Drug Abuse In The 1990's

We have been fighting drug abuse for almost a century. The war on drugs is a growing problem in America everyday. This war is becoming an unfortunate loss. Our courts, hospitals, and prisons are continuously being filled with drug abusers. Violent crime the ravages our neighborhood is a result of the drug trade. Drug abusers’ children are neglected, abused, and even abandoned. In the 1870’s, anti-opium laws were first directed and Chinese immigrants. During the early 1900’s, in the South, the first anti-cocaine laws were directed at black men. In the 1910’s and 1920’s, in the Midwest and Southwest the first anti-marijuana laws were directed at Mexicans – both immigrants and Americans. In modern time, major disproportioned drug enforcement

Illicit drugs are drugs that have been considered illegal, such as, heroin, cocaine, and marijuana, in some locations (Levinthal, 2016). Legislating drugs began around 1900. In essence, the government let society govern the use and opinions of drugs. Most of society looked down upon the nonmedical use of drugs. Furthermore, several acts were enacted to regulate the use of specific drugs as well as the federal prohibition of alcohol. But in 1933, Prohibition ended, making it legal to consume alcohol again. In the 1970’s, drugs were categorized based on their “potential for abuse” (Levinthal, 2016). Unfortunately, many of the illicit drugs are manufactured outside of the United States. As such, the war on drugs has to be fought on a global

Provocative and eye-opening, The Stickup Kids urges us to explore the ravages of the drug trade through weaving history, biography, social structure, and drug market forces. It offers a revelatory explanation for drug market violence by masterfully uncovering the hidden social forces that produce violent and self-destructive individuals. Part memoir, part penetrating analysis, this book is engaging, personal, deeply informed, and entirely

President Nixon declared the war on drugs on June 17th, 1971. The war on drugs has been defined as “a series of actions tending towards the prohibition of illegal drug trade.” This declaration has allowed for a variety of policies and legislative actions to be implemented over the past 45 years. One of the main actions taken by the United States has been the adoption of a multilateral military approach in combating the drug issue that continues to plague American societies. In 1999, President Clinton worked alongside Colombia’s

In his article, “Toward a Policy on Drugs,” Elliot Currie discusses “the magnitude and severity of our drug crisis” (para. 21), and how “no other country has anything resembling the American drug problem” (para. 21). The best way to describe America’s drug problem is that it is a hole continuously digs itself deeper. America’s drug issues were likely comparable to other country’s at one point in time, but today it can be blamed on the “street cultures” (para. 21) that continue to use and spread the use of illegal drugs. These street cultures transcend the common stereotype of drug users, such as low income communities in cities or welfare recipients, and can be found in every economic class and location. They are groups of people who have

The use of narcotics like cocaine, claimed many lives and earned widespread coverage by media and news. Following this Nancy Reagan began the “War on Drugs”, a campaign to combat pre-existing drug usage and prevent future

“Turn on, tune in, drop out.” (Cite) Psychologist Timothy Leary made this hypnotic phrase popular during the 1960s. Having many ways of perceiving it, the majority of the people at the time viewed it as a creative slogan for taking psychedelics. These psychedelics were mind-altering drugs such as LSD, mescaline, or psilocybin mushrooms. The youth’s curiosity and desire for expanding your consciousness made the use of these drugs increasingly popular. The result was that this phrase was echoed among thousands emerging into the psychedelic rock era. An era bombarded with cold wars, racial discrimination, and social turbulence that tossed and turned eventually developing a new way of bringing people together through experimentation with drugs and music.

Due to street heroin purity improving in the 1980’s heroin usage increased substantially in the 1990’s. (A Social History of America 's Most Popular

To understand the War on Drugs one needs to understand the cultural landscape that made the war on drugs advantageous. Ronald

The previous decades saw increased the decriminalization of certain drugs, such as marijuana, as they began to be used more casually. However, the 1980s and the specifically the Reagan administration saw the “War on Drugs” start. Led by Nancy Reagan, the “Just Say No” campaign dominated the headlines as parents became concerned about their children using drugs (Goode & Ben-Yehuda, n.d.). Under new leadership, the government began to criminalize drug use to unprecedented levels.

For example, agencies have been established with the sole intent to manage drug use and distribution and technology has been exclusively developed to detect the presence of drugs. Yet, evidence has indicated that such exhaustive efforts have been relatively unsuccessful. First, it has been assumed that drugs have perpetuated violence in society and based on this rationale, it was believed that by the suppressing the pervasiveness of drugs that incidents of violence would simultaneously diminish. However, reality has failed to align with the expectations that had initially been anticipated. Research findings have suggested that the decriminalization of drugs would result in a less adversarial drug market in which conflicts have tended to arise among dealers as well as between dealers and buyers (Common Sense for Drug Policy, 2007, p. 21).

Chapter two introduces the policy problems related to the War on Drugs, as well as other policies that banned or limited other use of alcohol and drugs. Authors start with the history of the regulations of mood altering substances that began in colonial times, and then it escalated with “The Father of Modern Drug Enforcement”, Dr. Hamilton Wright. President Roosevelt assigned him to be the first Opium Drug Commissioner of the United States. Dr. Wright saw drugs as a big problem, according to the text the drug prohibitions started with his opinions on limiting drug use. In 1906 the Pure Food and Drug Act was signed and required the labeling of the ingredients of the products.

The House I Live In, is a documentary that visually represents how the War on Drugs affected drug dealers, parents of those who took drugs, enforcers of the drug laws, prisoners convicted of drug violence or drug dealing, poor neighborhoods, and historical recordings about the war. All of these were captured through clips of interviews by those imprisoned due to drugs, experts from academic institutes, and police personnel. Moreover, it is a discursive narrative, since the film exhibits conversation of past and current results of the War on Drugs. Additionally, it has been a ‘hot button’ topic actively discussed by victims and authoritative enforcers of the war, outlining how ineffective it has

According to Timothy Wilens MD, there is “data indicating that 1 in 10 adolescents has a SUD [substance use disorder] . . . Roughly 80% experienced onset before age 25 years” (Wilens). With this large number of teens abusing drugs, the question of what the effects and consequences of drug abuse as a teen are becomes relevant. Specifically, identifying what the effects and consequences of teen drug abuse are through a scientific lense is important because drugs affect the body, brain, and its chemical balances.

As of recent, the war on drugs has been a very often discussed topic due to many controversial issues. Some people believe the War on Drugs has been quite successful due to the amount of drugs seized and the amount of drug kingpins arrested. I believe this to be the wrong mindset when it comes to the war on drugs. The war on drugs isn’t a winnable one so we must do all that is possible to assist those who struggle with drug addiction and decriminalize small amounts of drugs. These minor changes in the way we combat drugs will create significant change and have lasting effects.