The War on Drugs - Literature review Example

War on Drugs War on Drugs has been fought improperly costing countless lives, treating many addicts as criminals rather than patients and wasting billions of taxpayer dollars. A campaign initiated against the illegal trade of drugs by President Nixon in 1971. According to Global commission of drug policy (2011) US has spent $1trillion on this war and is considered as the longest and most in-effective war in which US is engaged. Expert’s estimates the cost has approximately run to $40billion annually. This war has not affected only American empire but also affected America’s many possessions and provinces, including most of the Europe who were forced to adopt same laws to penalize criminals explained by Johman (2000) .The first anti drug act which was carried by Nixon was in 1969 in which he banned cannabis entering in US from Mexican border. Despite of intense crack the border remained closed for only twenty days. US also worked with the government of Bolivia and Peru to reduce drug supply by spraying plant killing chemicals on million of acre of drugs and compensating farmers to grow other crops instead. With this move coca production was reduced to half. But the production of drug moved from those countries to Colombia, looking at the situation US government came up with the plan Colombia. Plan Colombia was an effort on behalf of US government to combat against war on drugs. Millions of dollars of military aid was given to Colombia in order to combat against guerilla groups who are involved in drug trafficking. Colombian military personnel also took training from US military and other law and enforcement agencies. But this effort of US government was criticized by many analyst and congress men as according to them US is keeping focus only on south side whereas ignoring drug trafficking from the North part of the country. One of the most evident signs of the failure of this war appears in 2006, when Mexican President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against drug cartels in which 40,000 people were killed and media named this event “drug Violence” 40,000 people include not only cartel members ,police officers and many US citizens. However billion dollar support package was sent to Mexican government to fight against cartel but as the aid delivered the death rate have risen with 15,273. According to the Department of Justice, the illegal drug market in US is dominated by 900,000 criminally active gang members affiliated with 20,000 street gangs who have their setup in more than 2500 cities of US as explained in Law Enforcement against Prohibition (2011) This illegal drug market affected countless US communities, as it was fought in US streets with law and enforcement agencies who imprisoned many US citizens. Number of citizens who were imprisoned increased in the last three decades. This was due to anti drug abuse act of 1986 which created serious minimum sentencing laws for drug abuse. Due to which drug arrests tripled between 1980-1997 and according to Whitehead(2012) in every 19 seconds at least one person was arrested in US for violating the laws against this war and in every 30 seconds a person arrested for violating marijuana law, thus making it fourth most common cause of arrest in US. Drug abuse has severe emotional and financial strain on families in addition to other reported domestic abuses. It was also observed that the offense of drug abuse has also affected subsequent percentage of women and children. Women in prison are more likely than men who have convicted of a drug offense. In 2005 there were 29% of women and 19% of men and two third of children under age of 18 who had convicted drug offense. Federal welfare legislation of 1996 imposed lifetime ban on welfare benefits for anyone convicted drug abuse. This created another challenge for the people when they return back to the society especially for women. Also only one in seven among the prisoners was given treatment for drug. Graph below shows the comparison between the percentages of drug treatment in state prison. Source: The war on Drugs and its Impact on American Society by Marc Mauer and Ryan S. King (September; 2007) . Despite of strict laws and increased percentage of imprisoned drug abusers the War on Drugs has not slowed down the flow of drugs nor decreased drug abuse; instead it has artificially increased the street price of drugs and penetration of drugs in the society puffed up. The prohibition of drugs raised the price of marijuana to $2500 a pound in Milwaukee and made cocaine five times more valuable than gold per ounce. It was seen that huge number of drug dealers were being locked in prisons that country need additional prison every month explained by Gary & Nora Callahan Thus with the increase in number of prisoners government spending also increased and the war caused local, state and federal government $29billion per year. With all these expenditures there was no tangible effect that was observed instead there was huge increase in the number of African American prisoners. Increased spending on creating Drug