Failures of the Drug War in America - Research Paper Example

Failures of the Drug War in America [The Writer’s Name] [The Name of the Institution] Failures of the Drug War in America The "War on Drugs" in the United States, is a waste of time and a waste of taxpayer's money. Since the war on drugs began, arrests went up 50% however; the number of users and the supply of drugs stayed the same.1 President Bush even wanted to spend more money on the war on drugs. Even though, most cities and states can translate back to spending three quarters of their budget on the war on drugs alone. While, our society can still purchase drugs easier then, buying a bottle of alcohol or a pack of cigarettes, it is hurting our society. There has to be a better way to fight the war on drugs because we have to face it, it is a failure. Incarcerating more and more people for longer and longer amounts of time for drug offences is ridiculous: all we are doing is building more prisoners. 2We are not reducing the amount of drugs in our country. In order to make the war on drugs work, we need to come up with new polices and not keep using the same polices that had failed over and over again.     The war on drugs causes a lot of problems including violence in the United States. People don't understand our drug polices, have a direct relationship to crime. The problem is there can be very large profits made in transporting drugs. People who want to make large profits of money violate our drug laws. This will then make a lot of people who want to make a lot of money violate our drug laws. The transporting and selling of drugs generate into violent crime. Most drug dealers use some sort of intimidation and violence when selling drugs. Violence occurs when rival drug dealers move into other drug dealer's neighborhoods, kill other dealers to make more of a profit, or rip off other drug dealers. Also, because the prices for drugs are so high most drug users commit violent crime in order to get money they need to purchase drugs. As we see, violent crime goes hand-to-hand when it comes to drugs. In almost every city you would see that 80% of all felonies cases are drug related.         Police agencies spend so much time investigating drug offenses; they don't even have time to investigate crimes like homicide. Every dollar we spend on the investigation, prosecution, and incarceration of drug users or drug dealers, is less money to investigate, prosecute, and incarcerate other criminals. Getting "tough" on drugs inevitably translates into getting "soft" on all other offences. 3 Today, our court systems are so backed up. Drug cases and other defendants including murders and rapists get away with softer plea bargains then they really should. Also prosecutors don't have enough time and resources to prosecute them the right way.   Police Corruption is fueled by the war on drugs. 4This is another problem dealing with the war on drugs. The corruption is perpetuated by the police code of silence, an unwritten rule that prohibits police officers from informing on one another's misconduct. As long as the war on drugs continues honest and innocent officers will be transformed into corrupt gangster. The biggest obstacle to change is decade's worth of rhetoric. Immeasurable numbers of Americans have been programmed by this rhetoric to believe the there are no viable alternatives to our current drug policy. Many people oppose change simply because they have not been exposed to our thought about the actual facts of the so-called war on drugs. 5In addition to rhetoric, we also need to come up with new polices for the war on drugs. Education policies are programs that tell people the truth about drugs especially when educating children. Lying or criticizing drugs will not get us anywhere; it is just going to cause more problems. An example of this would be a police officer saying to the general public that marijuana is a gateway drug. Studies shown by doctors show that marijuana is not a gateway drug. A needle exchange program is a program which gives needles out to drug users to help them from not catching diseases or spreading diseases. Needle exchange programs, should be supported by our government and in each and every state. The fact is this program would help the drug user from not getting any diseases and does not increase drug abuse. 6We should make medical marijuana a schedule two drug like cocaine, heroin and others. A schedule two drug is when you could buy a drug over the counter legally. It is a proven fact that marijuana helps chemotherapy and aids patients. In order to stop the war on drugs we must start with the drug user." Give them facilities were they could go to come clean. When a drug user gets caught with drugs, they should go right to a treatment program not to jail, or a fine, or released on bail. Military on the Mexican border would have a dramatic impact on the war on drugs. The majority of the drugs in the United States are being transported in to our country from Mexico being driven or even walked though. If we put our military on the border, we would stop most of the drugs coming into our country. This could also, make the drug runners think twice about trying to transport drugs across the border any more. There are a lot more polices we could do to make the war on drugs work these are just a few. If we want to make progress on the war on drugs, we should stop using the same failed policies over and over again that have been failing for years now. In conclusion, the war on drugs is a war on our selves. No matter how much money we spend, or how many special police units are trained, or how many drug