Australia 's Drug Policies And Efforts For Change Essay

Drug policy is a crucial topic in the country today. Substance abuse, as well as drug-related crime rates, are a huge problem. This is a fact. The way to fix the problem of substance abuse, however, is widely disagreed upon. Some think that stricter laws regarding drug possession and use would solve the problem, while others believe that loosening the restrictions would be a better option. The issue of legalizing drugs, especially marijuana, is one that is debated all the time. In fact, in 1995, a survey was conducted on the most important policy issues and eighty five percent of the country placed drugs at the top of the list (Falco 1996). Many states are actually beginning to decriminalize, and even

In Canada, the amount of illegal drugs on the street increased by 89% in the last 10 years and expenditure from illegal drug sales are over $7 billion dollars annually. It is no doubt that Canada is in the midst of a war on drugs, but is Canada’s current approach working? In 2011, the mandatory minimum sentencing for drug possession doubled, and didn’t include legislation for those special circumstances, such a mental illness.

The Drug Policy Alliance is an organization dedicated to making reforms to US drug laws, abolishing the failed the war on drugs, and advocating for harm reduction strategies. Located on their website, the article "Race and the Drug War", cites several troubling statistics and everyday realities that link the drug war to racism and discrimination. Among these, the fact that despite the rates of drug use being similar across racial lines, black Americans are more than three times as likely to be arrested for drug crimes. This is due to the fact that low-income, predominantly black neighborhoods are heavily patrolled for drug activity while higher-income neighborhoods are less scrutinized. The aim of the article is meant to persuade the reader

The criminalization of drugs has filled the jails across Canada with people who have addiction problems, or substance abuse disorder, rather than criminality. The drug problem in our society has not been deterred, but in fact it has grown. This criminality has made it so that addicts are forced to break the law to obtain their drugs, as well as have to break the law to finance their addiction, rather than being offered the help and support that a person with substance abuse disorder requires to get better. The only true way to advance the war on drugs is to completely alter the current approach, as prohibition does not work any better now than it did in the early 1900’s with alcohol. The trend in drugs being cut with more dangerous drugs

As a major policy issue in the United States, the War on Drugs has been one of the most monumental failures on modern record. At a cost of billions of taxpayer dollars, thousands of lives lost and many thousands of others ruined by untreated addiction or incarceration, America's policy orientation concerning drug laws is due for reconsideration. Indeed, the very philosophical orientation of the War on Drugs and of the current drug policy in the United States has been one of prosecution and imprisonment rather than one of decriminalization, treatment and rehabilitation. As our medical and scientific communities characterize addiction as a disease, the United States government continues to characterize this disease as a crime. And in doing so, it has created an unnecessary criminal class in the United States. The research, supplemental political cartoons and proposed research will set out to prove that stiffer drug laws will only have the impact of criminalizing countless drug addicts who might otherwise benefit substantially from rehabilitation and other treatment-based strategies. With a specific focus on the prohibition of marijuana even for medical use, and using the Toulmin model for putting forth and completing the argument, the research will set out to demonstrate the irrational

interest groups are activity involved in the legislature process (on the national level) seeking to

The War on Drugs, like the war on Terrorism, is a war that America may not be able to afford to win. For over forty years the United States has been fighting the War on Drugs and there is no end in sight. It has turned into a war that is about politics and economics rather than about drugs and criminals. The victims of this war are numerous; but perhaps they are not as numerous as those who benefit from the war itself.

     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.

In Australia there is a multitude of medication available to us to increase our quality of life that are typically used appropriately in the community. However, there has been a growing number of individuals misusing pharmaceutical drugs and this has now become an emerging public issue in Australia and overseas. This research will be based on the misuse of the following pharmaceutical drugs: opioids, benzodiazepines and codeine. All of which have the potential to become an addiction. The extent to which these drugs are misused by individuals will range from those intentionally using these drug for recreational reasons, to those who are unware that they are misusing the drugs due to inappropriate prescribing.

Although some people argue for the legalization of drugs, addiction to these substances has caused a huge increase in violent crimes in the home, at school, and on the street. Many people do not understand why individuals become addicted to drugs or how drugs change the brain to create compulsive drug abuse. They mistakenly view drug abuse and addiction as strictly a social problem and may characterize those who take drugs as morally weak. One very common belief is that drug abusers should be able to just stop taking drugs if they are only willing to change their behavior. This is a false and uneducated belief. Drug abuse may start as a social problem or social escape but one the addiction has taken ahold of a person

The book that I read “This is Your Country on Drugs: The Secret of Getting High in America by Ryan Grim” tells us the stories and relationship among Americans, their drugs and the government, which is a drug literature. The book and author will give us a tour in an illicit world of drugs use in the United States. The Americans dilemma of love-hate relationship with psychotomimetic substances extended from the nations commencing until the present time.

A lot of people link drug abuse with crime, at times even with violent crime. This association comes from psychopharmacological association that imply that people may engage in criminal acts after taking some kind of substance known to undermine their judgment as well as self-control result in paranoid thoughts and distortion of inhibitions (Sewell, Poling and Sofuoglu, 189). Though all substances that affect the central nervous system might result in this kind of relationships, scientific information indicates that some type of drugs have a more strong effect than others. Such drugs are alcohol, cocaine, phencyclidine and amphetamines (McCauley, Ruggiero, Resnick and Kilpatrick, 136). Inversely, cannabis and heroin are less associated with desire to commit

Criminalization of use of drugs has been in existence since the nineteen century. The abuse of opium and cocaine at the end of the 19th century reached epidemic proportions. Local governments began prohibiting opium dens and opium importation. Between 1915 and 1938, more than 5000 physicians were convicted and fined or jailer. (Trebach, 1982, p. 125) Common luxury commodities such as alcohol were illegal some years ago in the United States. While the motive behind the criminalization of the use of alcohol was correct, the approach seems questionable. The main motive for the ban on the use of alcohol was to avoid addiction, family neglect and ensure that parents were responsible. In this perspective, the legislators blamed alcohol for the neglect

There has always been a close association between drugs and crime. Drugs have been seen as a way out of suffering in one’s life and so as long as there is suffering there will always be a market for drugs. The struggle to keep one’s self sane when away from a substance they need can cause them to do crazy and even violent things to others. Things like murdering someone because they did not have proper control of themselves is not something unheard of by any means. These people can been seen as both victims and criminals, as they were not in a sound state of mind when doing these actions, however them doing the actions does not mean they should get off scot-free. The users are only one side of the coin, the other is the drug dealers. The dealers do not have to be selling purely illegal drugs, they may be selling prescription drugs too, but in the pursuit of their own survival in a struggling life, they turn to selling substances to others. By doing so they can even amass a fortune, but this is still a crime, and what people will do to try to get all this potential money can span from robbing to murder. The articles I read from different media support the fact there is indeed a tie with crime and drugs, being that an increase of drugs on the street leads to more crime.

GrassRoot: GrassRoot is an Indian Social Science Research Institution with the singular aim of rethinking India’s drug policy through interdisciplinary engagement. It encourages thematic research by according its faculty the privilege to pursue individual research by collaborating with scholars outside the Institution. The Institution revels as an authority that encourages reformative discourse in drug policy through increased engagement with multiple stakeholders through social media and public forums. It’s able to sustain its independence from persuasive third-parties by being funded through a combination of research grants, foundation grants, international agencies and its own corpus.