The Seven Costs

Click the image to the right to view the Seven Costs Summary Briefing.

The disastrous unintended consequences of the war on drugs are so obvious even the UN Office on Drugs and Crime – the agency which oversees the current system – has been forced to acknowledge they exist. However, shockingly, neither they nor anyone else has ever properly assessed whether the costs of this war outweigh its benefits.

During this 50th anniversary year of the treaty that underpins the drug war, the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, this website will become a major resource library detailing evidence of the harms it causes.

We have divided them into seven sections for convenience, but inevitably they overlap with each other.

If you have any images, videos, reports, articles, web-links or other materials from anywhere in the world you feel should be here, please submit them to info@countthecosts.org.

This collection will be expanded and updated over in the coming years with support of project partners.

The Count the Costs website is an evolving resource that will host examples of the devastating costs of the war on drugs. It is a work in progress which will develop throughout 2011. At this stage it can be viewed as partially filled library shelves that you can help to fill with appropriate material (see here for more information).