The so-called “War on Drugs,” as declared by the Nixon administration in the signing of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, marked the beginning of the current era of mandatory minimum sentencing, racism, privatized prisons, and a powerful constituency that profits as a result of the prohibition of drugs. Psychoactive substances have been apart of the human experience as long as humans have walked the earth. There is little hope that drug production will ever be curtailed…
Every day the U.S. border patrol has to constantly keep an eye out for the smuggling of drugs by Mexican Cartels. There has been much violence due to this drug problem that has left many people near the border killed and is allowing more criminals to obtain these weapons. A lot of this attention goes to the U.S. because many of the weapons utilized in the “drug war” are U.S. made and is interfering with trading relations amongst both the U.S. and Mexico. With this current violent situation in Mexico…
Drug Wars in Mexico While there are drug wars happening in many places of Mexico, the U.S. is trying to help the cause and stop the war. Money is not going to be enough to stop the drug wars though, America has to stop this problem at the root, which is the demand for these drugs. Many innocent citizens of Mexico are killed and constantly being threatened. Violence suffocates the streets putting visitors at risk of their lives as well. Many believe that a lot of this has to do with the corrupt…
The war on drugs has maintained an accumulation of prohibitions on illegal drugs and mandatory minimum sentencing strategies for drug offenders. Incarceration rates have also increased due to the increase of laws against illegal drugs. In Eugene Jarecki’s film, The House I Live In, Jarecki states that the penalties for crack users were harsher than penalties for regular cocaine users. This suggests that penalties are more of a double standard theory. The “War on Drugs” is more of a failure that places…
struggling with the problem of drug addiction of its citizens. This has led the federal government to take measures to restrain the problem of addiction in the United States. However, after observing these measures, such as the ‘War on Drugs’ and its consequences, scholars now question the effectiveness of the drug policy implemented. Some scholars even argue that the War on Drugs has been more harmful to American citizens than helpful. Also, scholars claim that the drug policy has had severe consequences…
with the nonmedical use of drugs (wisegeek). The war of drugs started primarily in the 1971 when Nixon declared the war on drugs. He dramatically increased the size and presence of federal drug control agencies (Drug Policy). With the first major organized drug imports from Columbia from the Black Tuna Gang based in Miami, Florida Columbia was quickly growing into a drug superpower able to feed America’s growing addictions. With the growth of America’s need for drugs cartels in Columbia quickly…
treating marijuana offenders worse than violent criminals. I doubt, however, that many Americans are truly conscious of how some peoples' lives have been shattered because of current practices in the so-called "drug war." Now, about 15 years since its beginning, the "war on drugs" has become a war on personal freedom and toes the line of authoritarianism. On the brink of the 21st century, this is not a good sign for preserving our future, nor that of democracy. In 1989, a small business owner and…
In 1971 President Richard Nixon declared a War on Drugs stating that drug abuse was “public enemy number one”. Four decades later America is still waging this war that many say can never truly be won. The goal of this campaign has always been the prohibition of drugs, military aid, and military intervention with the stated aim being to define and reduce the illegal drug trade however the tactics used thus far have done little to solve the problem of drugs in the United State. The use of military…
WAR ON DRUGS IS A DOMESTIC PROBLEM The new policy that the government has unfolded on the War on Drugs, has pointed the finger of responsibility toward stopping terrorism by stopping the individual drug users. Terrorism affects the entire world, and the United States has assumed a position at the spearhead to confront it. There is no way to actually stop terrorism, but one way to financially divert the problem is to stop the money from flowing to the organizations. The War on Drugs…
War on Drugs = War on Terrorism??? The United States’ new claim in today’s world of propaganda and mind-warping media is that The War on Terrorism = The War on Drugs. Recently simple anti-drug slogans have been manipulated into aggressively and often erroneously exaggerated media assaults. (planetpapers.com) The United States claims that each person can help fight terrorism by choosing not to buy or use illicit drugs, and the government itself can help fight terrorism…
Mexico's Drug War There is a saying in Mexico that states “Mejor vivir como un rey por cinco años que vivir como laborador por cincuenta” which translates to “better to live as a king for five years than as an Ox for fifty.” This is particularly a famous saying between the poor youth because their opportunities are so limited they believe it is better to be part of the “narcos” and be a “narco king” for a short period than to live a long time as a laborer, worker, or slave. Consequently,…
referred to as the ‘War on Drugs’) has attempted to achieve a ‘drug-free world’. Today, it is painfully clear that this goal has not been achieved; recreational drugs have become more potent, more diverse, cheaper and more readily available than was ever the case before prohibition began (Rolles, Murkin, Powell, Kushlick, & Slater, 2012; Stockwell, Gruenewald, Toumbourou, & Loxley, 2005; UNODC, 2013; Dan Werb et al., 2013). In parallel to this, the economic cost of the War on Drugs to all nations…
