Target America: Opening Eyes to the Damage Drugs Cause September 4, 2010

'Target America: Opening Eyes to the Damage Drugs Cause' is an exhibit from the Drug Enforcement Administration Museum that began a national tour in 2002. With newly expanded content and a section specific to Louisiana, the exhibit presents both a global and historical overview of the many costs and consequences of drugs on society. Most Americans are unaware of the science behind the damaging effects of illegal drugs on the mind and body, or of the other tremendous costs associated with the production, sale and use of illegal drugs. The costs to society-estimated at more than $180 billion a year-are born by all of us in some way. Despite the fact that the vast majority of Americans are not drug users, we pay for users' lost productivity, their health care, criminal justice costs, child welfare costs, and the impact their drug use has on our own health and safety. This exhibit is designed to open eyes to the science behind illegal drug addiction and the myriad costs of illegal drugs-to individuals, American society and the world-and to provide food for thought on how each and every one of us can make a difference.