Victimless Crime

Illegal drugs will always be the number one cause of criminal behavior. Within today’s society, drugs have taken a negative impact on individuals who buys and sell drugs. The negative consequences of drug abuse affect not only individuals who abuse drugs but also their families and friends, various businesses, and government resources. Although many of these effects cannot be quantified, ONDCP recently reported that in 2002, the economic cost of drug abuse to the United States was $180.9 billion. (National Drug Threat Assessment) Drugs are one of the major criminal issues that society faced for

The negative impact the drugs and alcohol abuse and addiction has on the overall health of the user must be considered. Every process and system in the body is adversely affected by the over-indulgence of drugs and alcohol. Some of the health problems regularly noted include organ damage, kidney and liver disease, organ failure, congestive heart failure, respiratory depression, memory lapses, brain damage, infection, stroke, heart attack, and overdose.

S203). In addition to the severe consequences drug abuse has on health, the social consequences are just as severe and includes increased crime and imprisonment, physical and mental disabilities, and loss of productivity.

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.

It must be noted however, that the physical effects of drug use and the damage that it can cause to the body is occurring with the abuse and misuse of drugs and alcohol regardless of whether or not a person suffers withdrawal symptoms when sober. The health risks related to substance abuse and addiction include memory loss, stress on the organs and systems of the body, organ failure, depressed respiratory function, cancer, stroke, heart attack, cirrhosis of the liver, infection, kidney disease, depression, anxiety, and

In the United States, the rise in both illicit drug and alcohol abuse is continuing at an alarming rate. In 2009 alone, the United States saw 23.5 million people over the age of 12 needing treatment for drug or alcohol abuse (National Institute of Drug Abuse, 2011). Per the Drug Enforcement Administration, in the same year (2009), almost 32,000 arrests on drug related charges were carried out (Drug Enforcement Administration, 2015). Even with the threat of prison time, and most federal prisons being filled with inmates on drug and alcohol related charges, 46.4% in 2016 the use and abuse of these substances is still on the rise (Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2016). Because of this, and the seemingly ineffective incarceration system, the call for

According to Murray (2013), In 2011 the Bureau of Prison’s reported drug offenders constitute for 46.4 percent of the state prison population and 60 percent of the federal population. Many persons arrested were actively engaged in drug use around the time of their arrest. Current urinalysis surveys of persons arrested in twenty-two major cities in the U.S indicted that roughly over half of arrestees tested positive for at least one illicit drug. While 45 percent of state prisoners and 41 percent of federal prisoners say, they were under the influence of drugs when they committed their offence. Therefore, It is clear that drug related behavior takes up a significant part of the prison population.

Ever since the 1970’s the “War on Drugs” has been an uphill battle. Even back then President Nixon knew that harmful effects some specific drugs can have on not only individuals but the society as a whole. In 1971, President publicly announced that drug-related crimes and drug abuse were “public enemy number one.” Though one could argue that the claims of President Nixon are both outdated and potentially overgeneralized, studies throughout the next forty years have only strength Nixon’s worries. Research has proven that “the vast majority of offenders in the criminal justice system are drug users. In the drug use forecasting (DUF) studies conducted in 20 major cities in 1988, the percentage of male arrestees testing positive for any drug ranged

Each year, the President of the United States releases an updated version of the National Drug Control Strategy. The latest edition, from July of 2014, introduces a number of changes from previous years. The most important aspects of President Obama’s drug policy includes accepting those who do drugs as individuals who need help, and are the victim of a disease, rather than as criminals who are intentionally being menaces to society. This approach is very progressive, as there is a tradition in America to penalize those who have drug charges as though they are criminals, all while many people agree that money should be saved in this area. The idea that drug use is a victimless crime (of course, with the exception of violent drug-related crimes,

Although drug abuse may seem totally negative, there are some advantages for the user. One obvious con of drug abuse is that it is bad for the human body. Prolonged use of drugs often leads to incurable sicknesses, and sometimes even death. Drugs can make a person

Heroin, Cocaine, Methamphetamine, all cling to their victims. “Almost 70% of all offenders on probation reported using drugs sometime in their lifetimes. About 35% were abusing drugs at the time of their offense” (NIDA). Drug use is the fastest growing problem in the United States. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, in 2013, there were just over 2.8 million new users of illicit drugs, about 7,800 of new users per day. Only seventeen percent of offenders get treatment for their drug use. Criminologists, psychologists, sociologists, and other criminal justice professionals try to determine how to stop this problem. We wonder why crime happens, who commits it, how to stop it, and more recently, what to do with the offenders after

The data used for this study was compiled by two self-reporting agencies, the National Household Surveys on Drug Abuse and the National Surveys on Drug Use and Health, who supplied socio-demographic information for the time periods of 1992 to 2002. This information was fundamental in identifying variables in the target groups; specifically, low educated unmarried women without children. Additionally, drug related data collected by government bureaus and emergency providers from 1992 to 2002 was instrumental in facilitating the researchers in gathering, interpreting, and summarizing the number of adult women who were arrested, incarcerated, or treated medically, as a direct result of drug-related incidents. The National Corrections Reporting Programs, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and the Drug Abuse Warning Network were all credited with collecting essential data that made this research study feasible.

Since the early 1960’s there have been an alarming increase in drug use in the United States in 1962, four million Americans had tried an illegal drug. By 1999, that number had risen to a staggering 88.7 million, according to the 1999 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse.

1) Victimless crime can be defined as those types of actions and behavior that are illegal, although they do not affect the safety and personal rights of others. Individuals or groups of persons can commit victimless crimes. In cases that involve more than one person, only those capable of consenting to the actions are guilty of this type of crime (Liberal Democratic Party, 2009).

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.