The Forgotten Civil War : A War On Minority Communities Essay

Nowadays addiction is just as controversial a topic as political correctness. Should drug abusers be helped, or should they be imprisoned? According to the Richard Nixon in 1971, the latter is the correct answer and drug abuse was made “public enemy number one in the United States”. The long term effects of the decision were unprecedented and the war on drugs still goes on today with billions of tax payer dollars wasted and millions of people’s lives ruined all because of an addiction that they lack the wherewithal to fix.

In 1971 on June 17, President Richard Nixon delivered a special message to the Congress on drug abuse prevention and control. During the presentation, Nixon made it clear that the United States was at war with this idea of drug abuse. What baffled Americans then, and still baffles Americans today, is that we are at war with our own nation with drugs; it is not some foreign affair like the media tends to focus on with Mexico. Nixon stated that at the time of his speech, what was implemented to control drug abuse was not working…“The problem has assumed the dimensions of a national emergency. I intend to take every step necessary to deal with this emergency, including asking the Congress for an amendment to my 1972 budget to provide an

Drug offenders are one of the fasting growing populations in federal prisons. Drug offenders constitute up to nearly half of the federal prison population (Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2015). They constitute, by far, the largest percentage of the population with the second highest offense being weapons, explosives, and arson at a mere 16.1% of the federal prison population (Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2015). In a 1971 press conference, President Richard Nixon labeled drug abuse “public enemy number one in the United States,” which the media shortly termed the “War on Drugs” (Public Broadcasting Service, 2014). In a measure to combat the War on Drugs, President Nixon implemented mandatory sentencing (Drug Policy Alliance, 2015). Mandatory

The war on drugs is a highly debated policy that began in 1971 during Richard Nixon’s presidency . During this time the United States of America was faced with a drug epidemic that affected not only Vietnam veterans but also the youth of America. Nixon’s actions have brought up central questions like should governments be able to violate human rights for the betterment of everyone in the society? To better define a violation of human rights, we will use the state of nature and the social contract. A violation is when the government does not protect the peoples’ life or liberties from the state of nature. To better address this human rights issue the following research question will be investigated: To what extent was the war on drugs during Nixon’s administration a violation of civil liberties of African Americans? Although President Richard Nixon created the war on drugs as a way to solve the drug problem in America, but his supply side policies for the war on drugs targeted African Americans and the war on drugs was

The war on drugs began during Nixon’s administration in 1968 and was designed in efforts to reduce the amount of drugs being sold and consumed in America (Moore & Elkavich, 2008). Nixon believed that getting drugs out of the hands of people would make the country a safer and better place, however these new drug laws did not reduce the amount of drugs being consumed or distributed. Instead, these laws incarcerated a large amount of people and have resulted in a continuation of inequality in our country. While Marx would argue that the war on drugs prolongs inequality through class conflict because it targets low class individuals, advantages upper class communities while disadvantaging the poor communities, and it makes the cycle of class differences continue, Wells-Barnett would argue that the war on drugs perpetuates inequality through its racism because it was created in response to colored people using drugs, it targets black males, and the sentencing varies based on whom the drug is linked to.

On June 17, 1971, President Richard Nixon, addressed the United States of America and its congress, detailing his plans to stem drug abuse in the United State. He declared it “America’s public enemy number one”, saying that “In New York City more people between the ages of 15 and 35 years of age die as a result of narcotics than from any other single cause”. Less than a year prior to his speech, congress had passed into legislation a bill that called for a comprehensive reform of the country’s current drug laws. Still, Nixon felt that the nation needed more as the current drug policies were not enough to eliminate drug abuse. He went on to propose many ideas for what he called “a full-scale attack on the problem of drug abuse in

To begin, drug laws have always been about targeting “specific populations.” Alexander’s book makes the case that the War on Drugs is the latest incarnation of a racial caste system. It describes how the war on drugs and the war on crime under Ronald Reagan, kicked off a series of events that has resulted in the majority of the Black male population in the United States to be either behind bars or suffering with the criminal stigma associated with post-release.

