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Impact of drugs in society
the thesis statement on the latest failure in the war on drugs
Impact of drugs in society
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American law enforcement has made drug enforcement one of its highest priorities for almost forty years. However, more people than ever are beginning to question the true benefits of the Drug War. The President of the United States, Barack Obama has even referred to the Drug War as an “utter failure” in the YouTube video “Barack Obama on Marijuana Decriminalization (2004).” These kinds of negative opinions on the Drug War are not unjustified. The Drug War has cost Americans 33 billion dollars and countless lives (Miron Par. 1). The Drug War is a poor alternative to combat drug use in America as evidenced by the history of Prohibition, the crime it creates, the harmful effects it has on the lives of users, and the numerous deaths it results in. The Drug War is a failed policy and the government must respond by legalizing all recreational drugs. It is common knowledge in the United States that Prohibition is a failure. In the 1920’s alcohol was made illegal by the US government during Prohibition. Rather than preventing alcohol consumption, this only created organized crime groups and a black market for the substance. The policy did not only fail to alleviate the US from drug use, but also lead to the formation of organized criminal associations and dangerous substitutes for these drugs. The same issues apply when drugs are made illegal (Thornton 1). Today there is an immense black market Gross 2 for drugs that helps lead to problems with prostitution, gambling, and even human organs. Society is suffering from the unsuccessful and costly results of prohibition. Although drug regulation has steadily been increasing, drug use and drug related deaths have increased steadily. Even though spending to combat the... ... middle of paper ... ...ition." The Independent Institute. N.p., 2011. Web. 21 June 2011. . Nutt, David. "Ecstasy 'not worse than riding.'" BBC News. BBC News, 7 Feb. 2009. Web. 21 June 2011. . Papa, Anthony. "Will Drug Lord Do Less Time Than the Average American Nonviolent Drug Offender?" HuffPost Politics. N.p., 1 Oct. 2007. Web. 21 June 2011. . "Table 2: Drug War Statistics (1979-2003)." Chart. N.p., 2003. Web. 21 June 2011. . Thornton, Mark. "Alcohol Prohibition Was a Failure." Policy Analysis. CATO Institute. CATO Institute, 17 July 1991. Web. 21 June 2011. .
We live in a “recreational drug culture”, with the current criminalization of illicit drugs being driven by the common but not entirely universally accepted assumption that negative externalities will instead be placed in on society. Addressing the seemingly ever-infinite "war on drugs", in "Why We Should Decriminalize Drug Use", Douglas Husak argues in favour of the decriminalization of drugs in terms of not criminalizing the use of such recreational drugs. In this paper, I will dispute that Kusak 's argument succeeds because of the lack of justification for prohibition, and the counterproductiveness and how numerically evident the ineffectiveness of these contemporary punitive policies are.
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
During the duration of this paper, I will discuss an issue that has been controversial for over a century; prohibition and how it has effected, currently effects, and will, most likey, continue to effect American society. The aspects that I choose to address from this issue are political, historical, they make you wonder, and they should effect anyone who reads this paper. For decades, the American government has had a restriction or ban on drugs and alcohol. Also for decades, these restrictions have been met with resistance from our society. In the early twentieth century, from 1920 through 1933, it was the prohibition of alcohol. A corrupt time, in which, so called, "criminals" and law makers both manufactured and sold bootlegged alcohol. There was high demand then and everyone was in it for the money, everyone. A time which proved to be a failed attempt by the government to take away what is now one of the United States' top commodities. During the 1970's President Richard Nixon started an ongoing "war on drugs" and every president since Nixon has continued this fight to, somehow, rid the entire country of illicit drugs. Today, a few states have taken a new approach to one of these drugs and eyebrows are being raised to the war on drugs all together. States, such as, California, Washington, and Calorado have loosened their tight grip on prohibiting marijuana and even have medical marijuana dispenseries. This idea has been proven to have boosted those economies, and it has allowed people with cancer to use a medication that actually gives them comfort. However, marijuana is still illegal. Why would we restrict the nation from something that beneficial...
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
It was apparent that Prohibition didn’t achieve its goals, instead, it added to the existing economic and social problems, as well as creating new problems that would be prominent in today’s society. Organized crime grew into an empire, disrespect for the law grew, the per capita consumption of alcohol increased dramatically, city officials fell to gangsters, and the government lost money. It is obvious that prohibition was a miserable failure from all points of view. Reasonable measures were not taken to enforce the laws, so they were practically ignored.
