The global war on drugs began in 1961, when the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs was established in order to create a "drug-free world."

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime puts out an annual "World Drug Report" wherein they examine trends in drug use and production. However, the report never cares to assess the costs created by the war on drugs itself, which are the real problem to begin with.

A new organization, Count the Costs, has decided it's time for an assessment. To this end, they have compiled a comprehensive report detailing the death and destruction the war on drugs has directly caused around the world over the past 50 years.

Unfortunately, as Count the Costs points out, the saddest effect of the war on drugs is that "the centrality of criminalizing users means that in reality a war on drugs is to a significant degree, a war on drug users – a war on people."