This weeks assignment explores the "War on drugs" and the effect that it has on those addicted to drug and those that sell drugs. The "war on drugs" gained popularity and momentum in the 1960's with action taken by President Richard Nixon in 1969 when law were enacted (Singer, p.289). This article surprised me greatly since I was under the impression that this 'war' was designed to improve health. wellbeing, and restore the values of the 'good ole days". However, little influence regarding society's wellbeing had little to do with the decision. Political, economics, and international relations proved to be the focus of the 'war'. Nixon attributed the decay of society to the use and distribution of drugs, labeling drug abusers as criminals (Singer,

In conclusion, the “war on drugs” was created under false pretenses and has done nothing but hurt this country. Due to these substances being illegal, it makes users reluctant to go out and receive the help they desire, which causes them to be stuck in a deadly cycle of drug use and incarceration. It is almost as if the shadow of Nixon’s political machinations still looms over this nation, whether you use drugs or not you are only hurt by the drug war. Sometimes the best way to win, is to no play at

The article first focuses on an opiate drug addiction treatment called "methadone maintenance therapy," also the history of methadone and a shift in the mid-60’s in thinking about narcotic addiction more as metabolic disease rather than a personal weakness. The first methadone maintenance programs were started in 1964 with successful results. Drug addicts’ cravings for heroin were reduced and the treatment prevented addicts from drug relapses. Dr Raz then focuses on the Nixon years and his administration’s drug policy, a policy which was focused on enforcement and policing rather than treatment, prevention and education. Dr Raz talks about the Office of Drug Abuse and Enforcement (ODALE), started in 1972. ODALE was filled with controversy from

Nixon was the first president to make a federally funded rehabilitation and treatment center for drug addicts to get better, but he thought that taking out the supply of drugs and the demand would eradicated this threat. To do this he gave drugs a harsher penalty and he also stopped trade with Mexico to the point trucks of necessary produce and food went to waste while sitting at the border for checking. This only work for so long as like anything he didn’t think it through. With Mexico cut off Columbia became the new drug center into the States. Not only was it cheaper it came faster and in a larger capacity. Since this didn’t work Nixon thought cracking down was the best option so in 1973 the DEA and other agencies arrested and convicted 330,000 citizens for drug

The United States absurdly spends billions to concentrate its efforts on the interdiction of substance use. Law enforcement and labors of exclusion have not been met with reductions in the accessibility of drugs in America. Aside from being remarkably expensive, drug task agencies have demonstrated racial discrimination and unequal anguish distressed by minority communities. Ultimately, it costs the government extreme amounts of taxpayer dollars to maintain this futile war while disregarding the rights of American citizens.

In New York City, people as young at fifteen going up to the age of thirty-five were now dying due to the abuse on narcotics (drugs). “Going back to the 60s, approximately less than two hundred deaths were recorded in the same area and rose up to over one thousand deaths in about a decade” (Nixon). As a country, people were dying rapidly due to the addiction in their bodies, making this a huge issue. Let’s be honest here, people as young as fifteen and at times younger were dying due to narcotics, how insane is that? Death rates caused by narcotics were sky-rocketing to the point that neighbors did not even know who would die next. This sad truth caught the attention of our Government slowly but surely until it got on another level and then got the attention of our President at the time, President Richard Nixon. This scared President Nixon and made him wonder how much worse the people of his country could get and decided to put his foot down. In June 1971, President Nixon declared war on drugs, calling it “America’s public enemy number one in the United States” (Nixon). Nixon put Dr.Jaffe in charge of dealing with problems of rehabilitation, research, and education which will eventually lead to testing society on what is working to end abuse and what is not. Regards the costs of this war, Nixon announced that “money will be provided to the extent that is necessary and to the extent that it will be useful” (Nixon). Now that President Nixon has declared War on Drugs, anything that needs to be done to defeat the enemy will

The United States government “War on Drugs” efforts on regulating the use and abuse of drugs were initiated by President Nixon in 1971. Today the “War on Drugs” implementation is killing black teenagers and adults because of the increasing police violence. Throughout the 45 years of its implementation, it has affected the number of black males incarcerated for non-violent drug offenses. Moreover, there has been no progress on reducing the continued drug use in the United States on the last decade. Thus, I am against continuing the “War on Drugs” and support its end.

The battle with keeping drugs away from the masses is becoming a difficult matter as time progresses there becomes newer drugs available. Public perceptions of drugs and alcohol are socially constructed and subject to change based on many factors, perhaps primarily based on the intensity of media campaigns detailing community devastation at the hands of drugs addicts and drug dealers and political pressure to once and for all win the war against drugs. Although the boundary between legal and illegal substances is arbitrary, the United States has spent decades waging this war. The war on drugs involves a lot of topics such as race, prison and laws the cost of the War on Drugs has been violence, crime, corruption, devastation of social bonds and the destruction of inner-city communities, and the exponential growth of the number of minorities and women incarcerated. Only after nearly 40 years of conducting this war did the United States government, under President Barack Obama, shift its efforts away from heavy-handed enforcement of drug laws and toward recognition of the public health aspects of the problem, placing greater emphasis on drug-use prevention and treatment.