War On Drugs As A Social Problem Essay

659 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: War on drugs racism

The problem I want to explore is how the War on Drugs has become a social problem. This is a social problem because it has created an overpopulated prison system disproportionately filled with people of color and the poor.
My assumptions are that this is true and many social activists agree with me. Per our text, conflict theory says “Far-reaching social change is needed to reduce or eliminate social inequality...” I feel that we need far-reaching social change when it comes to the war on drugs. We should be looking for alternatives to battle the drug addiction that drives illegal drug use, offer treatment instead of prison sentences.
Brief History of Drug Prohibition
Racial and ethnic prejudice have played an important role in why some drugs …show more content…

D., and Elkavich, A., 2008). But because white people make up a larger portion of the U.S. population, the number of white drug users is much greater than that of drug users of color. Data from 1998 tells us that whites made up 72 percent of all illegal drug users while African Americans made up 15 percent of illegal drug users (Moore et al., 2008). Even though the number of white drug users is so much greater, African Americans make up nearly 60 percent of the prison population (Moore et al., 2008), and according to National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), they have nearly six times the incarceration rate of whites. African American drug offenders have a 20 percent greater chance of going to prison than white drug offenders (The Sentencing Project).
Claims-makers such as social change groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA); politicians, both democrat and republican; and even President Obama define this as a social problem. According to Schmidt (2015) in April 2014, the Unites States Sentencing Commission reduced the penalties for many nonviolent crimes. This led to President Obama releasing 6,000 non-violent prisoners. More prisoners had their sentences reduced and will leave prison

Show More
Related

  • The House I Live Documentary Analysis

    874 Words  | 2 Pages

    Human rights experts have reported that in the 70s, African Americans in the U.S were already being overrepresented in drug arrests, with twice as many arrests as Caucasians (Fellner, 2009). Since the war on drugs began, African

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Disparities In Criminal Justice

    1217 Words  | 3 Pages

    criminal justice system. If the current trends persist, one out of every three African American men can expect to go to prison over the course of his life, as can one out of every six Latino males, compared to only one in seventeen white males (Bonczar 2003). For females, the figures are significantly lower, but racial and ethnic disparities are very similar. For instance, one out of every eighteen African American females can expect to go to prison, as can one out of every 45 Latino females, and one out of every one-hundred and eleven white females (Bonczar 2003). The racial disparities in imprisonment have been felt the most by young African American males (Western and Pettit 2010). Males are a significant majority of the prison and jail populations, accounting for around ninety percent of the population (Western and Pettit 2010). Racial disparities in incarceration are astounding when one counts the men who have been incarcerated in their lifetime rather than those serving time on any given day (Western and Pettit 2002). For instance, in 1989, approximately two percent of white men in their early thirties had been in prison compared to thirteen percent of African American men in their early thirties (Western and Pettit 2002). These extreme racial disparities disproportionately affect communities of color and have significant collateral effects such as family stress and dissolution,

    Read More

  • Racialized Mass Incarceration in America

    622 Words  | 2 Pages

    Another reason racialized mass incarceration takes place is because of the high rates of poverty and unemployment for inner city African Americans, especially those with low-education and low skill levels. Urban ghettos have been associated with the problem of social disorganization and crime. The biggest reason for this is the war on drugs. There is no substantial proof that verifies African Americans are more involved in illegal drug consumptions than other groups are. However they are arrested more than other groups. Bobo and Thompson stated that blacks are almost 34% involved in drug-related arrests though only 14% of those are among regular illegal drug users. Among drug related convictions, African Americans make up half of the cases whereas only 26% of the white population is convicted. As Bobo and Thompson stated, “Illegal drug consumption seems to know no race. Incarceration for drug-related charges, however, is something visited in a heavily biased manner on African Americans.”

    Read More

  • I Support the Decriminalization of All Drugs

    1134 Words  | 3 Pages

    We claim that we need to "set a good example," but the government's every effort to impress fear upon our youth, to stigmatize drugs and drug users, has failed to have any effect.... ... middle of paper ... ... Ideally, I would not have to persuade my readers with facts.

    Read More

  • The Tipping Point in the War on Drugs

    1843 Words  | 4 Pages

    An important application is how tipping points and trend lines apply to the present status and future course of the war on drugs. According to Webster’s dictionary, a war is the “organized effort by a government or other large organization to stop or defeat something that is viewed as dangerous or bad” (Merriam-Weber’s online dictionary, n.d.). Most people will unanimously agree that drugs and alcohol are bad and at least potentially dangerous, especially in the case substance abuse. Alcohol, drugs, and synthetic substances are associated with crime, violence, moral decay, brain damage, higher high school dropout rates, a multitude of health issues, and a myriad of other societal issues. As a society, Americans actually pay a high toll for substance abuse. The bill for tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug abuse costs Americans more than $600 billion annually in areas such as crime, unemployment, loss of productivity, and health care cost ( National Institute on Drug Abuse, n.d.). Based upon these facts, it ma...