Pro-legalization of Drugs Most Americans regard illegal drugs as one of the nations’ most serious problems, but two generations after the “war on drugs” began, disagreement remains on what should be done. Today’s society is suffering rapid decay due to the never ending war against drugs. Effects of this war like murder, corruption and many other undesirable things are developing and burning through this country’s core while the powers that be debate whether or not drugs should be legalized…
The Mexican drug-trafficking cartels are said to have been established in the 1980s by a man named Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, also known as “The Godfather”. With the help of Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo and Rafael Caro Quintero, Miguel started the Guadalajara Cartel, which is one of the first to have thrived from association with the Colombian cocaine trade. The two men who helped Miguel Gallardo establish the cartel were arrested, so Gallardo, the single leader of the cartel “was smart enough to privatize…
the trafficking and use of illicit drugs. This was the popular “war on drugs,” hailed by conservatives and liberals alike as a means to restore order and hope to communities and families plagued by anti-social or self-destructive pathologies. By reducing illicit drug use, many claimed, the drug war would significantly reduce the rate of serious nondrug crimes - robbery, assault, rape, homicide and the like. Has the drug war succeeded in doing so? In Illicit Drugs and Crime, Bruce L. Benson and David…
when American soldiers came home from the Vietnam war addicted to heroin, President Richard Nixon initiated the War on Drugs. More than a decade later, President Ronald Reagan launches the South Florida Drug Task force, headed by then Vice-President George Bush, in response to the city of Miami’s demand for help. In 1981, Miami was the financial and import central for cocaine and Marijuana. Thanks to the task force, drug arrests went up by 27%, and drug seizures went up by 50%. With that, the need for…
The Mexican Drug War By: Blake Cohen INR2002 – Spring 2013 Jeff Hernden Word Count: 3800 Date: 4/22/13 In 2006, Mexico began to crack down on drug trafficking operations in union with the United States. Why all of the sudden? In regard to that question, my paper will include a history of events leading up to this sudden crack down on drug trafficking, from its start in the 1960’s until today. After the history of the drug war, I will discuss the main states involved like the United States…
The “War on Drugs" has been so terribly ineffective that it leads one to question its true motives. Even a dog can eventually learn from an electric fence, so why not the United States government? Is the goal really to curtail drug use, or is it to segregate society and vilify the disadvantaged? A combination of mandatory minimum sentencing and other unjust laws has led to an enormous rise in U.S. prison populations. Thanks to these laws, 60 percent of the federal prison population consisted…
seems to be growing out of control. Since “the war on drugs” the prison population has increased exponentially, and the states are trying to keep up with the burden of housing, feeding, and giving medical treatment to prisoners. The state’s financial burden in becoming great and the government is starting to look at treatment measures that could save money. Substance abuse is an overwhelming factor in crime, for example 50% of homicides involve drugs and alcohol. (Parks, G., Marlatt, A. 1999) Treating…
Throughout history, campaigns against certain parts of life are frequently argued upon. Wars are in a state of flux, but a constant in America's policies is the Drug War. The government attempts to prevent the consumption of illicit and harmful substances, even shown in modern domestic policies. Yet with much effort, positive results was not usually yielded. Apart from the outcomes, prohibition has made a large impact on daily life. In the United States, prohibition of alcohol and…
Despite an estimated $1 trillion spent by the United States on the “War on Drugs”, statistics from the US Department of Justice (2010) has confirmed that the usage of drugs has not changed over the past 10 years. Approximately $350 billion is spent per year on the “war on drugs”, only $7 billion is spent on prevention programs by the federal government. The war on drugs is more heavily focused on how to fight crime, instead of how to prevent it. Crime prevention methods may not be immediate, but…
Society’s view of drugs has vastly changed based on the sociological imagination of the times. Sociological imagination basically means that we are able to view ourselves as a part of one large group rather than individuals. Human’s behavior and attitude have evolved based on the social forces that have adjusted around them. This changing of ideas has been clearly apparent in the Americas and is a prime example of the prohibition of alcohol from 1920 to 1933. The illegality of alcohol provided the…
Today Belarusian version of the War on Drugs is based on three pillars: expensive incarcerations, punitive drug laws, and an undying zeal of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) to create a utopian “Drug-Free Nation”. The results, scored by our methods of combating narcotization are nothing but disaster: appearance of dangerous synthetic drugs, inability to prevent the epidemic of HIV, accompanied by open denying of basic human rights to the drug-using minority. This policy brief will highlight…
2010 History of the War on Drugs The war on drugs has been an ongoing fight that many presidents and foreign allegiances have tried to stop the trafficking, distribution and use of illegal drugs into the United States and around the world. Policy and laws have been created and maintained and changed to try and prevent illegal drugs being made in other countries as well as the United States and from being brought across the borders into the United States. The punishment for the drug traffickers and…
