The War on Drugs in the Modern World - Essay Example

? Number] Outline Introduction of the topic includes vogue of drug addiction throughout the world including the United States, where people are comparatively more addicted to drugs. First body paragraph highlights controversial debate over the use of drugs by the government at the same time when government fights against it. Second body paragraph includes a brief view of the policies and laws proposed and implement by the government of the USA in the war against drugs. Third paragraph discusses claims and arguments of the individuals who are against illegalization of drugs. Conclusion includes an outcome of the argumentative discussion over legal and illegal use of alcohol and other drugs by the government of the US. War on Drugs Today, millions of people are addicted to alcohol and other types of drugs in every part of the world. There is no such state in the world that could be declared as a drug free place. Only rate of addicted people varies from country to country. However, it has been found that western countries have been facing more complexities because of drug addiction among youth and weak initiatives by governments in countries such as the United States in the context of drug legalization and addiction. In this paper, we shall argue about the measures taken by the government of the US, against legalization of drugs. However, on the other hand, it allows use of some drugs, although governmental bodies should have strictly prohibited use of drugs in the country due to various problems. In the US, various laws and regulations have been passed to resolve the issues of drug addiction, health problems and other matters of criminality or domestic violence that result from drug abuse (Schaffer). The first anti-drug American law was passed in San Francisco in 1875. This law was passed against smoking of opium, mostly used by Chinese males to ruin white women`s opium dens (Schaffer). However, critics believed that this law was useless because it has nothing to do with the effects of over usage of drugs among American people, as this law was particularly made to stop opium smoking in the US, which is a Chinese custom (Schaffer). Researchers have suggested that rather than focusing on opium use, government should have taken steps against use of common drugs among American youth. Moreover, further evidences of improper governmental policies regarding drug abuse include that at one hand, "Father of American Drug Laws", was taking initiatives against use of marijuana, opium and cocaine. On other hand, at the same time in 1937 licenses were given to retail sellers to deal with the matters of selling opium and cocaine to common people (Schaffer). In addition, Consumer Union Report showed that despite proposed laws against use of marijuana and cocaine, nothing has been mentioned in the law about doctors, who were freely prescribing similar drugs to depressed or anxious patients (Schaffer). At this point, critics claim that it is totally illogical to prohibit only one type of liquid drug and not other chemicals of similar potentials. Even though, selling, buying and using, all practices were illegal and all of the practitioners should be equally treated. However, it has been seen that government made laws and imposed penalties on the people, who were caught red handed while committing crimes and were drunk (Schaffer). Critics recommend that government should have treated everyone with justice, because it makes no sense to allow use of drugs to some people and restrict some other particular people. Nevertheless, it was clearly visible that drug addiction is creating various problems for people`s lives and other socio-domestic matters. Drug addicted individuals are more likely to fight with their friends and family members and this ultimately destroys their relationships. Moreover, drug addiction is imposing various health issues and death cases all over the world. This has been the main reason behind the war against drugs (Schaffer). It is an unfair policy of government or it might be considered as a trick of practitioners, who are injecting injurious drugs in patients` bodies., so that those patients would return to them to get treated or they might face death because of over-dosage of such drugs (Schaffer). A strict action is needed in this situation to completely understand the negative impacts of drugs and ban them for everyone in the country. On the other hand, it has also been noticed that young individuals fight over legalization of marijuana. However, government and other health practitioners are well aware of the fact that despite no deaths having been recorded because of marijuana use, still it is dangerous for health. For instance, despite knowing all it`s dangerous after effects (Schaffer). Marijuana was outlawed in 1937, just to stop growing population of Mexican people, who came to seek jobs in the US and to relieve their depressions. Thus, in order to stop their race in the United States, government obsolete all laws against marijuana use that could possibly contribute to degenerate their race (Schaffer). Furthermore, it was looked at as a protest of the young American individuals, who wanted to legalize the use of marijuana because they were unaware of its bad effects. Nevertheless, government and responsible authoritative bodies also took it as a challenge to limit growth of people belonging to other races that was ultimately influencing all, who were interested to utilize marijuana as a drug to relieve their depressions and sorrows (Schaffer). However, this act of government did not seem ethical through any means because providing health and other safeguards to youth is government`s responsibility and to keep young individuals away from such addiction should be the foremost priority of the US government. From the above discussion, it has been noted that there is a war on drugs because of dual policies and perspectives against it. Most people consider drugs injurious to their health and negatively influential for other aspects of life. Thus, they prefer to stand against legalization of drugs. However, on other hand governmental policies allow use of drugs for particular reasons. Conflicting viewpoints and practices related to drug use give rise to war on drugs, but no proper outcome has been observed yet, regarding legalization of drugs in the United States. Works Cited Schaffer, C. "Basic Facts About the War on Drugs." 2010. Drug Library. Web. 4 February 2012 . Read More