    Read More

  • The War On Drugs: The New Jim Crow

    1241 Words  | 3 Pages

    The War on Drugs is believed to help with many problems in today’s society such as realizing the rise of crime rates and the uprooting of violent offenders and drug kingpin. Michelle Alexander explains that the War on Drugs is a new way to control society much like how Jim Crow did after the Civil War. There are many misconceptions about the War on Drugs; commonly people believe that it’s helping society with getting rid of those who are dangerous to the general public. The War on Drugs is similar to Jim Crow by hiding the real intention behind Mass Incarceration of people of color. The War on Drugs is used to take away rights of those who get incarcerated. When they plead guilty, they will lose their right to vote and have to check application

    Read More

  • Racism In The Criminal Justice System Essay

    930 Words  | 2 Pages

    Department of Justice. African Americans are arrested for drug offenses at rates 2 to 11 times higher than the rate for whites – according to a May 2009 report on disparity in drug arrests by Human Rights Watch.”

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Incarceration

    1529 Words  | 4 Pages

    In today's world, it seems like all too often we have woken up to another mass shooting, terrorist attack, or hate crime. However, the injustice does not end with the perpetrator. These acts of violence and hate are terrifying and receive a lot of media attention, yet there are many injustices that continue to permeate our society that are not often discussed. One of these is our incarceration system. The system is flawed and oversaturated with nonviolent drug offenders. Out of the approximately 2.2 million people in our nation’s prisons and jails, about one in four are locked up for a nonviolent drug offense (Criminal Justice Facts). According to the Department of Corrections, the largest single category of offense among prisoners is “drug

    Read More

  • The Death Penalty and Race

    3903 Words  | 8 Pages

    There are so many more African-Americans than whites in our prisons that the difference cannot be explained by higher crime among African- Americans - racial discrimination is also at work, and it penalizes African- Americans at almost every juncture in the criminal justice system.1

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Alcoholics Anonymous

    1641 Words  | 4 Pages

    A “drug-free society” has never existed, and probably will never exist, regardless of the many drug laws in place. Over the past 100 years, the government has made numerous efforts to control access to certain drugs that are too dangerous or too likely to produce dependence. Many refer to the development of drug laws as a “war on drugs,” because of the vast growth of expenditures and wide range of drugs now controlled. The concept of a “war on drugs” reflects the perspective that some drugs are evil and war must be conducted against the substances

    Read More

  • Functionalist and Interactionalist Perspective on Illegal Drugs

    1019 Words  | 3 Pages

    The war on drugs in our culture is a continuous action that is swiftly lessening our society. This has been going on for roughly 10-15 years and has yet to slow down in any way. Drugs continue to be a problem for the obvious reason that certain people abuse them in a way that can lead to ultimate harm on such a person. These drugs do not just consist of street drugs (marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy), but prescription medications as well. Although there are some instances where drugs are being used by subjects excessively, there has been medical research to prove that some of these drugs have made a successful impact on certain disorders and diseases.

    Read More

  • Democratic Party Persuasive Essay

    665 Words  | 2 Pages

    Since 1985 incarceration rates have sky rocketed in the US, going from 300,000 prisoners to over 2 million within the span of thirty years. .Drug convictions, which make-up roughly two-thirds of the increases at the Federal level and half of the increases

    Read More

  • The War on Drugs: The House I live In Documentary

    927 Words  | 2 Pages

    When it comes to the topic of war on drugs,most of us will readily agree that the war on drugs is not about the drugs But about the people. Many Politicians and law enforcement will argue that the war on drugs is about our nation's wealth and safety.however they don't see the destruction the war on drugs has caused; The war on drugs has recreated this new system of discrimination among the minority community, individuals and communities are being profiled,their rights as citizen are being seized ,individuals being stripped away from their families. They’re being locked up with no hope to live the American dream in their our country.

    Read More

  • Why the Death Penalty Should Be Abolished

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    The statistics say that African Americans are twelve percent of the U.S. population, but are 43 percent of the prisoners on death row. Although blacks make up 50 percent of all murder victims, 83 percent of the victims in death penalty cases are white. Since 1976, only ten executions have involved a white defendant who killed a black victim.... ... middle of paper ...

    Read More

  • The Failure of the War on Drugs

    1021 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the early 1980s, policymakers and law enforcement officials stepped up efforts to combat the trafficking and use of illicit drugs. This was the popular “war on drugs,” hailed by conservatives and liberals alike as a means to restore order and hope to communities and families plagued by anti-social or self-destructive pathologies. By reducing illicit drug use, many claimed, the drug war would significantly reduce the rate of serious nondrug crimes - robbery, assault, rape, homicide and the like. Has the drug war succeeded in doing so?

    Read More

More about War On Drugs As A Social Problem Essay

Open Document