Essay about Unfair Drug Laws in America

This history of legislation of both the sale and use of alcohol and drugs in the United States has been considered one of the longest-running policies that our history has seen. The first federal drug policy that the United States restricted the use of

In the essay “America’s Unjust Drug War” by Michael Huemer, Huemer discusses the facts and opinions around the subject on whether or not the recreational use of drugs should be banned by law. Huemer believes that the American government should not prohibit the use of drugs. He brings up the point on drugs and how they harm the users and the people in the user’s life; he proves that the prohibition on drugs in unjust. Huemer believes that drug prohibition is an injustice to Americans’ natural rights and questions why people can persucute those who do drugs.

Drugs have been known to be detrimental to American society. Commonly known as “ The war on drugs”. Majority of individuals who are incarcerated have been convicted of some type of drug offense and if not a drug related crimes. In many instances, a person can be sent to a jail or prison without receiving the required treatment to help the individual overcome their drug of choice. Remarkably, there is a court solely focused on an individual with a drug problem, which is known as Drug courts.

For many years, a real push has been looming on the idea of legalizing now illegal drugs. This has become a hot debate throughout nations all over the world, from all walks of life. The dispute over the idea of decriminalizing illegal drugs is and will continue on as an ongoing conflict. In 2001, Drug decriminalization in all drugs, including cocaine and heroin, became a nationwide law in Portugal (Greenwald). Ethan Nadelman, essayist of “Think again: Drugs,” states his side of the story on the continuing criminalization of hard drugs, in which he stand to oppose. Whether it is for the good of human rights or not, decriminalizing drugs may be a good head start for a new beginning.

Since the late 19th century, the federal and states governments of the United States have enacted laws and policies to deter the use and distribution of illegal drugs. These laws and policies have not only deemed what drugs are legal and illegal, but have also established penalties for the possession and distribution of these substances and established federal agencies to control drug use and administer drug law enforcement. This essay will not only examine the landmark drug laws and policies established by the federal and state governments, but also the enforcement of drug laws.

There are many differing viewpoints in the United States when dealing with drug policy. Within the political arena, drug policy is a platform that many politicians base their entire campaigns upon, thus showing its importance to our society in general. Some of these modes within which drug policy is studied are in terms of harm reduction, and supply reduction. When studying the harmful effects of drugs, we must first to attempt to determine if drug abuse harms on an individual level of if it is a major cause of many societal problems that we face today. In drawing a preliminary conclusion to this question we are then able to outline the avenues of approach in dealing

As a major policy issue in the United States, the War on Drugs has been one of the most monumental failures on modern record. At a cost of billions of taxpayer dollars, thousands of lives lost and many thousands of others ruined by untreated addiction or incarceration, America's policy orientation concerning drug laws is due for reconsideration. Indeed, the very philosophical orientation of the War on Drugs and of the current drug policy in the United States has been one of prosecution and imprisonment rather than one of decriminalization, treatment and rehabilitation. As our medical and scientific communities characterize addiction as a disease, the United States government continues to characterize this disease as a crime. And in doing so, it has created an unnecessary criminal class in the United States. The research, supplemental political cartoons and proposed research will set out to prove that stiffer drug laws will only have the impact of criminalizing countless drug addicts who might otherwise benefit substantially from rehabilitation and other treatment-based strategies. With a specific focus on the prohibition of marijuana even for medical use, and using the Toulmin model for putting forth and completing the argument, the research will set out to demonstrate the irrational

The consensus with regards to drug laws favors more stringent and draconian laws, with the attempt to stifle use and punish crime. There are many claims used against drug legalization, such as, moral degradation, crime, the destruction of inner cities; along with families, diseases, such as AIDS, and the corrupting of law enforcement. When one examines the effects of prohibition, one has to inquire: has the cost been worth it? Certainly, an argument for the abolition of prohibition doesn’t include the favoring of drug use, but merely recognizes the vain and utopian attempt to control individual choices. Along these lines, the unintended consequences of these attempts may preclude any benefits. Further, one has to wonder: are these laws—at