So long as people continue to use illicit drugs, the drug trade and all the problems that go with it will continue. This fact has led to an enormous debate as to whether legalizing drug use will reduce the problem. Many think that, if drugs were legalized, this would take the profit out of the sales, and reduce the drug cartels’ ability to generate the revenues necessary to conduct their operations. Legalization of drugs also would enable the U.S. government to tax the sale of drugs, and to use those revenues for programs designed to help stop people from using them. That debate, however, is the subject of another civics presentation.
However, before the specific outcomes of Congressional influence and policy impact can be evaluated it becomes important to first review the general history and current situation of drugs today. Our present drug laws were first enacted at the beginning of the century. 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 United States in the early 20th century. This temperance movement culminated in the prohibition of alcohol from 1920 to 1933. Recreational drug use, particularly heroin, became more prevalent among the urban poor during the early ?60s. Because of the high cost of heroin and its uncertain purity, its use was associated with crime and frequent overdoses.
Prohibition is possibly one of the most memorable events in the history of the United States. The 18th Amendment and eventually the Volstead Act created the law that made it illegal to produce, sell and the transport of alcohol over .5%. Although to most it seemed like a good idea, prohibition promoted the likes of criminal entrepreneurs. Numerous government officials were apprehended in night-clubs and speakeasies but never punished. At the time prohibition was also separating the social classes and making issues for those less prominent in the community. Holes in the government’s plans were beginning to show through leading up to the 21st Amendment and the ratification of the 13th. Prohibition failed to limit consumption and was actually costing the US more than originally expected. However according to Dr. Jack Blocker’s article, “Alcohol Prohibition as a Public Health Innovation” the claim that prohibition failed is actually false and failed only because voters became blinded by priorities over the Great Depression. With the amount of money being made on the illegal sale of alcohol was consumption really limited, or did Americans see a chance to overcome poverty and ratify the Amendment.
The 1920’s was a time of major social change in the United States. The social changes during this period are reflected in the laws and regulations that were implemented. One of the most prominent examples of this was prohibition. The 18th Amendment to the Constitution, or the Volsted act as it is also know, was implemented to eliminate the use of alcohol in the United States. In doing this, the advocates of prohibition hoped to also eradicate the social problems associated with alcohol. “It was an attempt to promote Protestant middle-class culture as a means of imposing order on a disorderly world”(Dumenil 226). However, this goal of keeping social order through not consuming alcohol, was not reached during the years of prohibition, or even the years following it. Alcohol use among Americans did decline, but it was not totally eliminated, and some of the social problems were even greater then before prohibition. Therefore prohibition was not successful in its original purpose. To best understand the reasons behind the failure of prohibition, we have to look at the years before, during, and after prohibition. This will give context to the implementation of the 18th Amendment, as well as show the trends of Americans’ alcohol use and the effects of alcohol on American society.
This topic is very controversial topic because it deals with a growing body of citizens whose lives have greatly been affected by the United States government drug policies. In order to tackle the problem effectively, we need to look how it relates to economic problems, health issues, the criminal justice system and etc in our communities I look at bureau of justice statistics for statistics on National Drug Budget control, National household survey on drug abuse, prison statistics and book written by scholars on the issue.
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...
Prohibition not only failed in its promise to curb the social problem created by alcohol. It actually promoted s...
These are the two lines of reasoning I will take to argue against drug prohibition in this paper. After giving a brief history of prohibition, I will show that it is wrong in principal and that there is no moral basis for this policy. I will then show that, regardless of moral considerations, prohibition has not and probably cannot work, and more specifically that the "war on drugs" has been a disaster which should be ended immediately. I will then conclude by discussing possible consequences of legalization.
Moore, L. D., & Elkavich, A. (2008). Who's Using and Who's Doing Time: Incarceration, the War on Drugs, and Public Health. American Journal Of Public Health, 98(5), 782-786.
Recreational drug use has been controversial for years. Government has deemed the use of certain drugs to be dangerous, addictive, costly, and fatal. Governmental agencies have passed laws to make drugs illegal and then have focused a great deal of attention and money trying to prohibit the use of these drugs, and many people support these sanctions because they view the illegality of drugs to be the main protection against the destruction of our society (Trebach, n.d.). Restricting behavior doesn’t generally stop people from engaging in that behavior; prohibition tends to result in people finding more creative ways to obtain and use drugs. However, just knowing that trying to control people’s behavior by criminalizing drug use does not work still leaves us looking for a solution, so what other options exist? This paper will discuss the pros and cons about one option: decriminalizing drugs.