Cocaine Use And Crime

Cocaine, a narcotic drug that took the entire world by storm in the 1980’s, has continued to find it’s way into countries all over the world. The drug is a highly addictive stimulant that is extracted from the leaves of the Erythroxylon coca bush, which is indigenous to the Andean highlands of South America. It comes in two main forms, powder and crystalline, also known as “crack” (“Cocaine Use and Its Effects”). Although the short term effects of cocaine seem somewhat harmless, the long term effects are devastating and have ruined the lives of many users. The short and long term effects of cocaine can be seen on Ishmael Beah, and his companions in the novel A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah.

Cocaine is one of the oldest, most powerful and most dangerous stimulants in the world. This powerfully addictive drug effects over 35 million people In the United States. Cocaine addiction prevents a person from being a productive member in our society. It also increases the cost for law enforcement and treatment facilities. It rapidly decreases the workplace, increases the homeless rate and needless deaths on a daily basis.

The Players in the Cocaine Game: An investigative look at the dealers, suppliers, and enforcers

The impact of cocaine addiction or dependence on increased crime rates and criminal activity is attributed to the link between the drug and a significant number of illegal activities. Apart from being associated with increased violent activities, cocaine dependence has also resulted in increased homicide and suicide. A study in New York City demonstrated that homicide deaths were strongly linked to cocaine or its metabolite (Morton, 1999, p.111). In the survey, most of the victims and perpetrators of homicide tested positive for cocaine use. Cocaine dependence or addiction may contribute to suicide because of the probability of the user to suffer from depression, which tends to occur frequently among cocaine users.

The purpose of this research paper is to inform my audience of three primary sections based on biological aspect of the addictive substance cocaine, and its addictive properties. This will include the primary effects on the brain and other organs in the human body. The second section will confer, clinical issues along with medical treatment, future directions of treatment. The third section biological aspects of the addictive substance from a biblical perspective will be discussed. Some areas of interest include freedom and caution for Christian counselor’s based on the addictive substance used.

As such, Congress would pass the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act to criminalize any sort of association with a so called “controlled substance” (Stone 310). By Ronald Reagan’s presidency, this effort reached new heights especially after the widely publicized cocaine-related death of basketball player Len Bias (311). The hysteria over cocaine received so much attention then that people began to see the dangers they entailed, which inevitably contributed to the enactment of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 under the Reagan administration (312). For the purpose of this paper, this law detailed the sentencing and punishment of drug offenders. The interesting part, however, lies in how Congress differentiated between the mandatory minimum sentence necessary for crack and powder cocaine. While crack and powder are simply different forms of cocaine, crack holds less cocaine per dose as the powder form undergoes the process to become a base that can be smoked instead of inhaled (306). This distinction is significant in the making of the conditions that constitute the 1986 Act. Because a dose of crack does contain less cocaine than its powder counterpart, Congress specifically distinguished that crack offenders would be punished more severely than someone else possessing the same amount of (powder) cocaine; the mandatory minimum of five

Criminology has always debated the central tension between individual autonomy and public welfare. This conceptual point of comparison is especially pertinent in regards to victimless crimes: acts or omissions that are punishable by law, but do not result in any direct, non-consensual harm to individuals, property, or public welfare (Bending, 2016; Herzog and Einat, 2016: 470; Weatherburn, 2011:1) This essay will assess the statement ‘There is no such thing as a victimless crime’. It will firstly support the assertion, arguing that recreational methamphetamine use is not a victimless drug crime since it directly exposes users’ dependents to grave physical and psychological dangers, is strongly associated with violent crime, and causes acute

They are easier to incarcerate because they are not financially equipped to battle charges. Meanwhile, all these steps have been taken by the government, but the country has not seen improvement in drug crime or drug addiction.