Awareness and Resistance Education Program, D.A.R.E. in schools was costing government $500million a year. But it was observed that impact of these programs did not control the use of drugs among young. The war on drugs helped spreading AIDS, as 40,000 known new cases were observed due to use of dirty needles used by intravenous drug users. This war has also corrupted the law and enforcement agencies. Almost all the communities of US were of the view that government itself is involved in smuggling of drugs and manipulating market prices. . National Association for the Advancement of Colored People(NAACP) increased their voice against the end of war on drugs knowing the fact that African-American community of US showed highest percentage of drug use (9.7%) compared to whites ( 8.1%) and 7.6% for Hispanics mentioned by Marc Mauer and Ryan S. King(2007) The members of NAACP also reported that it has been observed that whites are engaged in drug offense more often than African-Americans yet they are caught at a rate 10times higher than those of whites. Adding to their anguish in 1986 US congress passed laws which created 100 to1 sentencing disparity for the possession of crack compared to cocaine powder. This law was seriously criticized as discriminatory policy against minorities especially blacks. Substantial studies and research has shown injustice and inefficiencies in drug policies which has become the cause of the failure of the war. This war has contributed towards the expansion of prison system and injustice to minorities. The government has focused on the punishment rather than keeping its focus on prevention. If instead of making drugs ill legal an attempt was made to regulate them there would not be the emergence of profitable black market in US. However policy makers still have the opportunity to bring shift towards the drug policy approach. For instance they can reallocate the funds ,as since 1980 two third of federal anti drug funds have been allocated to law and reinforcement and one third towards its prevention and treatment explained by Marc Mauer and Ryan S. King(2007).This will result in more focus and proactive strategy. According to the survey conducted by Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), it was found that drug abusers who remained under the treatment are less likely to resume their prior drug habits. Therefore expenditure on the drug treatment can help in reducing the number of addicts in US. Marijuana which has been banned by US government has tremendous commercial value for dozens of uses and was grown throughout United States as commercial product. However it was made illegal in 1937 due to the pressure from oil and chemical companies due to feared competition. Moreover there are about 50,000 products which can be made from marijuana. Therefore if drugs including marijuana were legalized the money it generate will be taxed which was not possible before and millions of dollars worth taxes could be used by government to fight against hunger, poverty and instead of going to drug lords and their workers it will pay off to official workers. Moreover it will not be used by drug traffickers to fund extremist groups in order to make sure smooth drug business; instead this will be used by US government who can use in the treatment of drug abusers. Federal government concluded that the best way to reduce or stop the entrance of drugs from neighboring countries can only be possible by imposing strong checks on the borders. This can be achieved only through coordinating and developing policies and passing strict laws with neighboring countries. Secondly developing non discriminatory policies against the use of drug will also help in this regard and the conception about drug laws being assault on personal freedom and racist in their application will also be removed. According to Britain former drug czar and defense secretary “drug war is nothing short of a disaster” and in order to win this war government should take away this war from criminals and hand it over to doctors and pharmacists (Froma Harrop, 2010) .Only in this way war against drug can be turned to our favor. References (2011). Ending the Drug War: A Dream Deffered. Retrieved (2012, January 19) from http://www. Leap. Cc/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/ending-the-drug-war-a-dream-deferred. Pdf Fish, Jefferson. (2011, November 29). Ending the Global War on Drugs. Retrieved from http://www. Psychologytoday. Com/blog/looking-in-the-cultural-mirror/201111/ending-the-global-war-drugs. Harrop, Froma. (2010, December 30). New soldiers in the fight against the drug war. Retrieved from http://www. Realclearpolitics. Com/articles/2010/12/30/new_soldiers_in_the_fight_against_the_drug_war_108388. Html. Ryan S King, Marc Mauer. (2007, September ). The war on drugs and its Impact on. Retrieved from http://www. Sentencingproject. Org/doc/publications/dp_25yearquagmire. Pdf. Whitehead, John. W. (2012, Jan 11). Americas Longest Ongoing War: War on Drugs. Retrieved from http://www. Huffingtonpost. Com/john-w-whitehead/americas-longest-ongoing-_b_1193722. Html Read More