One the many controversies in our country today, regards the prohibition of illegal narcotics. Deemed unhealthy, hazardous, and even fatal by the authorities that be; the U.S. government has declared to wage a “war on drugs.” It has been roughly fifteen years since this initiative has begun, and each year the government shuffles more money into the unjust cause of drug prohibition. Even after all of this, the problem of drugs that the government sees still exists. The prohibition of drugs is a constitutional anomaly. There are many aspects and sides to look at the issue from, but the glaring inefficiency current laws exude is that any human should have the right to ingest anything he or she desires. The antagonist on the other end

Legalization of drugs has been a very controversial issue in the United States for many years. Drugs being legalized can have both advantages and disadvantages on society. On one hand, certain drugs, such as aspirin has long been used as a common medicine to many people, to cure diseases and help people with their personal problems such as headaches, toothaches, to name a few. Some people even take the drug daily as a therapy to lower the risk of heart attacks and strokes. On the other hand, legalization of all drugs could potentially lead to over use; putting the young generations at great risk due to their unawareness of the effects and damages some substances can cause. This issue becomes directly connected to the

There are so many different kind of drug in the world. Many people using it in a good way to protect lives and others are abusing it. These research paper will explain the compare and contrast between drug laws in two different countries United State and Columbia.

Nowadays, there are several illicit drugs such as marijuana, heroin, cocaine that are used in some area in the United States. Those drugs influence people every day of their life. They also affect people whether they are using them, drugs dealer, victims of drugs related crime or dealing with family members’ addiction. On the other hands, the government spends much money for education, medical, technology and recycles. Besides these issues, the government also spends billions of dollars for drug laws enforcement to against them and drug fighting. Since drugs are unsafe, the prohibition is an answer to this problem. The government of the United States should consider to legalizing those drugs. Although some people oppose that drugs legalizing drugs will increases the number of users, increases the number of users, and make more people addictive; however it can be true that legalizing drugs will increase the economic, reduce the corruption of officers, and save tax money.

     "These records of wars, intrigues, factions, and revolutions, are so many collections of experiments, by which the politician or moral philosopher fixes the principles of his science, in the same manner as the physician or natural philosopher becomes acquainted with the nature of plants, minerals, and other external objects, by the experiments which he forms concerning them." (David Hume.)2

Moreover in a recent study of prisoners who have committed crimes like theft, robbery and burglary the results have shown that 33% of those crimes have been made in order to purchase drugs. In addition, these criminals are responsible for the 75% of all robberies, thefts and burglaries. Much research shows that when narcotics are cheap the rates of the drug related crimes decrease. Moreover, the legalization of marijuana will reduce the problem of overcrowded prisons and the numerous accusations against drug users. As it is referred by Nadelmann the U.S. national costs from 1981 to 1987 for law enforcements against drugs tripled from lower than 1 billion per year to 3 billions. In 1988 this amount was 6 billion. Moreover in 1986 local authorities spend 5 billion on anti-drug activities. Therefore in federal prisons the numbers of prisoners count for 33% of the 50.000 total cases, while prisoners for similar crimes in state prisons are 30.000. A similar situation takes place in courts, from the 583.000 cases the 135.000 are related to drug crimes. The costs for keeping in prisons all these people have become a tremendous amount. Despite of the money the criminality, neither the citizens nor the drug lords have felt no change. Today the annual arrests for violation of drug laws are more or less 750.000 in US. In particular, 75% of these are done by citizens who just possess small quantities for personal use. In most of the times the

Laws that prohibit the possession and use of street drugs are important as their aim is to protect the user, those around them, and society in general from undue harm. There has been a great push during the last 10 years to legalize marijuana and decriminalize other drugs such as cocaine and heroin on the basis that the recreational user, and even the hard-core addict, may not be causing significant harm to anyone, beyond their own personal health. In this sense, drug use is viewed as a personal choice and drug laws trample on personal freedoms without sufficient reason. Additionally, minorities are found to be arrested and convicted of drug crimes at disproportionate rates when compared to the demographics of those who use illegal drugs, which some see these type of laws as a tool of legal oppression, instead of a valid punitive function. Still, there remains sufficient reasons to maintain laws against the possession and use of controlled substances, such as marijuana, cocaine, and heroin; though there is a compelling argument for the lessening of the amount punishment of the majority of users that are caught with small amounts of street drugs. This paper seeks to put forward valid reasons for the continued prohibition of drugs, while also making a case for the softening of incarceration policies.