shipments police disrupt, or intercept will have very little impact, the drugs keep on coming. The reason why is, because drugs are illegal which makes users pay much more for them on the black market. Pure Cocaine, for an example, is three times the cost then gold. 7This then makes people want to sell drugs because they could make five times more money then if they would hold a blue-collar job. With all this money that is involved with drugs on the black market in brings in corruption, which then leads to dealers purchasing police officer, prosecutors, and judges. In reality, does violence occur because users are high or getting high rarely? Violence occurs because dealers arm themselves and have shootout outs over turf and because addicts steal to pay the high prices for the drugs. Drugs being illegal cause these problems nicotine is about as addicting as cocaine or heroin but no one is knocking over seven elevens for Marlboro's or Budweiser. There is no question that drugs often do terrible things to peoples lives have been wreaked, but the drug war also wrecked lives too, cost billions and creates crime. Ever wonder why the United States is building more prisons than schools or why the United States has the largest inmate population in the world even though the U.S. accounts for 5% of the world population or why gang violence is increasing? The War on Drugs has been the cause of major casualties in our society. Most of the casualties are innocent people or drug users whose life has been greatly impacted by the War. 8This prohibition of drugs is the cause of many problems that plague our society. The War on Drugs has failed in many different aspects in our society, and the War on Drugs must be stopped. The War on Drugs is not an actual war. It is the policies and laws that the government uses to try to limit drug production and use. These policies include laws that ban drug paraphernalia, harsher penalties, mandatory sentences, and increased police power. Drug use or reported drug use has become grounds for loss of employment, denial of education, housing, welfare assistance, seizure of children by the state, and confiscation of property. 9The government has mandatory sentences for drug possession which is the reason why so much of our prisons are overcrowded. These mandatory sentences depend on the type of drug, how much did you have, and if you had prior convictions. Many addicts of drugs are going to prison where not much help is provided to deal with their addiction. 10Instead of receiving treatment in the form of rehabilitation programs, they are going to prison. In addition, when the drug users get out of prison there are many restrictions put in place that another type of criminal would not have. Restrictions like no public housing, and denied federal benefits for home and student loans, grants for higher education, and government contracts and grants. If you are convicted of a drug related crime you cannot go to college to improve your life because no federal funding would be available to you. The only thing you could do is work at some dead end job, sell drugs, commit crimes, or go to the military. Many people consider this the drug draft. Teens convicted of drug crimes cannot go to college because they cannot afford it. 11Therefore, they end up going to the military and a lot of them are minorities. In economics, there is a very simple concept. This concept is known as supply and demand. We cannot stop the law of supply and demand more than we can stop the law of gravity. There is an incredible amount of profit that drug traffickers get when they sell drugs. 12 Rival gangs and cartels compete with each other over territory and drug smuggling routes. This competition with each other leads to increased violence. If drugs were legalized the profits made from these drugs would go down. The cartels and gangs would have no reason to fight each other for money. This has happened in the past with alcohol prohibition. When alcohol was prohibited gang violence and murder increased. This gave rise to famous gangsters such as Al Capone who met the demand of alcohol. They were all motivated by the vast profits to be made. 13When Alcohol Prohibition ended in 1933, people saw immediate decreases in murders and robberies. The War on Drugs has caused a major health problem. This problem is not one that you might think. The War on Drugs has led to an increase of AIDS/HIV in the United States. The United States bans drug paraphernalia like syringes. The drug user cannot buy new sterile syringes. Drug users sometimes share the syringes, which leads to a spread of diseases. Nearly a third of adult and over half of pediatric AIDS cases are associated with drug injection in the United States. 14This prohibition makes drug users more likely to have serious health problems and it makes drug users reluctant to seek health treatment when they have an overdose. The War on Drugs has many effects that we feel all throughout society. None of these effects includes the reducing demand for drugs or stopping drugs. It is like someone under a waterfall with a bucket. They might fill the bucket fast but it does not stop the waterfall. One of the effects that the War on Drugs has might surprise people, and that is the War on Drugs’ impact on the environment. The United States of America gives billions in aid to countries in South America to stop drug production, as this is where most of the drug’s are produced. One famous example of this is Columbia. The U.S. funded over two billion dollars for an anti-drug program to eradicate the coca plant and the opium poppy15. These two plants are the raw materials for cocaine and heroin. Many people consider this program is extreme and controversial because of the way the program tries to achieve their goal. This program uses crop dusting military plane to spray herbicides on the Columbian countryside were these drug crops are grown. These herbicides stunt the growth of and kill virtually all plants and trees. They spray herbicides on drug crops from 1000 feet in the air. They spray areas that are near villages, forests, livestock, and the water supply. 