“Rockefeller Drug Laws”
In May of 1973, New York’s Governor, Nelson Rockefeller, made a set of strict anti-drug laws for the state legislature. The purpose of these laws was to stop the drug abuse epidemic that was occurring in New York during the early 1970’s. It was the most severe law in the nation; the drug laws were to punish those who possessed and sold heavy amounts of narcotics like cocaine and heroine and to hold them in custody for the amount they possessed or sold. For example, if the person was caught with the possession of two or four ounces of drugs on them the minimum time in a federal prison would be 15 years to life, no matter what age (if the offender was of 15 years of age or older). Many problems began to occur concerning the laws, also there were many critiques concerning weather or not it would work and be kept as a law.
The Rockefeller Drug Laws is still one of the most brutal drug laws in the nation because of its ground breaking punishments. The laws state specifically that, “the statutes require judges to impose a sentence of 15-years to life for anyone convicted of selling two ounces, or possessing four ounces of "narcotic drugs". This made it clear for all those that were “dealing drugs” that this was a no-nonsense rule. This was the beginning of up coming events in history that lead to protests and also very famous summits done by family members of people in prison under the unfair ruling, friends and supports of those against the harsh laws to keep drugs off the streets.
The purpose of the laws was to provide protection and isolation from people who were not yet involved with the drug epidemic. Also, it provided peace of mind for politicians that wanted to get the drug dealers off the streets permanently. For New York the drug war had just begun. Many people were for the new laws; they saw drug dealing as if it were just like murder because the death rate from narcotics at the time was increasingly high and the danger of the drugs being on the streets was worse. The consequences of these laws have become even exaggeratedly ridiculous. In many cases a first time drug offender being charged under these laws can receive a higher sentencing then a person convicted of murder or rape. This meant that by possessing a kilo of cocaine or...
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...al job. I feel that not everyone that deals should be sentence to prison. Just because a first time offender is carrying a certain amount of kilograms, they are sentences according to that. This is injustice because a person who may have committed other minor crimes may be charged the same way as a person who made a mistake for the first time. Besides that sentencing everyone that makes a crime is extremely expensive. People who don’t have any type of connections with people who are place in prison have to be paying money to maintain them in prison.
As we all know, drug dealing is still going on and it won’t be stopping any time soon. As you have read, even though the Rockefeller Drug Laws had so much demands upon it, still many continued to do it. In the article we read in class “Criminal Justice through the looking Glass, or winning by losing” illustrates how effective laws aren’t. one thing he says “I will not go so far to say that the criminal justice policy has made no contribution to the drop in crime rates.” Therefore, crime will always continue and what we should be worrying about is how to help these individuals who are making these crimes.
My family has a saying that we all use religiously “FITFO” it stands for Figure it the F*** Out. You don’t, or at least shouldn’t, have to be told how to do everything. Be responsible for your own skills and abilities. It’s like they say about learning a language, “you learn it best by submission”. You pick up all the slang and different accents by hearing the language spoken, not in the classroom. Same in many aspects of life. You may learn generalizations about some things from being taught, but the best wat to really learn all of the small things and specific details is by going out and doing
On January 3, 1973 Governor Nelson R. Rockefeller first proposed to create new drug laws that would help fight the current war on drugs that was taking over New York City. Rockefeller proposed to sentence anyone who committed a level A-1 felony, which is the highest level, would be sentence to minimum 15 years to life in prison. There was much controversy on these laws. Some were happy that a stand was finally being made; they wanted the streets to be cleaned of drugs. Others saw it as a racism tactic, to put all African Americans and Hispanics behind bars. In the end these new drug laws went into effect on May 8 1973 and were named after Rockefeller himself, Rockefeller drug laws.
At the time, recreational use of narcotics was not a major social issue. The first regulatory legislation was for the purpose of standardizing the manufacturing and purity of pharmaceutical products. Shortly after, the first criminal laws were enacted which addressed opium products and cocaine. Although some states had prohibited the recreational use of marijuana, there was no federal criminal legislation until 1937. By contrast, the use of alcohol and its legality was a major social issue in the United States in the early 20th century.
After creating a pure and perfect world which he declared “good,” God experienced His first disappointment in humans. When He placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and instructed them not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Adam and Eve made the decision to disobey God and eat from it. According to the Old Testament, this decision gave Adam and Eve’s descendants (all humans) their sinful human nature, which as a result separated those who did not repent from God’s grace. Eventually the world was full of wickedness and a new side of YHWH came out. The God of unconditional love who is often thought of tended to be a God ...
