War on Drugs Essay

How has the war on drugs perpetuated inequality? 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

was a mistake as I got a whiff of drugs passing through my nose. The distinctive smell of marijuana wafts throughout the classroom and somehow the mother-like woman didn’t even notice, she just continued to bore the students. At the time, I could not fathom how these 13 year old boys were doing something so dumb that they would want to jeopardize their

The Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Movement, the anti-War Movement during the Vietnam era, and the increasing presence of a widespread, politically active and highly vocalized youth counterculture led the United States government to feel that maybe, they were losing control of their population. The white, upper class men, who for centuries had dominated the political realm, began to feel their grip on power falter. By targeting drug use, the government would be free to "deal" with minorities

The drug war has formed overwhelmingly unequal outcomes across racial groups, which are recognized through racial discrimination by law enforcement and disproportionate drug war misery suffered by communities of color. Although degrees of drug use and selling are similar across racial appearances, people of color are far more likely to be stopped, searched, arrested, prosecuted, sentenced and imprisoned for drug law violations than are whites. Higher arrest and imprisonment rates for African Americans

Bandele, Asha. 2016. “Jay Z: ‘The War on Drugs is an Epic Fail.’” New York Times. Web. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/15/opinion/jay-z-the-war-on-drugs-is-an-epic-fail. (Accessed January 30, 2017). In this article, Bandele focuses on a short filmed narrated by Jay Z that depicts historical scenes pertaining to the war on drugs and Nixon administration as it down spiraled into the making of the future. Artwork of Molly Crabapple gives insight and provides a vision statement to the historical

After viewing the documentary: America's War on Drugs - The Prison Industrial Complex, it is clear that the Criminal Justice System is in desperate need of reconstruction and repair with policies such as the mandatory minimum sentencing act which has proven to be unsuccessful and unjust in its efforts to deter 'criminals from committing illegal acts' as seen with the increase of incarcerations of the American people and the devastating effect it has had on those in prison and the family members of

“The war on drugs is a big fucking lie” In recent history, there has been much rhetoric surrounding the eradication of cross-border drug trafficking. The “war on drugs” was introduced in the 1970s by Nixon, who wanted to eliminate the drugs coming into the United States, since they were seen by him as a threat to our nation. Many laws have been enacted with the purpose keeping illicit drugs out of the United States, yet they do so through the use of nativist ideology, which upholds white supremacy

Throughout the world, countries focus their drug policies in order to fight the “War on Drugs.” While most countries are fighting a war on drugs, Portugal has managed to break away and completely shock the world by taking an action that had the potential to make or break the country. Back in 2001, Portugal’s government made the decision to continue its war on drugs through a new approach. On the other hand, Iran faces a real drug problem because it is located next to Afghanistan, the world’s largest

the Drug War,” Eugene Jarecki combines dance, excerpts from political speeches and news-reports, and recent statistics, to assess the current War on Drugs in the United States (U.S.). When this video was released in 2014, the U.S. was the “jailing-est country on the planet” with 2.3 million prisoners and a higher imprisonment rate for drug crimes than both China and Russia. Over the years, the U.S. has made over 45 million drug-related arrests and spent around $1 trillion dollars on the War on Drugs

“War on Drugs” policies and the Effects on Ethnic Minorities Now is the time to correct the mistakes from the damaging, “War on Drugs” policies, initiated by President Nixon and expanded militarily though the Ronald Reagan administration. According to the Coalition for Public Safety, “Our country has an “over criminalization” problem and an “over incarceration” problem and it’s getting worse. It is increasingly growing at an unsustainable rate and costing American’s nearly $80 billion per year