Drug Policy Essay

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Recommended: Effects of illicit drugs in the society

IA29765 Page 1
ID: IA29765 To: Dept. of State, U.S. From: Civil Society Consulting Scenario: A Date: February 24, 2014 Word Count: 1765
RETHINKING AMERICAN DRUG POLICY: LET THERE BE WAR, BUT LESSER ENEMIES
“After 40 years of pedaling and pedaling very hard, sometimes you look to your left, you look to your right, and you are almost in the same position. So you have to ask yourself: Are we doing the correct thing?” - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on drug war (Forero, 2012)
1. Introduction In the current scenario, no one is really happy with the American drug policies (Reuter, 2013) which are focused largely on prohibition, and teenagers continue to see drug as number 1 problem being faced by the US (Burrus, Sackley, & Sollars, 2007). In June 2011, the Global Commission on Drug Policy released the Global Commission Report on Drug Policy that called the United States in particular to revise their “rigid approach to drug policy” and the “tough approach to their enforcement”.
2. Outlining the current problem:
Besides failing to achieve its objective (Barakachi, 2013), the current policy has also paved problems on many other grounds, and we would like to outline the most pressing problems cropping out of the failed policies:
A. Hampered Administration of Justice and Civil Rights
The effect of drug prohibition on crime has compromised the total administration of justice in American society, sapping resources from the civil and family courts in order to process the huge number of drug-related cases in the criminal courts (King County Bar Association Board Report, 2005). The same report also states that courts over-burdened with drug-related cases often fail to deliver justice, as over-burdening in such cases lead to hasty bargain...

... middle of paper ...

...tes the situation.
4. CONCLUSION
As a voice of the American civil society, we believe that our current approach to drug policy is never going to be effective. We have proposed the policies accordingly, and we strongly believe that these suggested policies will cast beneficial impact on various relevant stakeholders. Victims are by far the most benefitted side, manufacturers and sellers will benefit by extinction of
IA29765 Page 5 black markets, government will benefit both- financially and diplomatically by taxes earned, money saved and bettered foreign relations, drug industry will benefit by more option towards further research on medicinal value of certain drugs, and overall, the whole society and hence the nation is benefitted.
The proposed policy aims for an economic, criminal justice and human right based condition, which our organization strives for as well.

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