Drugs are part of the fabric of our culture and the drug epidemic has been a significant social adversary whose harmful effects and ramifications are daily news in our life. Considerable funds and human resources have been drained and exhausted trying to deal with this epidemic in a two-decades, governmental policy of " war on drugs “, yet there is no visible light at the end of the tunnel. What we see instead is a breeding ground for violence, gangs, and organized crime, not to mention the high rise of drug related offenses which overcrowds the court and prison systems and of which more than 80 percent are for possession of an illegal substance. And hence, a major debate on the legalization vs the criminalization of drugs has been at work in which the antiwar on drugs. Supporters presume we will be better off with a policy of legalizing drugs, and both sides of the argument have come up with theories and claims that range from the persuasive to the absurd and from the genuine to the mere propaganda. One of the main arguments put forth by the pro-drug war supporters is the claim that the availability and markdown of illicit drugs would lead to an epidemic of catastrophic …show more content…
So, unless we are to believe that four out five regular users have a child every year, this will be just an exaggeration and a propaganda during which captive monkeys were given free and abundant access to cocaine and the result was monkeys starving themselves to death due to their indulgence in the drug. Now, this is an invalid argument in itself because legalizing drugs don't mean free access to drugs, it just means regulating the prices, and this argument might fit if the opposing argument were to give prison inmates free and abundant access to
Almost everybody on Long Island, and probably all around the world, has been prescribed a drug by a doctor before— whether it was to knock out a nasty virus, or relieve pain post injury or surgery. However, what many people don’t realize is that these drugs can have highly addictive qualities, and more and more people are becoming hooked, specifically teenagers. But when does harmlessly taking a prescription drug to alleviate pain take the turn into the downward spiral of abuse? The answer to that question would be when the user begins taking the drug for the “high” or good feelings brought along with it—certainly not what it was prescribed for (1). The amount of teens that abuse prescription medications has been rapidly increasing in recent
Now is not the time for the United States federal government to decriminalize or legalize illegal drugs, including marijuana. However, nor can the government continue to do nothing about the financially, economically, and socially expensive domestic drug policy it currently follows. The United States Congress should pass legislation to remove mandatory minimum penalties from drug offenses, and the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Prisons should add in-house rehabilitation programs for its incarcerated drug offenders. These policies would increase the cost-effectiveness of current drug policy and reduce crime and drug use, and do not face the political obstacles or have the uncertain consequences of decriminalizing or legalizing drugs.
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...
It is also very important for people to know about this topic because the issue is not only about drugs but also the growth of inequality between the rich and poor, black and white, upper class and lower class in this country. The war of drugs deals with issues about why they were passed through congress and if there were motives that deals connect directly to black communities. The issues where brought about in Dan Baum book entitled “Smoke and Mirrors” where John Erlichmann, the chief domestic affair advisor talk about how the Drug War fever has been escalated and manipulated from its modest beginnings at the start of the Nixon administration and clarifies the various interests which that escalation has served. He talks about the Drug War on “blacks” and “hippies” but politicians could not say that so had to say the War on “heroin” and “Marijuana”. He also said that “We knew drugs were not the health problem we were making it out to be, but there were political benefits to be gained." This shows that there is more to the war of drugs that the government is letting on.
Concerned authorities have focused essentially on criminalization and punishment, to find remedies to the ever-increasing prevalent drug problem. In the name of drug reducing policies, authorities endorse more corrective and expensive drug control methods and officials approve stricter new drug war policies, violating numerous human rights. Regardless of or perhaps because of these efforts, UN agencies estimate the annual revenue generated by the illegal drug industry at $US400 billion, or the equivalent of roughly eight per cent of total international trade (Riley 1998). This trade has increased organized/unorganized crime, corrupted authorities and police officials, raised violence, disrupted economic markets, increased risk of diseases an...
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
Many feel today we are loosing the war on drugs. People consider legalization unnecessary. They feel that it will increase the amount of drug use throughout the world. They state that in many cases, drug users who have quit quit because of trouble with the law. Legalization would eliminate the legal forces that discourage the users from using or selling drugs. They also say that by making drugs legal, the people who have never tried drugs for fear of getting caught by the law will have no reason to be afraid anymore and will become users (Potter 1998).
In my opinion it’s a pointless endeavor that will never succeed as the author graciously points out, comparing it to the prohibition era and it’s direct effect on the expansion of criminal activity and government corruption. The cost of the war on drugs is also absurd with an estimated cost of fifteen-billion dollars by the federal government and even more by some state and local governments. That’s money that could be used elsewhere to benefit the country rather than continue to go to waste. Even if drugs were as big of an issue as some people would like to lead me to believe, the currents means being used to enforce the drugs laws are still costing us more than it is worth - from the cost of enforcement to the number of resources to the number of people being incarcerated on drug charges to the direct expansion of criminal activity - it seems to me that it would clearly be more beneficial to end this “metaphorical war”. Similarly to the author of the article, despite my opinion i won’t dispute the fact that the use of drugs is dangerous and can potentially destroy lives, but that brings us back to Flip and the analogy between harming his computer with unsafe software and his own body through the use of drugs.
In the history of prohibition there has been a constant pattern that the black markets produce low quality, highly potent, and dangerous products. By legalizing drugs, there will be a decrease in the crime rates, the justice system will be able to focus on the ‘actual’ criminals, and the private sector will create jobs and government fund towards the prohibition of drugs can be better spend on more effective methods. The war on drugs is an ongoing problem because
Wolf, M. (2011, June 4). We should declare an end to our disastrous war on drugs. Financial Times. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.proxy.consortiumlibrary.org/docview/870200965?accountid=14473
Walters, John P. "No surrender: the drug war saves lives." National Review 27 Sept. 2004: 41. Student Edition. Web. 19 Mar. 2014.
Drug abuse has been a hot topic for our society due to how stimulants interfere with health, prosperity, and the lives of others in all nations. All drugs have the potential to be misapplied, whether obtained by prescription, over the counter, or illegally. Drug abuse is a despicable disease that affects many helpless people. Majority of those who are beset with this disease go untreated due to health insurance companies who neglect and discriminate this issue. As an outcome of missed opportunities of treatments, abusers become homeless, very ill, or even worst, death.
America has gone through a lot over the years. There have been murders, sex trafficking, wars, drug trade, drug abuse, rape, and so much more. That’s not all im going over today. Today im talking about one of Americas biggest wars. The Drug War.
“Drugs are a waste of time. They destroy your memory and your self-respect and everything that goes along with your self esteem.” - Kurt Cobain. The term “War on Drugs” came about in 1971 during a press conference given by Richard Nixon. Since then, many initiatives have been put into motion to try and stop the tyranny of drugs, although some think that they are failing.
The war on drugs is a very dangerous problem. Very many people are affected by the war on drugs which is one big problem. In this research paper I will be talking about everything you need to know about the war on drugs. I will be talking about who started it, what people are doing to stop and how it is affecting people all over the world etc. Just everything that you could know about the war on drugs.