Cold War Definition Of Drugs

Drugs first surfaced in the United States in the 1800s. After the Civil War opium become very popular and was used medicinally. Following opium was cocaine which was also used as a health remedy but near the end of the 19th century opium and cocaine abuse peaked and local governments began to prohibit opium dens and importation. In 1914 the first federal drug policy, the Harrison Narcotics act, is passed and drugs are no longer seen as harmless remedies. The act aggressively regulated the manufacturing of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and morphine. During the 50’s more federal drug policies were passed and drugs began to become more criminalized. The 60’s saw a rise in counter-culture and substances such as marijuana and LSD saw widespread use. The demand for drugs skyrocketed in the 1960s. In 1971 President Nixon declared drug abuse America 's number one enemy and proclaimed that we must wave a all out offensive. After President Nixon declared the War on Drugs in 1971, the United States has spent more than a trillion dollars on this failing policy that not only has had no effect on the amount of drugs being used in the United States and has increased the number of people incarcerated on drug charges from just 50,000 to over half a million, but also has helped fuel drug cartels and foment violence and death through overdoses from uncontrolled drug potency and turf wars between street gangs.

Within the last 50 years, drug legalization has been a very hotly debated topic in the United States society. It almost seems that every "street drug" was once legal, but banned soon after its introduction in society. Illegal substances that one sees today were once synthesized and created by chemist such as LSD, ecstasy, methamphetamine, cocaine, and etc., and at some point used for medical reasons, however during many circumstances were deemed illegal by the government due to detrimental effects after prolonged usage. William Bennett's "Drugs: Should Their Sale and Use Be Legalized" targets the general American public into understanding the societal importance of upholding the nations

The United states has taken consistent efforts to control the distribution and manufacture of medications and other drugs, with many efforts regulate possession importation and sales of various types of drugs. While there are several historic pieces of legislation that deal with the regulation and control of various substances, there is no other single piece of legislation that is an important and impactful to health care as the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. This essay will explore the history of this legislation, its purpose and passage from proposal to law. Some may argue American this is true for American society as a whole, because of the implementation of this law and the addition of the Drug enforcement Agency as the agency that

Through my research I have found our involvement in the drug world follows the same theme that seems to recur with our government and their policies. We talk a good game that formulates a structure and a well-worded policy that appears to be in the best interest of American citizens and foreigners alike. However we also aid these countries. The problem doesn’t lie within our policies or the simple compassion from our government that drugs hurt our society. The problems occur with those that implement and enforce these policies. Cocaine and its market cannot be eradicated. The efforts of many of our political leaders have been futile because of the supply and demand of the product. In 1989, President Bush had a plan that he called, “The cheapest and safest way to eradicate narcotics” (Menzel pg.43). The result was the following,

Drugs have been a problem in the country for a long time. Issues with drugs even existed in ancient times. However, through the War on Drugs, the media created a panic about the issue, making citizens believe drug abuse was an exponentially growing new epidemic in the United States. Although the War on Drugs was declared in 1982 and was intended to reduce the rates of drug abuse in the US, America’s drug problem increased dramatically over the next years (Bagley, 1988).

America is at war. We have been battling drug mishandle for very nearly a century. Four Presidents have by and by battled against medications. Sadly, it is a war that we are losing. Tranquilize abusers keep on filling our courts, healing centers, and detainment facilities. The medication exchange causes rough wrongdoing that assaults our neighborhoods. Offspring of medication abusers are ignored, manhandled, and even surrendered. The main recipients of this war are sorted out wrongdoing individuals and street pharmacists.

In 1968, President Richard Nixon declared a “war on drugs”. This was in response to the health and law enforcement concerns that emerged in society from the exploitation of drugs. Nixon opted to cease the war on drugs, by developing policies that would slow both the supply and demand of drugs. In the 1980’s, Columbia became the United States prime focus due to their emergence of cocaine across the United States border which later leads to affect other Latin American countries. Today, the war continues despite the political advancements that both the U.S and Columbia have made.

