Drug Incarceration

In the beginning of the documentary, The House I Live In, President Nixon gives a speech declaring, “America’s public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse. In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive” In 1971, this speech made Preside Nixon the first president to ever declare a “war on drugs” in America. He fought by battling, both the supply and demand for drugs. Karst J. Besteman (1989) describes this “war” as a “strong initiative against drug dealers and expansion of drug treatment facilities” (p. 290). The beginning of Nixon’s “war” was focused on providing treatment and rehabilitation, after the creation of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in 1973, the focal point of the

To start, a little history behind the drug war. During Nixon’s campaign in 1968 and his presidency thereafter, there were two threats to Nixon at the time. One was the anti-war leftists and the other was black people. The reason is, during the war with Vietnam, the anti-war leftists, or also known as the hippies, would protest often in Washington.

Throughout history, the drug war has always targeted minority groups. “At the root of the drug-prohibition movement in the United States is race, which is the driving force behind the first laws criminalizing drug use, which first appeared as early as the 1870s (Cohen, 56)”. There were many drug laws that targeted minority groups such as the marijuana ban of 1930s that criminalized Mexican migrant farm workers and in the Jim Crow South, reformist wanted to wage war on the Negro cocaine feign so they used African Americans as a scapegoat while they overlooked southern white women who were a bigger problem for the drug epidemic (Cohen, 57). Instead of tackling the root of the drug problem they passed the blame to struggling minority groups within the United States.

According to “The Apocalypse Now : The Lost War on Drugs”, the United States federal government began to become tough on “crime” especially drug offenses in the 1970’s under President Richard Nixon. Nixon stated that “drugs were public enemy #1” and that he was going to be tough on this crime. As a result, state level government began to create policies that were strict on drug offenses causing minimal sentencing for minor drug offenses. Instead of going after the root of the problem which was preventing drugs from entering the country, these laws targeting low income communities with predominantly black and Latino residents. In addition, these merciless laws were the cause of the significant amount of people, specifically men of color, in prison during the 1980’s “war on drugs” in the United States.

Throughout the 1970s there’s been a large influx of drugs, and violence as a result of drugs. During this same time period African Americans were experiencing new levels of equality they hadn’t felt since the Reconstruction Period began, which dashed their hopes after the Civil War ended. They were still experiencing discrimination in employment. The combination of unemployment and drugs was a contributor to the crime rate. Drugs and alcohol overwhelmingly effected the Black Community Unfortunately, at the time, former President Richard Nixon declared War on Drugs, the governmental approach for addressing the harmful effects of drugs on society was to create an atmosphere that unjustly targeted poor blacks and other ethnic minorities in the

The documentary, The House I Live in, explains how drug use is a social problem and gives statists on whether the war on drugs is effective or not. Some say the war on drugs is very effective and it helping with society, others believe the total opposite that the war on drugs has no effect on society. Since 1971, the rate of illegal drug use has remained unchanged, but with that being said the war on drugs has resulted in more than forty-five million arrests. The war on drugs has cost over one trillion dollars so far to run. This makes many people believe that it is a waste of tax money. When Nixon was president, he compromised two-thirds of his budget to fund treatments and rehabilitation centers instead of putting money directly into law enforcement. During the time, the rehabilitation programs were working miracles. The programs kept many individuals from going back to jail and most importantly helped them stay away from drugs. These programs did not last long because the resources to keep the programs running became scarce. Taxpayers also did not like the programs, many rather pay for individuals who are doing drugs to be placed behind bars. Not only does the war on drugs have many positive contributions that come along with it; but it also has an equal amount of negatives. Therefore, the war on drugs is a running epidemic. The effectiveness of the war on drugs is unchangeable due to the targeting of class and race, police officers unwillingness to change drug

What if I told you that a crusade against narcotics has resulted in an overdose epidemic? This has been exactly what the United States Drug War has done. The War on Drugs is considered to have started in 1914 with the ban on opium and cocaine. Prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s is considered to be an important chapter of the War on Drugs. But it was not until June 1971 that President Nixon officially declared a "war on drugs." He enforced this by drastically expanding federal drug control agencies and mandatory minimum sentencing for those arrested for drug crimes. Defenders of the drug war assert that zealous enforcement is the correct way of dealing with America's drug dilemma. However, it has only accomplished increasing the prison population by putting nonviolent offenders behind bars. It has also done nothing to lessen the overdose crisis. This catastrophic, failing war has to meet its end, as it is having many tragic effects such as the production of stronger, deadlier drugs, increased drug use, and has been wildly ineffectual throughout history.