America's War on Drugs: In the past 40 years, the American government has spent more than $2.5 trillion dollars on the war against drugs. The huge expenditure has been coupled by numerous the ad campaigns, clean-up on smuggling, and increase in illicit drug users and incarceration rates. Actually, the increase in illicit drug users currently stands at 19.9 million in the United States with huge supplies from Mexico. With the increase in both the expenditure and number of illegal drug users, there…
The War On Drugs has lasted many years, including before it was officially called “War On Drugs.” The prohibition of drugs first got its start in the late 1800’s with anti-opium laws, focusing on chinese immigrants. This was common with the first anti-drug laws. It entirely about scientific based facts on what the effects or risks of the drugs, rather who was associated with the use of the specific drugs. For example, the anti-cocaine laws in the early 1900’s were directed at black men, and the…
Making things worse, in the 1970s drug trafficking became a huge problem for Colombia. Drug cartels pretty much controlled the country starting in the mid-1970s. By the 1990s right-wing paramilitaries had formed. They were made mainly of drug traffickers and landowners. The main paramilitary group called themselves the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). Since the 1970s, Colombia has been home to some of the most violent and sophisticated drug trafficking organizations in the…
The war on drugs began in the United States in 1971 when President Richard Nixon declared war. President Nixon increased the number of federal drug control agencies, increased mandatory sentences for drug offenders, and utilized no-knock warrants in attempt to get the problem under control. It has been over forty years since President Nixon declared a war on drugs. Did America win the war on drugs? Is it time to legalize illicit drugs in this country? What are other countries doing in reference…
WAR ON DRUGS Abstract Because of the war on drugs, prison overcrowding is vastly becoming a problem of astronomical proportion, putting a strain not only on the system of law enforcement, but on citizens as well. With studies in DNA and other forensic sciences that can pin point with exact precision the perpetrator of a crime; more and more criminal offenders are being caught, tried, and imprisoned for the crimes they have committed. Many of these crimes are initiated by the use of drugs, such…
aspect. The topic it choose to research is about “The War on Drugs”, the impact policies have on society and if it does help the public or tend to extent social inequality. This topic is very important to me in the sense that, I look at the community I live and see how drugs have affected people lifes, broken up families and also destroyed the community itself. I wanted to know if the “war on drugs” stop our neighborhood from being flooded with drugs or it just over shadow the real problems that needs…
The war on drugs is not a war that can be fought on the beaches of Normandy or in the jungles of Vietnam. It is a war fought in the backyards of all Americans, every day. This is a war that cannot be won with the aid of nuclear weapons or the help of any other forms of artillery. The number of casualties, however, will be determined by whether or not the legalization of drugs occurs. Many will suffer the same outcome as a soldier killed in battle if drugs become legal. If marijuana and other…
horror stories about drugs like crack-cocaine. From them, and probably from no other source, we learn that crack is immediately addictive in every case, we learn that it causes corruption, crazed violence, and almost always leads to death. The government tells us that we are busy fighting a war on drugs and so it gives us various iconic models to despise and detest : we learn to stereotype inner-city minorities as being of drug-infested wastelands and we learn to "witchhunt" drug users within our own…
understatement to the punishments given to drug dealers for their drug related offenses. Mandatory minimum drug sentencing was arguably established to target higher level drug dealers but recently the majority of cases have been low level drug dealers. Distributing narcotics is a serious offense, but do these people who are trying to support themselves, a family, or an addiction deserve to spend close to a lifetime incarcerated? During the 1960’s drugs became a symbol of “youthful rebellion, social…
Mexico’s Drug War Drug trafficking has become an increasingly growing problem in the world today. Illegal drug trade is a worldwide black market consisting of production, distribution, packaging, and sale of illegal substances. Although today’s "War on Drugs" is a modern phenomenon, drug problems have been a common problem throughout history. The market for illegal drugs is massive, when we consider the estimated global drug trade value is worth $321 billion (Vulliamy). The most drug trafficking…
Drug use and abuse is an expensive problem in the United States, both financially and socially. The War on Drugs has been an ongoing effort to combat drug abuse, drug use and crime associated with the drug trade. It's a war without a clear enemy. Anything waged against a shapeless, intangible noun can never truly be won — President Clinton's drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey said as much in 1996. (TIME 2009) Despite the trillions of dollars waged on the war on drugs and the countless arrest made related…
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. History of U.S Drug Policy: While laws prohibiting the use of drugs, in one…
In recent years the so-called “war on drugs” has taken over the streets and back alleys of suburban America. It has caused a problem that mirrors the prohibition days of the 1920’s and early 30’s. Politicians trying to play “tough guy,” are only contributing to more violence. Their laws have created an underground drug-trade, in which modern drug-dealers have taken the place of the bootleggers of old. The real question is whether or not this “war” is working. Most people would like to believe that…
