Persuasive Essay About Drug War
The drug war in the United States has been waged on all civil fronts for over four decades. 1971 marked the beginning of the infamous “war on drugs” that was first signed into law by President Nixon, and then further escalated by president Ragen. The drug war has led to a massive increase in the country’s prison population. The United States currently has less than 5% of the world’s total population and nearly 25% of the world’s total prison population. That is a shocking number that is unnecessarily increased due to the drug war propaganda. They say that those who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it. And just as prohibition did little to combat the use of alcohol in the 1920’s, the drug war has done little to combat the use of illicit drugs …show more content…
The once virtuous intent of this war has been corrupted by police unions and dirty politicians that have turned it into a carefully crafted system of capitalistic enterprise, designed to push their own political agenda and perpetrate the myth that drugs are the primary threat to our nation. The best way to demolish this corrupt system, while restoring faith in both the justice system and police force, is through the legalization and decriminalization of all class B drugs, along with the use but not production or trafficking of all class A drugs. Through the legalization of these drugs, the government can eradicate the cost of this drug war, an estimated $51 billion per year, and use the income that was previously used to imprison part of the population to educate, counsel, and rehabilitate those who are caught in possession of substances. The United States would greatly benefit from this dramatic reform and create a trickle-down effect of positive events that can be acknowledged by the actions of other countries. Other countries saw reduce in the rate of adolescent drug use and they significantly expanded treatment a harm-reduction services that would help people with drug problems instead of
Nancy Reagan's Incarceration For Nonviolent Drug Offenders
96 Words | 1 PagesDue to the unprecedented expansion of the war on drugs by the Reagan administration started a long period of skyrocketing rates of incarceration. The huge number of offenders incarcerated for nonviolent drug offenders increased from 50,000 to 1980 to over 400,000 by the year 1997. In 1981, Nancy Reagan began a highly publicized antidrug campaign called “Just Say No”, as public concerns arose due to the portrayals by the media about people addicted to a smoke-able form of cocaine dubbed as “crack”. This campaign set the stage for zero tolerance policies implemented in the late 1980’s.
Pros And Cons Of Operation Intercept
856 Words | 4 PagesMany critics believe that because of the way drugs are looked down upon society, they become ever more enticing to buy them even through illegal and dangerous means. For instance, President Richard Nixon said in 1971 that “America’s public enemy number one in the United States [was] drug abuse,” and because of this, “it [was] necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive” (Sharp, 1994). Another drugfree advocate, William Bennett, who served in office as the Secretary of Education under President Ronald Reagan, blamed the drug problem squarely on the loose and unethical morals of corrupt people. Another reason that Nixon’s War of Drugs was ineffective was in that the federal government could only prosecute national crimes, handing over the responsibility to the local law enforcement to keep the streets safe, meaning it would have to cross state lines to be under federal judication. Operation Intercept’s main contribution to the drug trade has been the restructuring of how drugs were exported.
A New Racial Caste System In The New Jim Crow By Michelle Alexander
947 Words | 4 PagesThe more people they arrest for drug crimes, the more money they get to buy random resources for their department. With the money they had “the overwhelming majority of state and local police forces in the country had availed themselves of the newly available resources and added a significant military 90 components to buttress their drug-war operations” (Alexander). This means that the war on drugs invented an unfortunate cycle between the American people and the police departments. The police were going to keep arresting the American people so that they could keep getting money to supply their
Michelle Alexander The New Jim Crow Analysis
858 Words | 4 PagesThe War on Drugs was purely political. Before the ‘war’ was implemented, illegal drug use was not a prominent issue in society, it was actually declining. The police force just enforced federal orders. Alexander wrote, “ Huge cash grants were made to those law enforcement agencies that were willing to make drug-law enforcement a top priority.” Here, Alexander pinpoints exactly why the police force took part in the War on Drugs.
Rhetorical Analysis Of The War On Drugs
1033 Words | 5 PagesClearly, the Federal Government did a big involvement in the War on Drugs by giving grant reward for law enforcement agencies. Moreover, the Government, at the moment, instantly
Drug Abuse In The 1990's
79 Words | 1 PagesThe 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.
Drug Sentencing Policy
942 Words | 4 PagesThe main issue when it comes to drugs in the United States is the inefficient policies and sentencing laws that have been created. Also, the injustices within these policies pertaining primarily to race. Once the “war on drugs” was claimed the only way the government and law enforcement saw fit to handling this skyrocketing issue was to incarcerate offenders. Although this solution worked for a while, other alternatives needed to be made. However, these alternatives were not made and this left the drug policies, sentencing laws, and injustices at a standstill.
