Nancy Reagan's Incarceration For Nonviolent Drug Offenders

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.

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

The 1990’s marked the beginning of a new war on drugs. Drug abuse rates had started to increase, wider variety of drugs became more common, and more people started to use. Not a lot has changed, because drug abuse is still very common in today’s society. In the 1990s, drug usage was bad, however a lot of the drugs in today 's society were not as common. Drug abuse is not just in the big cities,the problem is all over.

Decriminalization in America Imagine a country where all drugs are legal. Most people imagine a place with addicts lining the streets, needles and baggies full of unknown substances littering the floor, and thousands of deaths due to overdosing. This is because of the stigma around drug use that has risen from the war on drugs, which has turned the use of drugs from being seen as a health issue into being treated as a crime. Instead of trying to help the people who are abusing these substances as an escape from their normal lives, the government decided to blame drugs for causing people to abuse them. But in reality drugs can’t force someone to try one, each and every addict started off as just a normal person experimenting, and sending

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

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

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

The 1980s, the era of free living, independence, wild and rampant drug use, flower children, love and peace… oh, that’s the 1960s. The 1980s? The era of Reagan conservatism that challenged many of the habits and beliefs developed in the sixties; forget the hippies in fields of flowers, and shift the mindset to corporate goons on Wall Street. Shift the burning of bras in streets, to the return of classic American values. While those in the sixties might have been motivated by love and the desire for world peace, the next generation was driven by the hunger for power and love, the love of money. “Greed is good, greed in all its forms has marked the upward surge of mankind.” Gordon Gekko, Wall Street. Alright, he may not be a real human

Mandatory sentencing began in October 27 1986 Reagan signed a law Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. Frontline writes that the law allocated funds to new prisons, drug education, and treatment. But its main result was to create mandatory minimum sentences. The harsh sentences on crack cocaine use disproportionately affect African-Americans April 22, 2014.

How are the messages the same? How are they different? How is the use of visual imagery the same or different?

People are using drugs either because they are depressed, in pain, or have a struggle they don’t want to face. Because these drugs are so addictive, people need money and resources to break the habit. This epidemic is a major social problem. Trump talks about how he wants to bring back Nancy Reagan’s idea about the “Just say no”program.

All of the changes Ronald Reagan made during the war on drugs relating to unjust prison sentences and misuse of funds made diverse communities suffer and prison sentences absurdly large. Ronald Reagan misused funds by prioritizing the drug war over public safety and created an absurd law that made the prison sentences cruel and overpopulated prisons all across America. We have already made efforts to reverse the effects of the drug war, but there is still more that we can accomplish with open minds and support. The drug war was a devastating period in American history, it was irresponsible and would never have happened with the right guidance. The drug war was catastrophic and created a lot of problems in the United States, but over time we

In “How About Low-Cost Drugs for Addicts?” (1995), Louis Nizer argues that drug addiction is a serious problem and we are losing the ability to gain control over drug addiction. Nizer suggests the government should create clinics that provide drugs free or at nominal cost and be staffed by psychiatrists. The benefits of the new approach will push the mob to lose the main source of its income, the drug dealers will run out of business, and the police or other law enforcement authorities would be freed to take care of other crimes. Nizer also believes that free drugs will win the war against domestic terrorism caused by addicts. On the other hand, Nizer provides some of the opposing arguments that providing free drugs would consign a person to

Most people in the United States each year go the prison and keep there for non-violent crime, such as drug related offenses. This issue has affected many family’s life for many years and caused the prisoners to deprive from many of their rights. Lacking the appropriate policies for keeping drug related offenses in prison has been a public health crisis and created a new addiction, like penchant for locking people up in prison. The author in this article “prison addiction: why mass incarceration policies must change.” discusses about lacking the appropriate policies for incarceration for non-violent drug related offenses.

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.