Soft Drugs

Laws are put in place to put away anyone with large or small amounts of drugs in their possesion. Though police are sucessful with filling the jails, there are many more users and dealers that are still on the streets feeding habits. To think that the answer is solely law enforcement is foolish. To try to lock away any and all drug users and dealers is impossible, even if it were possible, more money would have to be spent to build and fund new jails rather than redirect funds into communities for education and prevention. Currie effectively validates reasoning on why relying on law enforcement to resolve the issue is not realistic. The current ideology of the criminal justice system is discouraging drug use through punishment and fear. The priority of the criminal justice system is soley focused on getting and keeping drug offenders out of the community. Meanwhile, there is no clear articulation to what the end result accomplished by the police and courts should be, making the strategy for the war on drugs a stagnant one. Though the judicial system is part of

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.

I hope you all can agree that a better idea would go after the source of the drugs or even the treatment of the people using them and hopefully in time the number of people using narcotics drops dramatically. But realistically what happens is people using and distributing narcotics are entered into a never ending life of crime because the government punishes the criminal offenders’ absurd amounts that the government knows they cannot afford. So once released from prison or jail these criminals have debts that they have to repay and no way to pay them. So what is the answer? Crime is the answer. That is where the cynical cycle starts all over again and these released inmates find themselves in a familiar situation; trying to make money for reasons that don’t benefit themselves. But, unfortunately, the only way these people know how to make money is deemed deviant by society.

I believe the War on Drugs continues to be a major issue for this country for a while, but that doesn’t mean we should be seeing the same people in and out of prison. I believe we need to create programs within the criminal justice system to help individuals become successful and get drugs far away from them. Group therapy may be a start for some of these individuals. They can talk about why they became

Drug abuse and crime is not a new concept and the statistics around the problem have continued to rise. According to (Office of Justice Programs, 2011), there were an estimated 1,846,400 state and local arrests for drug abuse in the United States. Additionally, 17 percent of state prisoners and 18 percent of federal inmates said they committed their current offense to obtain money for drugs (Office of Justice Programs, 2011). Based on this information, we can conclude that our criminal justice systems are saturated with drug abusers. The United States has the highest imprisonment rate and about 83 percent of arrests are for possession of illegal drugs (Prisons & Drug Offenders, 2011). Based on these figures, I can conclude that we should be more concerned about solving the drug abusers problems and showing them an alternative lifestyle rather than strict penalty of long term incarceration which will inevitably challenge their ability to be fully functioning citizens after release.

The fact that the United States treats drug use as a terrible crime instead of treating it as a physical problem or illness, and the drug problem is still not going away, shows that the United States is going about drug abuse all wrong. The United States has over 25% of the world's incarcerated population and over half of those are in prison for drug abuse/distribution. Other countries have decriminalized drugs and have seen an extremely positive difference in the drug abuse problem. Therapeutic drug treatments can be offered as an option to drug abusers so they feel safe and not afraid or angry of what is happening. The United States needs to find a new policy on drug abuse because the current policy has failed.

The second thing we must look at is mandatory sentencing. I agree that we should have mandatory sentencing. You can read different studies that it does not work and it takes power away from judges. Sometimes trial rates and sentencing delays occur because of mandatory sentencing. Just think of how many repeat offenders we would have if it was not in place. I do think that it is somewhat of a deterrent for the small time users on the street. Research has shown that it is the low-level street dealers, mules and addicts that this affects most, but if we didn’t start with them then where? You must punish the user just as much as the dealer or “kingpins”. The dealers would not have any business if it was not for the users and if we can get to them easier than the main dealers, than I am all for mandatory sentencing.

More than 45 years ago President Richard Nixon announced and declared the nation is at war, that war was the "War on Drugs". Nancy Reagan campaigned heavily in the fight against drug use as well; her fight was that of teaching young children the slogan of “Just Say No”. The goals of the criminal justice system in the war on drugs have been a never ending fight against the sale of illicit drugs and that of combating drug abuse. We will discuss the increased resources spent on law enforcement and rehabilitation while making an attempt in understanding

Illegal drugs not only harm the health of those who misuse them, they also hurt their families, children and friends. The crime and antisocial behaviour associated with drugs cause misery to the victims, and puts enormous pressure on the economy’ (NHS breaking the link, 2009, pg 6).

