Race Sex And Drug Use Essay

At one point in time the high percentage of men and women who are drug

This paper aims will provide a concise history of drugs deriving from the erythroxylum coca plant and the sociological impact powder and crack cocaine legislation in the American justice system.

The War on Drugs was the United Sates government’s attempt to stop the sale and use of illegal drug use. It consisted of anti-drug legislation all with the plan to end drug abuse in America. President Nixon declared and coined the phrase “War on drugs” and increased drug control agencies and pushed for harder sentencing for drug offenses. The war on drugs is an issue that we are still fighting and many of the policies put in place did more harm than good. The drug war affected all people, but it had unequal outcomes for different racial groups and many of the historical pieces of legislation put in place impacted these outcomes and are still affecting many people of color today.

This brings up the question; do blacks use drugs more than whites? Contrary to public belief, the higher arrest rates of black drug offenders do not reflect higher rates of drug law violations. Whites, actually, commit more drug crimes than blacks. “By 1988, with national anti-drug efforts in full force, blacks were arrested on drug charges at five times the rate of whites. Statistical as well as anecdotal evidence indicate drug possession and drug selling cut across all racial, socio-economic and geographic lines. But, because drug law enforcement resources have been concentrated in low-income, predominantly minority urban areas, drug offending whites

The permanence of one’s social exile is often the hardest to swallow. For many it seems unconceivable that for a minor offense, you can be subjected to discrimination, scorn, and exclusion for the rest of your life. When someone is convicted of crime today, their debt to society is never paid. The cruel hand that Frederick Douglas spoke of more than 150 years ago has appeared once again. In every state across our nation, African Americans, particularly in the poorest neighborhoods, are subjected to tactics and practices that would result in public outrage and scandal if committed in middle-class white neighborhoods. When the War on Drugs gained full steam in the mid-1980’s, prison admissions for African Americans skyrocketed , nearly quadrupling

According to Stuart and Brice-Baker (2004), drugs have been one of the major culprits leading to incarceration and repeat criminal offenses among women in recent years. Drug offenses have the largest increase of any crime committed by female offenders. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (2012), the most serious offense for 59.4% of women in federal prison and 25.1% of women in state prisons is violation of drug laws (Carson & Sabol, 2011).

Research shows that its due to abnormal behaviour and delinquency. During the periods of 1975-1989, United Nations stated that this was the highest increase in crime that related to drugs. Adolescents tend to get involved in early sexual activities which firmly relates to crime and drug abuse. Girls who have been pregnant proclaimed preceding use of drugs. Some abuse drugs and become delinquent because they lose the strong bond with their family which falls back to the previous argument.

Cocaine dependence has been linked to inappropriate sexual behaviors that in turn contribute to spread and increase of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS. Winhusen et. al. (2013), states that there is a strong link between cocaine usage and increased sexual risk behavior (p.1). These claims are based on the findings of multiple studies that have proven the strong association between cocaine use and increased sexual risk behavior. Users of these drugs tend to ignore safe sex practices because of the effect of the drug on normal psychological functioning of the brain.

When it comes to the War on Drugs and racial disparity, African Americans males are more likely to receive a higher prison sentence than their white counterparts. For example, there is disparity in sentencing regarding powder cocaine and crack cocaine. The judicial system provides a heavier prison sentence for crack than powder, even though it is better than previously. Crack and powder cocaine are both illegal substances that derive from the same drug, which is cocaine. Whites and African American drug addicts use these drugs; however, the difference is the distribution and use of the drugs targets distinct groups of people. White drug dealers use and sell powder cocaine more frequently in wealthier communities. Addicts abuse crack cocaine

One in three African-American males will go to prison in their lifetime, they constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million imprisoned population, and this is not simply because they commit more crimes than other racial groups. African-Americans drug offenders are 20% more likely of being sentenced to prison than white drug offenders, whilst Hispanics has a 40% greater chance of being sentenced. African-Americans make up 12% of the nation’s drug users, but represent 34% of those arrested for drug offenses, and 45% of those in state prison for such offense as of 2005.

Drug usage is widely considered to be a black problem, but various studies have found that all races use drugs at roughly the same rates. Nonetheless, a 1995 issue of the Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education found that 95% of the people who were asked to describe a drug user pictured a black person. The reason is that minorities are statistically much more likely to be arrested for drugs because minorities are aggressively pursued, arrested, and prosecuted. As a result, seventy-five percent of the drug offenders in state prisons are black or Latino. Consequently, minorities are also stereotyped as drug dealers, but they’re no more likely to deal drugs either. Even the former “drug czar” Barry McCaffrey acknowledged that most people buy their drugs from “their own race generally.”

Drug abuse is an illness of the brain, and it has a negative impact on the body system. It weakens the immune system making is difficult for the body to fight diseases. Drug use also affect other organs of the body which includes the heart, liver kidney and the brain. This illness can cause paranoid, aggression, impaired judgment, hallucination and suicidal ideations. The statistics available shows that annual number of people with substances dependency in 2013 is 21.6 million. The figure has been fluctuating between 20.6million to 22.7 million from 2002 to 2012(National Survey on Drug use and Health 2013) Adolescent who use drugs are more likely to engage in unprotected sex and have unwanted pregnancies. The Affordable Care Act made health care accessible for substance abuse patient, sometimes all the coat is not covered. People without insurance will not seek for help because of healthcare cost.

Drugs can also affect someone’s likelihood to commit crime because of the effects it has on the person while they are under the influence. Drug use can affect an individual’s speed, memory, alertness and reactions. Crimes related to drugs or alcohol may be the result of the effects that the substances have on their thought processes and behaviour which causes them to commit criminal activity.

A lot of people link drug abuse with crime, at times even with violent crime. This association comes from psychopharmacological association that imply that people may engage in criminal acts after taking some kind of substance known to undermine their judgment as well as self-control result in paranoid thoughts and distortion of inhibitions (Sewell, Poling and Sofuoglu, 189). Though all substances that affect the central nervous system might result in this kind of relationships, scientific information indicates that some type of drugs have a more strong effect than others. Such drugs are alcohol, cocaine, phencyclidine and amphetamines (McCauley, Ruggiero, Resnick and Kilpatrick, 136). Inversely, cannabis and heroin are less associated with desire to commit

Drug use in the United States has increased for the past few years. A report conducted by Tobias Salinger from NY Daily News, in 2013 an estimated 24.6 million Americans age 12 or older 9.4 percent of the population had us an illicit drug in the past month. The increase is due to the increase of marijuana use, because it is so common. Marijuana use has increased since 2007. In 2013, the number of current users ager 12 or older was 1.5 million; however, this number is lower than 2002, to 2007 ranging from 2.0 million to 2.4 million. (Tobias Salinger, NY Daily News)