Incarceration And Prison Overpopulation
683 Words | 3 PagesThe United States is faced with a major issue of mass incarceration and prison overpopulation. With the largest prison population in the world and the second highest incarceration rate per-capita (1 in 100 citizens is behind bars), the United States’ corrections system needs to be reformed now, through both policy and administrative changes. While I am certain you are familiar with these statistics, I would like to emphasize that using incarceration as the primary response to social problems as is happening today in the United States not only impacts those individuals incarcerated and their families, but also costs tax payers billions of dollars. I would encourage you to consider ways to downscale the prison population. One of them would
Persuasive Essay On Prison Reform
707 Words | 3 PagesIn 1972, former President Richard Nixon made his infamous statements regarding crime and drug abuse. In this speech, he declared a war on crime and drugs and intended to decrease the number of people using drugs and the amount of crimes that were committed. Since this declaration, incarceration rates in the U.S. have gone up by 500%, even though the amount of crime happening has gone down. One of the reasons why I feel our rates have risen, is because sometimes, we put people in jail when they don’t need to be there in the first place.
The Decriminalization Of Drugs In The United States
1077 Words | 5 PagesEssentially, the war on drugs has demonstrated to be an exorbitant expense. The federal government in 2002 alone spent $18.822 billion in the form of expenditures such as treatment, prevention, and domestic law enforcement (CSDP, 2007, p. 54). However, given that the drug war has garnered meager results, this investment may be interpreted as a waste of taxpayer dollars. Alternatively, the money that has been allocated to arrest and detain drug offenders may also be a source of contention. CSDP (2007) “Of the 1,846,351 arrests for drug law violations in 2005, 81.7% (1,508,469) were for possession of a controlled substance.
Purpose Of The War On Drugs By Michelle Alexander
795 Words | 4 PagesIn this essay, I will discuss the purpose of the War on Drugs. Note, that my knowledge and credibility will come from The New Jim Crow, written by Michelle Alexander. First, I will define exactly the reason why we created the War on Drugs. Next, we will look at the effects that War on Drugs created. Thirdly, we’ll discuss some of the excuses that law enforcement officers did and still do, to “crack down” drugs.
Elliot Currie's 'Toward A Policy On Drugs'
341 Words | 2 PagesIn 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
Racial Incarceration In Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow
1261 Words | 6 PagesPrimarily, Alexander links mass incarceration’s cause of the War on Drugs. Her secondary cause for this phenomenon appears after this war begins; many defendants cannot obtain “meaningful legal representation” (Alexander 17), a claim which widely goes undisputed. Meanwhile, the argument that “convictions for drug offenses —not violent crime—are the single most important cause of the prison boom in the United States” (Alexander 102), a repetitive argument in her book, sparks controversy. Scholars, such as Pfaff, believe that writers distort the role of drug convictions due to focusing on only
Counterculture Of The 80's
890 Words | 4 PagesThe 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
Argumentative Essay On The War On Drugs
865 Words | 4 PagesSome may not be too familiar with the war on drugs and the effects it has had on the society we live in. The war on drugs was started by the Nixon administration in the early seventies. Nixon deemed drug abuse “public enemy number one”. This was the commencement of the war on drugs, this war has lasted to this day and has been a failure. On average 26 million people use opioids.
More about Persuasive Essay About Drug War
Nancy Reagan's Incarceration For Nonviolent Drug Offenders
96 Words | 1 PagesPros And Cons Of Operation Intercept
856 Words | 4 PagesA New Racial Caste System In The New Jim Crow By Michelle Alexander
947 Words | 4 PagesMichelle Alexander The New Jim Crow Analysis
858 Words | 4 PagesRhetorical Analysis Of The War On Drugs
1033 Words | 5 PagesDrug Abuse In The 1990's
79 Words | 1 PagesDrug Sentencing Policy
942 Words | 4 PagesIncarceration And Prison Overpopulation
683 Words | 3 PagesPersuasive Essay On Prison Reform
707 Words | 3 PagesThe Decriminalization Of Drugs In The United States
1077 Words | 5 PagesPurpose Of The War On Drugs By Michelle Alexander
795 Words | 4 PagesElliot Currie's 'Toward A Policy On Drugs'
341 Words | 2 PagesRacial Incarceration In Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow
1261 Words | 6 PagesCounterculture Of The 80's
890 Words | 4 PagesArgumentative Essay On The War On Drugs
865 Words | 4 Pages