The United States used War on Drugs as the reason to have mass incarceration and arrest people of color, especially the black people. The government arrest the black people into jail by accuse them selling or consuming crack cocaine, however, it is the government (CIA) who allowed guerrilla armies to bring the crack cocaine to the black neighborhood. The War on Drugs is just one of the excuse that government used to put black Americans into jail and this mass incarceration is their tool for social control. This way, they can separate the white people and people of color and maintain their racial hierarchy.

The War on Drugs began in increments, first with President Nixon and secondly with President Reagan (Hill, Oliver, Marion, 2012). While under the Nixon administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration was developed due to the thought of how drugs can affect an individual as well as a community. Drugs did not only affect the user and the community, but also the families as well as children. Out of all the presidents, it is documented that President Nixon was one who had discussions about drugs more than any other president (Hill, et al., 2012).

Several surveys conducted have concluded that whites are more likely than African Americans to have used drugs. Yet, 45% of drug related prisoners are African Americans and 30% are whites. Evidence has shown police tend to go into low-income minority neighborhoods thats where most of their arrest take place. In 1986 and 1987 President Reagan signed laws that created long mandatory minimum sentences for possessions of small amounts of crack cocaine, leading to the largest imprisonment in American history. The war on drugs is a term popularized by President Richard Nixon and applied to a campaign of drug prohibition. On June 18, 1971, Nixon declared drug abuse as “America’s number one enemy.” President Nixon wanted to devote federal resources for prevention of “new addicts and rehabilitation of addict.” However, given that he was running for re-election, he knew that approach would not sound appealing to most Americans and dedicated his campaign to the “war on

For-profit prisons benefit from the strict enforcement of laws and lengthy sentences. These corporations are not interested in rehabilitating inmates they are more concerned with keeping their beds full and making a buck off inmates and their families. Anything else could be bad for business.

The Drug War has been a policy and a battle to stop drug flow into the U.S, cease drug production and to completely illuminate drugs entirely but results have shown otherwise. In 1971, President Richard Nixon first declared the Drug war and classified drugs as a number one public enemy shortly after drug use hit its peak in the 1960’s. The U.S previously had anti-drug laws but the laws were light and directed mainly to minorities. The following President Jimmy Carter believed in decriminalizing Marijuana and certain portions of Marijuana were legal to possess during his term but the legalization was shortly lived. A new attempted solution was a program Nancy Reagan, President

Until the early 20th century, Americans were legally able to obtain drugs such as cocaine, cannabis, and heroin. In fact, these types of drugs were found in medicines and drinks such as Coca-Cola. By the early 1900s, between 250,000-500,000 Americans were addicted to drugs. This rise of addiction in the United States created a growing public concern that addiction would become a more widespread issue, and they felt this problem needed a government solution. For example, in 1875, the first restrictive legislation concerning drugs began in San Francisco when a law was passed to limit the use of opium dens in public indoor establishments. Almost 100 years later, the Controlled Substance Act was passed in 1970. Shortly after, Richard Nixon declared

The drug court also provides powerful incentives and punishments for it participates. Some may be harsh and others are less harsh. At the state level the recidivism rate has lowered (Fulkerson et al., 2012; Rempel et. Al., 2003; Shaffer, 2011; Wilson, Mitchell, & MacKenzie, 2003). This is due to the defendant’s participation rate. There was a national study done showing a two-year recidivism rate of 28% (Roman, Townsend, & Bhati, 2003).

The War on Drugs is a term that is commonly applied to the campaign of prohibition of drugs. The goal of this campaign is to reduce the illegal drug trade across America. This term “ War on Drugs” was used during Nixon’s campaign in which he declared War on Drugs during a press conference in 1971. Following this declaration many organizations were created to stop the spread of drugs, like the DEA and Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement. Note that Nixon’s approach to this problem was to fund treatment rather than law enforcement. After Nixon’s retirement from office, most of the funding went from going into treatment to the law enforcement. Which militarized the police force giving the officer’s military weapons and gear. With this, the sentencing for possessing drugs was changed as well, resulting incarcerations rates to increase overtime. The increase of incarceration rates started to create many patterns that were soon noticeable. The funding’s that go into the law enforcement has shown to greatly have an affect on the incarceration rates.