Political Commentary On The War On Drugs

The War On Drugs in the USA One of the most explosive issues in the current American political

America’s war on drugs has failed. After millions of dollars and untold man hours spent enforcing the prohibition of illegal drugs, there is little, if any, success to show for it. Illicit drugs are still available on most American street corners, drug usage rates have not decreased, and the scourge of drug related violence continues to spread like wildfire. Sadly, the war on drugs has also resulted in the incarceration of millions of Americans for petty possession offenses and has created a black market for illicit drugs upon which criminal organizations, such as the Mexican cartels and even the Taliban, thrive. Decriminalization of drugs is the only way America will ever be able to eradicate its drug problem. Imagine a country where drug users were treated instead of imprisoned, where drug usage rates perennially fell, and where diseases such as AIDS and Hepatitis C were in decline. This isn’t a fantasy, drug decriminalization policies have been proven to work and they’re America’s only answer to the drug epidemic.

The government needs to understand that marijuana is a drug that can actually help; not only people with mental and physical problems such as cancer, but the economy as well by getting rid of the hard drugs that cause real problems and benefiting from a drug(s) that that can actually help problems.

The War on Drugs has been an ongoing effect ever since the Civil War introduced the drug morphine to the world. In the years since people have been coming up with drugs more lethal than morphine such as cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, and so on and so forth. The War on Drugs is dangerous and leads to many deaths throughout the years. America has set up agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and other drug task force teams throughout the United States. Even though we may not be able to catch all the drug dealers the United States drug teams has put a tiny dent into this ongoing black market run by cartels and even the smaller drug dealers. In this essay, we will see the effect it has on the United States, the way we are trying to prevent, and overall what the drugs have done to America since the Civil War.

The war on drugs began in the United States in 1971 when President Richard Nixon declared war. President Nixon increased the number of federal drug control agencies, increased mandatory sentences for drug offenders, and utilized no-knock warrants in attempt to get the problem under control. It has been over forty years since President Nixon declared a war on drugs. Did America win the war on drugs? Is it time to legalize illicit drugs in this country? What are other countries doing in reference to drugs? The author will examine the history of the war on drugs in this country, how other countries deal with drugs, list the positive and negative aspect of legalizing illicit drugs, and offer his opinion as to whether drugs should be

Starting in 1914 the U.S introduced the first probation acts that prohibited the consumption of Opiates and Cocaine with the Harrison Narcotics act of 1914 Later this act was amended to include marijuana. This Act was the first use of federal criminal law in the United Sates to attempt to deal with the nonmedical use of drugs (wisegeek). The war of drugs started primarily in the 1971 when Nixon declared the war on drugs. He dramatically increased the size and presence of federal drug control agencies (Drug Policy). With the first major organized drug imports from Columbia from the Black Tuna Gang based in Miami, Florida Columbia was quickly growing into a drug superpower able to feed America’s growing addictions.

In 1968, President Richard Nixon initiated the War on Drugs when American soldiers were coming home from the Vietnam War addicted to heroin. More than a decade later, President Ronald Reagan launches the South Florida Drug Task force, headed by then Vice-President George Bush, in response to the city of Miami’s demand for help. In 1981, Miami was the financial and import central for cocaine and marijuana, and the residents were fed up.

The War on Drug began in 1870s, Chinese immigrants were the targets of federal anti-opium laws, and in the early 1920s, and laws targeting cocaine use in the south and marijuana use in the Midwest and Southwest, also directed at people of color, emerged. In 1914, the Harrison Narcotics Act essentially criminalized opiate and cocaine addition, prescribing drugs for those addicted to them, and distrubiting these drugs except for limited medical and scientific purposes p (409). It is to my surprise that the War on Drugs has been a prolong on going process for decades and yet, there has been programs or treatments to fully cure those who are battling this chronic, biological, and behavioral disease. Although, there is no cure for this disease,

When I first started reading this book I thought to myself “how am I going to read this book it seems so dry and boring.” Then I continued to read it and realized that it was hard for me to put it down. There was so much information on this topic of the War on Drugs that I am still wrapping my mind around it. It went into such detail about the war on drugs that are never talked about. We always hear “just say no.”

Most people believe that the war on drugs started when President Nixon declared war on drugs in 1971. This is not true the war on drugs actually started in the 1870s, mostly to target certain racial groups, like the Chinese, black people and Hispanics. The very first anti-opium acts were directed at the Chinese immigrants. Then in the early 1900s, the first anti-cocaine laws were directed at black men in the south. In the 1910s and the 1920s, the first anti-marijuana acts were directed at the Mexican immigrants. It was not until the 1960s, that drug abuse started to rise among the “hippies” and returning soldiers from Vietnam.

The war on drugs has been talked about since Nixon brought it into play several years ago. It is not surprising that the war on drugs has been rather stagnant over the decades, with little positive outcomes. The war on drugs seems to only fill up the prison with people who in societies eyes have minor or nonviolent offenses. I understand that drugs in the community in a serious problem, however, if this same method hasn’t been working for years then why would it work now.

What If I told you that legalizing all substances, substances such as heroin could do much more good than harm. Drugs have been public enemy number one ever since Richard Nixon declared so in the 1960’s. The war on drugs today had proven to become a huge failure with some unintended consequences. Some of those consequences include corruption, mass incarceration, and political debilitation and violence. It has negatively affected many across the globe. While this is happening we continue funding drug cartels who what nothing more than to keep drugs underground. The war on drugs is a war of freedom, a war of moral principles, a war of extortion of the US people.

For the better part of half of a century, the American Government has waged war against its citizens through legislation, restriction, and imprisonment. This “war” against American citizens aptly named the “War on Drugs,” has cost billions of American taxpayer dollars and has not discontinued or even diminished the manufacture and sale of currently illegal substances, since once one drug smuggling operation is stopped, hundreds if not thousands of other illicit operations vie to fill their spot in the drug market. One argument would put forth that this is why we need to continue to enforce the War on Drugs or even apply it more heavily and put forth our best effort to arrest every operation that exists. Which rationally would be impossible

Because of the war on drugs, prison overcrowding is vastly becoming a problem of astronomical proportion, putting a strain not only on the system of law enforcement, but on citizens as well. With studies in DNA and other forensic sciences that can pin point with exact precision the perpetrator of a crime; more and more criminal offenders are being caught, tried, and imprisoned for the crimes they have committed. Many of these crimes are initiated by the use of drugs, such as marijuana, cocaine, heroin, ice, crystal meth, angel dust, PCP, etc. Along with the success of catching these offenders and sentencing them to pay retribution for their crimes, another problem has surfaced—prison overcrowding. Because of

The War on Drugs can be a very controversial topic to different people around the world. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and I fully respect that. Some people say that the War on Drugs is a waste of time and money while others are very concerned about the different drugs that are coming into the United States. It still amazes me that people are continuing to take/do drugs when they see and hear about how many people have overdosed because the drugs are laced with something. According to “The Hidden Dangers of Laced Drugs”, there are two ways to alter drugs. The first way is called cutting. “Cutting is mixing a separate chemical or substance to stretch the drug,