we find that prohibition not only fails in its own right, but also actively undermines the goals of the Global War on Terror.”
Each weekday, Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day explores interesting and newsworthy topics at the intersection of culture, politics, and technology.
- July 18, 2018 – 52 lower court rulings overturned by Supreme Court in most recent term
- July 17, 2018 – 34 percent of American adults enjoy driving a great deal
- July 16, 2018 – 72 percent of adults very proud to be an American
- July 13, 2018 – 29 percent of Americans have six months of savings in the bank
- July 12, 2018 – 73 percent of incumbent politicians face no primary challenge in 2018
- To see other recent numbers, check out the archive.
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Columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.
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