The US has a complex patch that has been demonstrated in its framework and enforcement practices that are associated with drug laws. A number of federal and state policies have been formulated that sometimes seem to overlap hence giving rise to a number of conflicts among the different level of governments. This essay will explore and demonstrate the federal drug policy that the US Federal Government is designing and the issues of federalism that the policy raises.
In the Book of Exodus the relationship between god and man was similar to relation between a master and servant or in other words a king and a subject respectively. God says “you shall speak all that I command you”(Exodus,7:2), it is very clear through this vision that Moses had that God wanted to have dominion and control over peo...
If drugs posed little or no threat to society, why were they prohibited? Initially, drug laws were enacted not to prohibit drugs, but regulate them. The Harrison Narcotics Act was, on its face, a reve...
The following is a summary of the President’s policy emphasizing on the President’s stated objectives. Stopping drug use before it starts, providing drug treatment, and attacking the economic basis of the drug trade are the main positions the President stressed. The President’s policy was analyzed by the important tasks played by law enforcement, schools and the community. The apprehension of major drug organizations will be explained how they attribute to the policy. The effectiveness of the President’s drug policy will also be evaluated.
It wasn’t until elementary school that I noticed I started to develop literacy skills. I was never big into reading. Writing has always been easier for me, but I would say the 2nd grade is when I realized how important being able to read and write was, to be successful in life. I really can’t remember a time that I have actually read a book from start to finish and I don’t have much literacy history, because I was the only child and I always found other ways to keep myself occupied. My parents both worked full time jobs and long hours so the subject was never pressed on me when I was at home. I was pretty responsible as a child. I would go to and from school on my bicycle, then after school, I would do my homework and my chores before I went outside to play. When I was in school, I always had a lot of friends, so reading and writing never really fit in to my schedule at all. I knew at an early age, that I didn’t really care about literacy.
During that time, cocaine was the most abused drug, followed by heroin, which usage was rampant among African-Americans. The popularity of cocaine continued to grow among middle-class Americans as it was processed into smaller blocks to enhance easy acquisition by people from different social classes. As a result, the Antidrug Act of 1986 was established to discourage the use of “crack” by introducing the 100:1 ratio, which meant that a person found with 50g of crack would be imprisoned for ten years.
Marijuana, acid, and heroin were being used liberally in the 1960s by a generation that embraced drugs as part of a new cultural movement. Later in 1969, studies would link drug use with crime. People looked to the government to aid the situation. In 1970, the Narcotics Treatment Administration was founded to try to control drug use. That same year President Richard Nixon established the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act, he coined it “the war on drugs”. Title II of this act, the Controlled Substance Act, brought together many laws passed since the Harrison Narcotics tax act of 1914. It put drugs into categories called schedules in accordance with their potential for abuse. The CSA also set forth regulations on who and how these drugs would be handled and also put into place harsh penalties for the illegal h...
I used to have to take these tests about all the books I would read in school and I would always ace them all. I knew that reading was something I liked because I was always very intrigued by it. Also in middle school I found my true writing voice. I remember taking a creative writing class in six grade and I was always the student who wrote more than what was expected for my writing assignments. I would write stories about things such as my friends and the experiences that I had in school. Sometimes I would even write my own plays and in my plays the characters would be people in family and people from school. I would always try to make the plot super interesting in my plays. One time I wrote a play about my brothers and me traveling to space and finding aliens. Overall, I really fell in love with literacy throughout my middle school years because I was able to read books more at an advance level and I also was able to write more intense stories. Literacy has been a positive influence in my life all throughout my school
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? In Illicit Drugs and Crime, Bruce L. Benson and David W. Rasmussen (Professors of Economics, Florida State University, and Research Fellows, the Independent Institute), reply with a resounding no.
God always shows love- He showed his love for the Israelites by defeating the Egyptian. In the Exodus 14 the Bible explains how Pharaoh tried to recapture the Israelites. Pharaoh prepared 600 men with him and chased after the Israelites in the wilderness. The Lord saved the Israelites by splitting the Red Sea, and allowing them to cross on dry land. However, the Lord showed his power by closing the Red Sea around the
...id and Job, both of these things are not applied. In this manner, the stories very often violate the same commandments meant to bring not only justice, but also morality, and other such virtues to a society and its people. Further, it is often God himself, in whose image man was created, who violates his own commandments, and due to this, can man be expected to adhere to the same commandments broken by God if he has been created in God's image? God is explicitly unjust, vengeful, and jealous, particularly in the story of Job. If God is to be an example for the ideal being, then how is it that his nature can express the same things he denounces in his guide, The Bible? All of these questions ultimately lead into one main question, which is in regards to whether or not a people who are led by an unjust God truly have the capability of developing a "just society".