16This has caused much damage to the people and the environment. People living in poverty might see growing drug crops as the only way to lift themselves from poverty. In South America, the farmers there have no other alternative crop that can support their family other that coca and opium plants. Their only options are to live a life of poverty and hunger or grow these illicit crops to provide for their family. Not only do the pesticides destroy the drug crops but it also destroys the legal crops. The legal food crops are destroyed leaving the poor farmers and peasants in that area out of luck. The herbicide spraying also affects people’s livestock, which they use for food or to have an income. This leaves the people who are following the law deeper into poverty. The spraying of herbicides has a health impact to the people where the herbicides have been sprayed. There have been thousands of reports of people suffering from health problems and they include skin rashes, eye irritation, respiratory problems, and digestive ailments. 17Since their crops, land, and water have been contaminated many of these people affected by this move. They move deeper into the Amazon forest onto lands that have not been contaminated by the herbicide. They then clear the area of the trees and create their farmland. The government of Columbia offers no aid to those citizens that were affected by this aerial spraying of herbicides. This plan also makes the drug lords move their drug crops somewhere else. Somewhere deeper in the jungle, and they then clear the jungle for their crops. This destroys the habitat of all organisms located there. The production of coca plants and opium poppies has not decreased and the demand is not going away. The governments against drugs are not the only ones effecting the environment; organized crime organizations have also affected the environment in the War on Drugs. 18These organizations do not care about the environment. They dispose the chemical byproducts of their drugs wherever it is convenient. They cut down forest so they can grow their product. Producers of methamphetamine dump their waste anywhere. The byproducts of methamphetamine are extremely toxic to humans and to the environment. Change is something that takes time. Many people are resistant to change. The War on Drugs is not going to stop soon unless we do something about. In the United States, the government follows the will of the people. If we start to demand an end to the War on Drugs, the government must listen. We must start a social movement that ends the drug prohibition. A social movement is a collective, contentious political activity based upon a shared set of claims, which uses social networks to sustain challenges against powerful opponents. 19Social movements are very important because they bring great change in our society. If it was not for the social movements of the 1960’s we would still have segregated schools. 20The social movement already exists. There are many websites and groups advocating for the legalization of drugs. We must inform the public of the many negative effects this drug prohibition has caused. You have to be realistic when it comes to the ending of the War on Drugs. There are two ways to resolve conflict: one party can surrender unconditionally or a negotiator can bring a compromise between the two parties. 21There has to be compromises on both sides when it comes to dealing with the War on Drugs. The War on Drugs has put millions of users in jail and is the cause of our overpopulated prison population, it creates incredible profits for cartels, destroys the environment in South America due to mass herbicides of drug crops, creates stronger more potent drugs, it increases the gang violence, and causes political instability and corruption in governments. The War on Drugs, by and large, has not shaped any significant results. The drugs are readily available in the streets and the demand for drugs has not decreased. If the drug war was ended these are some of the possible results: The police would spend more time on crimes that truly pose a threat to society. We could attack main cause of drug abuse and related social problems: poverty, unemployment, poor housing, and lack of education. Gang warfare and drive-by shootings would be a thing of the past. The profits of organized crime would decline precipitously. The only people that profit from this War on Drugs are organized crime, arms manufactures, the prison industry, and corrupt police. Drugs are bad for you. They can have detrimental affects on your life and health but so can alcohol and tobacco and they are legal. If you really want to reduce drug consumption, you can do this two ways by education and treatment. The educational campaign against tobacco conducted since the 1960s shows how to reduce drug consumption without the use of force. People were informed of the dangers of tobacco and the facts. Unfortunately, it has not been used as a model for the control of other drugs. The War on Drugs has been around for nearly 30 years. We still continue to crack down on drug use and drug smuggling. The Untied States is the biggest