However, the most terryfying thing about all this is average age of drug users. According to NIDA – National Institute on Drug Abuse - teenagers first trie drugs at the age of 13 – 16 and the main reason for that is peer pressure. Presently, it‘s not very easy to get drugs for teenagers, but due to easy availability of drugs , if they would be legalised, they could get it from older friends, who would be able to get drugs legallly. If drugs would be legalised, danger to get addicted to drugs for young individuals would increase and that would be a disaster. Youth is the future of humanity, whereas drugs legalisation would destroy their future even before they start living. Drugs lead world to social and medical catastrophe.

If drugs were legal and being monitored for purity the people would not have to buy bootleg drugs. Look at alcohol, nobody buys bootleg alcohol now that it is legal. Before abolishing alcohol prohibition the same kind of violence polluted the United States and other countries because of the black market. According to one study, 40% of the homicides in a study of 414 homicides in New York City could be linked to the black market in drugs and these homicides were only committed because of the violence associated with the black market of drugs. Not because of the use of drugs but because of the black market that has resulted from the prohibition of drugs. Other so-lutions have been tried and proposed to include: tighter gun laws and better border control with Mexi-co. However none of these attempts will end the black market on drugs and violence will still occur be-cause of the black market. Billions of dollars has been and will be spent on the “war on drugs”. Why not spend this money on helping the addicts and research? Less money will be spent and the need for the amount of drugs will

There are groups of people in the criminal justice system who considers drug addiction a personal issue, not a criminal one. This could not be further from the truth; drug abuse is illegal and should be treated as such. It is a catalyst for many crimes seen today from mugging to murder. If the numbers of those who abuse drugs are reduced, the amount of crimes associated with the addiction are also reduced. Not only will crime levels be reduced, most of those who undergo treatment tend to be better prepared to do more with their lives and not re-offend.

There has always been a close association between drugs and crime. Drugs have been seen as a way out of suffering in one’s life and so as long as there is suffering there will always be a market for drugs. The struggle to keep one’s self sane when away from a substance they need can cause them to do crazy and even violent things to others. Things like murdering someone because they did not have proper control of themselves is not something unheard of by any means. These people can been seen as both victims and criminals, as they were not in a sound state of mind when doing these actions, however them doing the actions does not mean they should get off scot-free. The users are only one side of the coin, the other is the drug dealers. The dealers do not have to be selling purely illegal drugs, they may be selling prescription drugs too, but in the pursuit of their own survival in a struggling life, they turn to selling substances to others. By doing so they can even amass a fortune, but this is still a crime, and what people will do to try to get all this potential money can span from robbing to murder. The articles I read from different media support the fact there is indeed a tie with crime and drugs, being that an increase of drugs on the street leads to more crime.

Drug abuse and crime is not a new concept and the statistics around the problem have continued to rise. According to (Office of Justice Programs, 2011), there were an estimated 1,846,400 state and local arrests for drug abuse in the United States. Additionally, 17 percent of state prisoners and 18 percent of federal inmates said they committed their current offense to obtain money for drugs (Office of Justice Programs, 2011). Based on this information, we can conclude that our criminal justice systems are saturated with drug abusers. The United States has the highest imprisonment rate and about 83 percent of arrests are for possession of illegal drugs (Prisons & Drug Offenders, 2011). Based on these figures, I can conclude that we should be more concerned about solving the drug abusers problems and showing them an alternative lifestyle rather than strict penalty of long term incarceration which will inevitably challenge their ability to be fully functioning citizens after release.

I believe it is wrong to legalize any sort of recreational drug, no matter what sort of effect it has on the user and society. All drugs have a negative impact on the issue, whether it be short term or long term side effects. There are already serious issues