Negative Effects On The War On Drugs

For almost 40 years now the longest and most unsuccessful war in the United States has been the war on drugs. Resulting in 45million arrests and $1 trillion dollars in government spending, the war on drugs has been nothing more than a way of income for public officers and other law enforcement officials. The effort behind the war on drugs is solemnly to reduce illegal drug use and trade. This plan includes a set of drug policies that are intended to discourage the production, distribution, and consumption of these popular and wide spread narcotics.

In the past forty years, the United States has spent over $2.5 trillion dollars funding enforcement and prevention in the fight against drug use in America (Suddath). Despite the efforts made towards cracking down on drug smugglers, growers, and suppliers, statistics show that addiction rates have remained unchanged and the number of people using illegal drugs is increasing daily (Sledge). Regardless of attempts to stem the supply of drugs, the measure and quality of drugs goes up while the price goes down (Koebler). Now with the world’s highest incarceration rates and greatest illegal drug consumption (Sledge), the United States proves that the “war on drugs” is a war that is not being won.

Before we begin our tour of the drug war, it is worthwhile to get a couple of myths out of the way. The first is that the war is aimed at ridding the nation of drug "kingpins" or big-time dealers. Nothing could be further from the truth. The vast majority of those arrested are not charged with serious offenses. In 2005, for example, four out of five drug arrests were for possession, and only one out of five was for sales. Moreover, most people in state prison for drug offenses have no history of violence or significant selling activity.5

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).

The United States of America has been more or less victorious in every war this nation has been involved in since the beginning of modern American history except one, the war on drugs. What makes this war uniquely terrifying is the fact that this is the first modern age war to be fought on American soil. Just in the year 2014 the war on drugs claimed a little over seven times as many American lives as pearl harbor and 9/11 combined. However, the death toll isn’t the only thing that’s rising. Each year the cost of waging this war climbs higher and higher. Over the past four decades the United States as poured over one trillion dollars into fighting drugs inside our own boarders, relying on taxpayers to supply the capital. While the Obama administration assured Americans the border was

In the past 40 years, the American government has spent more than $2.5 trillion dollars on the war against drugs. The huge expenditure has been coupled by numerous the ad campaigns, clean-up on smuggling, and increase in illicit drug users and incarceration rates. Actually, the increase in illicit drug users currently stands at 19.9 million in the United States with huge supplies from Mexico. With the increase in both the expenditure and number of illegal drug users, there have been huge concerns regarding the country's war on drugs. The main question is why the United States can continue spending much money on this war while it can legalize and tax the supply of drugs. The most appropriate and effective measure for tackling the problem of drugs is through legalizing and collecting taxes than spending huge amounts in stopping the flow of the commodities to America.

America is the land of the free; it’s ironic that America also by far has more incarcerated citizens than any other country in the world. America is at war. We have been fighting drug abuse for almost a century. In 1972 president Nixon declared a war on drugs. Unfortunately, we are not winning this war. Drug users are still filling up our jails and prisons, now more than ever. The drug war causes violent crime and criminal activity due to prohibition, not the drugs themselves. Children in all of this are left neglected or without parents. The only beneficiaries of this war are organized crime members and drug dealers. The United States has focused its efforts on the criminalization of drug use. The government has spent billions of dollars in efforts to rid the supply of drugs. Even with all this money and effort of law enforcement it has not decreased the demand or supply of illegal drugs. Not only being highly costly, drug law enforcement has been counterproductive. Current drug laws need to be reviewed and changed. The United States needs to shift spending from law enforcement and penalization to education, treatment, and prevention. The war on drugs has caused many problems in the United States, family problems, financial problems and has increased crime, after forty years in this war it’s time for a change.

Ever since the war on drugs was started, most of the battle has been concentrated in Latin America, leaving trails of devastation from deep within Latin America up to the largest consumer of those substances. After years of fighting, and series’ of more and more aggressive policies put into place by the United States, drugs are just as prevalent if not more so than when the war began. Illegal drugs are still easy to obtain, demand for such substances has skyrocketed and cartels are becoming increasingly affluent. Drug violence since 2006 has resulted in the death of more than 60,000 people. Clearly, our current policies in waging this war are not effective, we have spent over 35 billion dollars over the course of 2013 to attempt to combat

The current policy in use by the United States concerning illegal drugs is both outdated and unfair. This so-called war on drugs is a deeply rooted campaign of prohibition and unfair sentencing that is very controversial and has been debated for many years. The war on drugs is designed so that it will never end. This current drug was has very little impact on the overall supply of prohibited drugs and its impact on demand seems non-existent. United States’ taxpayers are spending billions of dollars on this failure of policy. They are spending billions to incarcerate drug users instead offering drug treatment which could help lower demand. Legalizing illicit would lower abuse and deaths from use and could have a positive economic impact on the United States. Certain industries are making massive sums of money by capitalizing on the drug war.

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.

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 War on Drugs has been a common phrase in the United States for many decades. What exactly does this mean and how does it shape U.S. foreign policy? The War on Drugs can be defined as the systematic and aggressive policy that is determined to undermine and stop the flow of illegal drugs into the United States. This policy is backed by several U.S. institutions including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), U.S. Army, U.S. Coast Guard, and U.S. Customs. Also, included in this list are the numerous local law enforcement agencies across the country.

The war on drugs was officially declared on June 1971 by President Nixon, when he dramatically increased the presence of federal drug control agencies, and pushed through measures such as mandatory sentencing and no-knock warrants. Many believe it is the number one issue in the United States today. The cost of this war has been lives, money, and the respect for law enforcement. The war on drugs has had little to no positive effects, while the decriminalization of drugs has many benefits. Citizens should inform themselves of everything our country could benefit from by simply decriminalizing what has been the cause of close to most incarcerations in federal and state prisons. There is no doubt that the war on drugs has a severe impact on the economy of our country. Drug criminalization is a multi-edged sword; the monetary costs, the loss of those who are lawfully employed in the labor market, and the deterioration of the relationships between the community and law enforcement.

The War on Drugs is a current conflict that has been going on for many decades. It is a movement organized by the United States Government in attempts to reduce the amount of illegal drug trafficking in the country. The War on Drugs enforced strict drug policies that are intended to reduce both the production, distribution, and consumption of illegal drugs. The term was first used by President Richard Nixon, during a press conference concerning the nationwide drug abuse issue, in which Nixon announces to the Congress that drug abuse was, “public enemy number one”. Illegal drugs are certainly dangerous; addiction and death are two but many factors as a result of drugs. However, even though the War on Drugs might sounds justifiable, in truth, it is actually making the drug issue worst in the country.

The “War on Drugs” is the name given to the battle of prohibition that the United States has been fighting for over forty years. And it has been America’s longest war. The “war” was officially declared by President Richard Nixon in the 1970’s due to the abuse of illegitimate drugs. Nixon claimed it as “public enemy number one” and enacted laws to fight the importation of narcotics. The United States’ War on Drugs began in response to cocaine trafficking in the late 1980’s. As the war continues to go on, winning it hardly seems feasible. As stated by NewsHour, the National Office of Drug Control Policy spends approximately nineteen billion dollars a year trying to stop the drug trade. The expenses shoot up, indirectly, through crime,