The war on drugs during the 1980s to present has become a center of attention for the American governments’ foreign and domestic policy. Though the idea to clean up Americas streets sounds convincing, the truth is, it’s not. Hence, the War on Drugs is seen as a situation of the war within our government and institutionalizing the streets of America, in other words, the separation against certain groups to possess a certain radical objective. Although most are unaware, race and the declaration to the War on Drugs has played a vital role in marginalizing the communities as a target. In return those, mostly of African American decent, are expose tot the institutions and police control within neighborhoods. In addition, the Drug War has been a

For many people, the thought of making drugs easily accessible for consumption by the masses may be frightening. After all, we have drug laws in place because they have the potential to be harmful. It also may not be difficult to imagine that it could very well be subject to failure due to a numerous amount negative externalities that may occur. Our nation has been engaged in a war on drugs for several decades now. The effectiveness of this war, however, is a topic that has continuously been debated. Some argue that universal legalization of drugs, an alternative that has never been tried, may have a greater benefits when compared to the present state of the war on drugs. On the other hand, the opposition believes that legalization would only pave the way for a vast amount of crime and many wasted resources.

No matter who has occupied the executive branch, the United States has pursued the same overall policies throughout the drug war. Anti-drug policies can be separated into two general camps, 'supply-reduction ' and 'demand-reduction’ (McCabe 5). Supply-reduction strategies seek to reduce the availability of drugs by limiting access to drug sources and increasing the risks of drug possession and distribution. Demand-reduction strategies, on the other hand, seek to reduce demand for illegal drugs through drug use prevention and treatment. The rhetoric of war helped shape the strategies that were used to combat the perceived drug threat.

Drugs have been used for hundreds of years for medical, religious, and psychotherapy purposes. As psychoactive drugs became more popularly used for recreational use and were being introduced in new ways, there became a strong need for control and regulation. The Controlled Substance Act was implemented to take a stronghold on the growing drug problem in the United States. The advancement of science and technology continuously present a need for new ideas and legislations; to keep a strong hold on the war on drugs. Whether the United States can keep up with the changing epidemics and tackle them head on, proves to be a main concern.

The United States has a long history of intervention in the affairs of one it’s southern neighbor, Latin America. The war on drugs has been no exception. An investigation of US relations with Latin America in the period from 1820 to 1960, reveals the war on drugs to be a convenient extension of an almost 200 year-old policy. This investigation focuses on the commercial and political objectives of the US in fighting a war on drugs in Latin America. These objectives explain why the failing drug policy persisted despite its overwhelming failure to decrease drug production or trafficking. These objectives also explain why the US has recently exchanged a war on drugs for the war on

In examining the transitions in US government policy related to drug abuse and trafficking, historians are consistently confronted with the difficult task of analyzing the different motivations for variations in strategy from the Nixon administration to the present. In this specific case, our investigation centers upon the interplay of United States foreign policy in Latin America in the 1980’s (pursued mostly by the CIA) and the broad campaign against drugs both at home and abroad. At first glance, one might suppose that a moral ideology such as the war on drugs would be a multi-faceted operation with little available room for compromise. After all, an analogous crusade against terrorism has emerged as the

According to Michelle Alexander, why and how has the “war on drugs” developed over the last 40 years? What are the main political and economic factors that led to the war on drugs, and what are the main political and economic factors that shaped it as it developed over the last four decades? Draw on material from the Foner textbook chapters 25 through 28 to supplement Alexander’s discussion of the political and economic context.

The United States’ new claim in today’s world of propaganda and mind-warping media is that The War on Terrorism = The War on Drugs. Recently simple anti-drug slogans have been manipulated into aggressively and often erroneously exaggerated media assaults. (planetpapers.com) The United States claims that each person can help fight terrorism by choosing not to buy or use illicit drugs, and the government itself can help fight terrorism by implementing a more effective War on Drugs throughout the country. They claim that illicit drugs are the major monetary support of terrorist groups throughout the world, which in some respects is correct. Due to this claim, teenagers and drug