A report at Alternet gives some context to the amount spent by the U.S. on its drug policy.
The article goes into further details on the number, including:
On May 28, a team of police officers raided the Phonesavanh's home, with the mistaken belief that the residents were involved with drugs. As they entered, they tossed a flashbang grenade that landed directly in the crib of baby Bou Bou, which exploded within point-blank range - critically injuring him.
In a harrowing article, his mother, Alecia, described seeing "a singed crib" and "a pool of blood", and later being informed by medics: "There's still a hole in his chest that exposes his ribs". Alecia said that the sole silver lining to this story is that it may "make us angry enough that we stop accepting brutal SWAT raids as a normal way to fight the war on drugs".
Fortunately, Bou Bou has been making a gradual recovery, but his family is relying on donations to support their living and medical costs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @05:43PM
> That's not 1,100 drug violence related deaths... that's 1,100 people killed by the militarized police.
Bingo.
For what it's worth, this AC's understanding is that the majority of gun-murders are drug related. Either directly as in turf wars and transactions gone bad or indirectly as in robberies to get drug money being escalated or just people getting all tweaked up and shooting someone for a minor slight.