Across the nation, figures substantiate there are more convicted felons in the prison system than any country globally. In the year 2006, the analytics confirm the data of 2.5 million and rising (Drug Addiction is an Illness, Not a Crime, 2015). Among the years between 2000 and 2006, the U.S. undergone the most significant leap in confinements ever. Another key point is the experts of the criminal justice system gives credit to the prison population bursting at the seams because of unforgiving sentencing policies, mainly those associated with illicit drugs and abuse (Drug Addiction is an Illness, Not a Crime, 2015). By all means, the majority of Americans believes drug addiction is not morally correct, more and more individuals are beginning

“Drugs and Alcohol abuse”, are phrases we hear commonly on the radio, television or in discussions of social problems. People believe it is the user’s personal choice however; it is not only a personal problem that dramatically affects individuals’ life but is a major social problem that affects society as whole. It has become one of the biggest problems in United States today. Alcohol or Drug abuse nearly automatically is linked with criminal acts. The statistical association between alcohol or drug abuse with crime seems to be convincing when examined at the first glance; however, it is not possible to make a conclusion concerning a distinct cause and effect association between the two aspects. Accordingly, this paper will examine

On the other hand, there are also people who believe that drug legalization may be very harmful to the economy. Productivity loss is a great illustration of this point. According to the article, “Drug Use Negatively Impacts Health, Productivity, and Crime,” employees and workers who are drug addicts tend to work less effective than normal people. Productivity declines owing to a large number of factors, including absenteeism, workplace accidents and conflicts at the workplaces. The article also shows, in 2011, the productivity losses related to drug uses cost $120 billion (0.9 per cent of GDP). In other words, drug legalization may increase the number of drug addicts. Their productivity, consequently, may decrease, and the economy may be negatively affected. Because there are a lot of different ideas in the financial perspective of legalizing

the 1930s when films like Reefer Madness (1938) and The Man with the Golden Arm

Since the mid 1990s there has been a significant and continued reduction in the nation 's rate of violent crime. Not long ago, the picture was not so positive. The use of illicit drugs began to be more widespread, and governments at all levels responded by strengthening enforcement forces against drug law violators, attempting to block illegal drugs at the borders, working with other countries to take down the criminal organizations that produce and distribute drugs, and increasing efforts to reduce demand for drugs (Dept. of Justice, 2005). In addition, serious crimes, including violent ones, committed by juveniles began to increase at a fast pace. By the late 1980s, violent crime committed by juveniles had reached epidemic proportions. This was tied in part to an increasing market for cocaine and especially its offshoot, crack, in the 1980s and by the easy access to weapons. As crime worsened, the police made more arrests; lawmakers began passing harsher laws; the number of cases prosecuted by the courts increased; and the number of people in prisons or jails, or under probation and parole supervision, reached new highs. Over time, there were changes in policies concerning crime and criminals, the resources invested in fighting crime, and the bodies that we rely upon to prevent crime and carry out the law.

Crime and drug use in Portugal has been a major issue, however after the government instated decriminalization, the number has decreased. Decriminalization appears to have had a slight positive effect on crime. “With its recategorization of low level drug possession as an administrative rather than a criminal offence, decriminalization inevitably produced a reduction in the number of people arrested and sent to criminal court for drug offences from over 14,000 in the year 2000, to around 5,500-6,000 per year once the policy had come into effect” (tdpf). There has not been a great surge in contact between drug offenders and the Portuguese police after decriminalization. The number of offenders has had the highest values since 2002. Continues was the trend manifested through the decade of the predominance of presumed offenders in the possession of cannabis and the increased offenders in the possession of cocaine. Now regarding heroin, it did have a downward trend in the first half of the decade, which then peaked in 2009, following another decrease in the numbers of offenders. The value that was taken in 2012 was the lowest it has ever been since 2001. "Concerning the sanctions applied in these convictions, mostly related with trafficking crimes, such as occurred in 2004 and contrary to previous years, these convictions involved mainly suspended prison (48%) instead of effective prison (31%). To refer specially since 2009, the increase of convicted only sentenced with an

In a study that was done back in 1970 by Sutherland and Cressey, they pointed out that in the U.S. alone, “felons are overrepresented in the addict population, [and] crime rates are increased considerably by drug addiction” (1970, p. 164). Despite having proposed several hypotheses attempting to explain the correlation between drug abuse and crime, they could not reach a conclusion. A decade later, the knowledge about the drug/crime relationship had steadily increased due to numerous studies of the incarcerated or addicted population. However, the information didn’t reveal any viewpoints that made sense aside from heroin. This view was