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. There were other acts signed after that period, first we had The Harrison
Gabriel Sayegh starts his Ted talk by claiming that 20 years ago he was a meth user and abuser. He used methamphetamine as a high schooler, struggled to stayed in school, got into many fights, and barely graduated high school. He ended up abusing meth because he was feeling emotional pain and eventually his tolerance went up from using higher doses. Eventually, he realized that his life has no value to it and that he was no longer getting high off meth since his tolerance was so high. He decided to stop doing meth and go to community college far away, which helped him get away from the drug induced environment he was in. After he told his personal story, he went on to explain the history of the war on drugs, which started in 1971 due to President
By the 1980’s, people in America witnessed a massive drug epidemic. The introduction of crack, also known as cocaine, exploded during this time and became a critical issue for the youth. Drug use, abuse and misuse became the problem of the decade as the war on drugs escalated, increasing in nonblack and black communities. Many people blame rap and hip hop music for this epidemic due to rapper’s songs and music videos were highlighting and encouraging the use of drugs. The movies, Straight Outta Compton and New Jack City both demonstrate and bring awareness to the struggles and the reality of drug wars as well as police brutality and unfairness against the black community.
Although many things seemed good in the 1980’s, there was also issues plaguing America. The drug epidemic had by then spun completely out of control. 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
Over the past 40 years U.S. incarceration has grown at an extraordinary rate, with the United States’ prison population increasing from 320,000 inmates in 1980 to nearly 2.3 million inmates in 2013. The growth in prison population is in part due to society’s shift toward tough on crime policies including determinate sentencing, truth-in-sentencing laws, and mandatory minimums. These tough on crime policies resulted in more individuals committing less serious crimes being sentenced to serve time and longer prison sentences.
Ulysses Grant fought in many bloody, historic battles, but could not stand the sight of blood. Ulysses Grant was the 18th president of the United States and he made our country a strong powerful nation. He was a commanding general and he led the Union army to victory in the American civil war (Ulysses S. Grant). He helped revolutionize America and gain rights for African Americans by helping to create the 15th amendment. Our country thought that he really helped end all the inequality in our country and make a stronger nation. Ulysses Grant helped the passage of the 15th amendment which led to African American voting rights, races being more equal, and African American freedom.
The legalization of drugs has been at the center of interminable debate. Drugs have widely been perceived as a dominant threat to the moral fabric of society. Drug use has been attributed as the source responsible for a myriad of key issues. For instance, it is believed that drugs have exacerbated the already weak status of mental health in the United States in which some individuals suffering from mental illness administer illicit substances such as heroin or cocaine in an attempt to self-medicate. Moreover, drugs are blamed for turning auspicious members of the community into worthless degenerates. Thus, vast efforts have been made to regulate the alleged drug problem through various avenues. For example, programs have been created to steer
On my way back to Miami, waiting for my flight at La Guardia Airport in New York and was eager to board my plane, I decided to watch the nearby television to pass time. That’s when I learned about who Michael Brown was. He was an unarmed black teenager, shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, in Ferguson, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis. On the TV screen were countless vivid images of the scene of Brown’s death and almost instantly it became ground zero for local outrage. Devastated to hear that yet another another teenage boy was killed by law enforcement, it was clear to me that there was an urgent need for justice in the US. The weeks following Brown’s death, news channels reported protesters flooding the streets near the
The crack epidemic in the US was appearent during the Reagan era. The war on drugs began when the CIA decided to bring the drug into the low income communities. This epidemic exploded before anyone really noticed. "Crack was a plague that spread through African American neighborhoods like wildfire" (Bean, 2014). Laws changed so that the powder meant you went to jail for longer even thoough it was a non-violent offense. During this time hip hop began to evolve describing these crimes and how it was affecting them and the communities that they lived in. This is shown in the videos this week "Batterram", "C.I.A.", and "Fuck Tha Police". Planet Rock had a different feel to it. Silverman said that Planet Rock had "more of an impact that any record
In the 1980’s the introduction of Crack Cocaine which was much more addictive to the users and more profitable for the drug dealers than Powder Cocaine. The prompted the administration to create Reagans War on Drugs which was supposed to make a major difference in the use of illegal drugs. By giving a much stiffer penalty to drug dealers for possession an even a moderate amount of illegal drugs. The fear of jail time was going be a deterrent to reduce the sale and illegal drug use. A minimum five year jail sentence would be handed out to someone caught with 500 grams of powder cocaine or with five grams of crack cocaine. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 focused on crack dealers with the sentence tied into the amount and what type of drug the
In the 1970’s Richard Nixon had launched the War on Drugs which mainly targeted the minorities in America. The black community was affected the most when they were being sent to prison for minor crimes such as loitering or vagrancy which would give you several years in your sentence. The war on drugs was one of the biggest reasons for the mass incarceration and why the prison population kept increasing over the years. One of Nixon’s aide named John Ehrlichman admitted to the real reason why the War on Drugs was introduced, he stated “You want to know what this was really about. The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m
Bernie Sanders, a prominent social justice defender and U.S. presidential candidate, tweeted “Mass incarceration harms our society, pulls families apart. #JusticeNot4Sale Act will begin to turn that around,” introducing his initiative to rehabilitate America’s criminal justice system and reduce the nation’s prison population. In an interview with NBC, Sanders discussed the overwhelming disparity in the African American prison population relative to other ethnic groups. According to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, African Americans make up 13% of the United States population, and account for 60% of those in prisons. One in every 15 African American men are incarcerated, compared to every one and 106 white men.
Life in Mexico can be very harsh, many people outside of Mexico believe life in the country isn’t as bad as it seems. Over the years the country has changed but still face many problems. The Mexican drug war is still a highly supplied conflict between the Mexican army and drug cartels in Mexico. The country has been one of the main suppliers of illegal drugs that causes discrimination, drug trafficking and many deaths yearly. The question is, how has life in Mexico changed before and after the war on drugs?
War on drugs, a campaign for the prohibition of drugs using military aid and military intervention gave birth to mass incarceration. Unfortunately, the consequences of this campaign targeted minorities and people of color, who are in disadvantage. Mass incarceration promotes devastating effects in society, such as racial inequality and poverty. Michelle Alexander, a civil rights litigator and legal scholar is the author of “The New Jim Crow” Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.This book purposed to educate people about of mass incarceration that originated due to the war on the drug's movement, as well as to point out the racist system. Michelle Alexander asserts:
In the late 1960’s Heroin became a large problem in New York and the rest of the country. The Government nor the police knew what to do. So every person who dealt with the drugs or anything related was sent straight to jail. They had no idea that the problem required more than just locking the people. The narrator states “Billions of dollars are spent building more jails.” Not only that but people weren’t seceding from the violence to attain and do drugs.