The War on Drugs in the United States has a profound influence on both the incarceration rates and activities of the criminal justice system. Many politicians and advocates of the policy claim that the War on Drugs is a necessary element to deter criminal behavior and reduce the crime rate. However, studies show that drug deterrent policies on possession and use have been inadequate and unsuccessful (Cole & Gertz, 2013). Studies also show that the War on Drugs has not attained its objectives because…
Huemer: “America’s Unjust Drug War” 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…
Richard Nixon initiated the War on Drugs when American soldiers were coming home from the Vietnam War addicted to heroin. More than a decade later, President Ronald Reagan launches the South Florida Drug Task force, headed by then Vice-President George Bush, in response to the city of Miami’s demand for help. In 1981, Miami was the financial and import central for cocaine and marijuana, and the residents were fed up. Thanks to the task force, drug arrests went up by 27%, and drug seizures went up by 50%…
The “War on Drugs” is the name given to the battle of prohibition that the United States has been fighting for over forty years. And it has been America’s longest war. The “war” was officially declared by President Richard Nixon in the 1970’s due to the abuse of illegitimate drugs. Nixon claimed it as “public enemy number one” and enacted laws to fight the importation of narcotics. The United States’ War on Drugs began in response to cocaine trafficking in the late 1980’s. As the war continues to…
Columbia, when they have their own problems with drugs? The Untied States of America has a rather large drug trafficking problem but compared to Columbia it is fairly small. To help Columbia solve their problem the U.S. senate has decided to send troops over there and take control. This new involvement will have many consequences in and what can you make for instance the cost of a war, the loss and gain of jobs, and physical side effects. Now war is a very serious subject to study for sociologists…
Period 8 Drug Policy: A Look at America’s Ineffective Approach to Drugs Introduction In January 2004, senatorial candidate Barack Obama firmly opposed the twenty two-year war on drugs, saying that the United States’ approach in the drug war has been ineffective (Debussman). Although the term, “war on drugs,” was originally coined by President Richard Nixon in 1971, it wasn’t until Ronald Reagan announced that “drugs were menacing society”…
Drugs have been around for thousands of years and were used for a variety of reasons. They were used for healing aliments that one might have and for recreational reasons. However, as time went on and society advanced so did its outlook on any form of a controlled substance and their uses. We began to see the benefits they had and developed other ways to use them for everyday illnesses, which wasn’t anything new, but we finally had the ability to understand why they helped. In the late 1800s Coke-a-Cola…
dozens of Mexican cartels, the Mexican government has constantly been fighting an ongoing war with these criminal organizations. The cartel organizations have a primary purpose of managing and controlling illegal drug trafficking operations in Central America and South America to the United States. Violence on a massive and brutal scale has emerged due to the nature of the illegal drug trade. Because the drug trade is vastly widespread, cartels are often fighting one another and competing in business…
The War on Drugs To fully understand the significance and the seriousness of a War one must first fully understand the reasons that caused it in the first place. In this specific case the solution begins with several important yet seemingly simple questions…What is marijuana? How is it used? And why is it so coveted and widely distributed in Jamaica as well as the rest of the world?… All these questions help clarify the reasoning behind the war on drugs and further investigation shows how Jamaica…
hardworking. Students are also used to being surrounded by people of different races and cultures, so equality and tolerance is a value students generally hold. Many in this demographic popularly are fans of soft drugs, such as marijuana. It is assumed that this demographic looks down on the drug war. Generally students are well informed as to what is going on in the news. They’d have some working knowledge of the topic. Overall, this demographic recognizes (myself included) that they are the future of…
The War on Drugs is Failing “Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance… for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation and make a crime out of things that are not a crime. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principle upon which our government was founded” Abraham Lincoln On January 16, 1920 the Eighteenth Amendment was ratified by thirty-six states and became part of the Constitution. The intention…
The Mexican Drug War and Its Consequences Despite President Felipe Calderon’s good intentions and determination to eliminate the drug cartels in Mexico, the Mexican government has not been able to stop the drug cartel’s operations (smuggling drugs, people and weapons to and from the USA) for many reasons. The drug cartels have proven to be powerful, well connected politically, well trained, well- armed, and manipulation of the masses. Therefore, it has been impossible for the Mexican…
The War On Drugs in the USA One of the most explosive issues in the current American political climate is illegal drug use. Drug abuse is intimately connected to problems like crime, economic discrimination, and race relations, and is a topic of great controversy for many Americans…