merchant ground for drug users and smugglers. Our society is addicted. The penalty for using drugs in not harsh at all. If we don't change our laws then drugs will take over our society. Or we can legalize some drugs, and sell them in a state owned drug store. We will always have drugs, so why doesn't our society get something out of the drugs. We have worked so long to try and keep drugs out of our society and we have not seen major results. Still people are using drugs and we need to do something about it. In the late 1960's Washington D.C was the crime capital of the U.S. Our own nation’s capital was the crime capital of our nation, how bad does that look and reflect on our society. President Nixon was elected and launched his "War on Drugs". Nixon did this by adding 1000 new police. This crime situation was a stem from drugs. Forty Four percent of the people in the D.C jail tested positive for heroin. Something had to be done and fast. Dr. Primm, a treatment specialist, developed a methadone maintenance program. Then along came Dr. Jaffe, who proposed a National Methadone Maintenance Program. His strategy was a national network of methadone clinics. Crime then dramatically reduced, and one year after the meth program was instated, burglary was down 41 percent.22 The biggest problem is the smuggling of drugs across our borders. One of the main reasons we have all the drug smuggling is the drug cartel. The Cartels were mainly located in Mexico. Drugs were usually flown in from Columbia. The Cartel was bringing in 2000 kilos of cocaine every month, on 3-6 flights. The Cartels main job was transportation and distribution. To do this they purchased legitimate businesses that ranged from property, to cattle, planes, islands, apartments, car dealerships, and coffee plantations. All of these things helped the cartel bring drugs into our country. They were also known for bribing police and or other political figures. In a recent Newsweek article, a drug smuggler dug a tunnel under his house in Arizona, going all the way to Mexico. This is how desperate drug smugglers have gotten. Our society is truly addicted. If somebody is willing to pay that kind of money for drugs, he has serious problems. That is also why the crime rate is so high; they will do anything for that high. We have to do something about the drug problem otherwise or society will go to shit. But the question is what we can do. Drugs will always be around. You can compare drugs to gambling. They both are addictive. Gambling used to be illegal, but others were making funny on gambling not the state. So they legalized gambling and set up state lottery. They made funny on this, so others could not, and it helped Americans fight the addiction. Why don't we have state owned drug stores? We mine as well make some money off drugs, or others will. Cannabis is just like having a pack of cigarettes at once. Other countries such as those in Europe have just accepted the drugs. There society is doing fine, and so could ours. American President Richard Nixon, in 1971, officially started ‘The War on Drugs’. It fetched tighter boundaries, total illegalization of the preponderance of personally-used drugs and traffickers, and severe prison punishments for any offenders. 23The US government had a new division opened: D.E.A. (US Drug Enforcement Agency) and billions of US dollars in tax payer’s money went towards this cause. Also, because drugs were illegal and, of course, people still use them, a drug black-market has opened up. There is no where else that people can obtain these drugs, apart from the black-market. Every type of illegal drug can be obtained off the black market. If prohibition was ended, there would be no black market, governments could regulate and tax the use of drugs, and the dangers of trying to produce, buy, and use substances would be eradicated. People think that the War on Drugs is stopping the flow of drugs, but it really isn’t. “Despite increasing amounts of money being spent on prohibition, drugs have become more accessible, cheaper, and more potent.” 24The money from the drug black-market goes to fueling terrorists or other dangerous ventures. Drug prohibition should be ended because it causes more damage than it prevents. Prohibition is a political attempt at trying to control abuse of the drugs. Laws have been in affect since 1967 to try and criminalize ‘physically dangerous’ drugs. Drug abuse became popular around the 1960’s in the USA. A new generation of radical and free people came through and a widespread way of expressing themselves was through the use of drugs. Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), Cannabis (Marijuana), Psilocybin (Magic Mushrooms) were the most common and widely used during the time, so they were first illegalized in a series of Drug Acts. Between 1967 and 2008, hundreds of laws have been passed and the UN has become involved in the War on Drugs, pressuring countries to criminalize certain drugs. At present there is a huge list of over three hundred different drugs that are classed as illegal, but still, most are commonly used among all different people. The control of so many different synthetically and organically produced drugs is almost impossible, no matter what type of penalty or enforcement agency is applied. Bibliography Primary Sources 1. Bakalar James B. and Lester Grinspoon. Drug Control in a Free Society (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1984). 16-20 2. Cabranes Jose. "International Law and Control of the Drug Traffic," International Lawyer, vol. 7, 1973. 52-55 3. Cazalas Mary. 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