War On Drugs Essay Research Paper Have free essay sample

War On Drugs Essay, Research Paper Have we lost the War on Drugs? The War on Drugs officially started in 1972 with President Nixon declaring that drug jurisprudence enforcement was non rigorous plenty. To implement the Torahs of the original Harrison Act, a new and intensified program was to be enacted. The war reached its extremum during the Reagan and Bush disposals, in which $ 67 billion was spent in enforcement of drug Torahs. The program had worked comparatively good until near the terminal of the Bush disposal and drug usage overall was down. But the Clinton disposal has non been as effectual and it is clip to find what our following class of action will be sing drug enforcement. Prisons are going progressively overcrowded and many people are being labeled as? difficult felons? as a consequence of experimentation with soft drugs. There are many possible classs of action to take, but the best 1 is non really distinct. We will write a custom essay sample on War On Drugs Essay Research Paper Have or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page America has ever had a enormous demand for illegal drugs. And simple economic rules will demo that when there is a big demand for a merchandise person will provide it. It is merely like any other cherished trade good and follows the same theory of? purchase low, sell high? . Foreign beginnings have historically supplied this great demand. Latin America? s drug Godheads have ever been a really large job for the United States. It can be virtually impossible to catch them in a place to do an apprehension. The power and support that these drug Godheads receive can about overpower governments seeking to halt them ( Burdge 2 ) . One of the largest of all time drug sellers was Pablo Escobar Gaviria, he was so big and powerful, non even the tribunal system could penalize him when he was arrested and detained. The collaring officers were killed and nine different Judgess would non seek the instance due to menaces on their lives. Then the functionary records disappeared from the courthouse and at that place could non be a test. His cyberspace worth grew to about $ 2 billion and he was assisting the people of his native Colombia by constructing infirmaries and public lodging to derive public support. After about 20 old ages and at least 60 dozenss of imported Cocaine, he was eventually stopped in a gunfight at his house ( Escobar 1 ) . Cocaine and marijuana normally come from the Caribbean and Latin America. Heroin has historically come from Southeast Asia and the Middle East. But now we have a greater job than halting imports, we must halt domestic production every bit good. Marijuana, Methamphetamines, and LSD are going more popular and can be produced in America every bit good as foreign states. It is estimated that one tierce to one half of all Americas marijuana ingestion comes from domestic beginnings ( Falco 145 ) . Drugs in the United States have been a job for the last 100 old ages. It is presently estimated that at least 77 million Americans have used and elicit drug at least one time in their life ( Department of Health 17 ) . The United States? authorities has ever tried to cut off the primary supply from other states. They have tried assorted different methods, which include? diplomatic negotiations, economic aid, coercion, and military force? ( Falco 146 ) . Initially this class of action showed great promise. The most effectual clip for the drug war was during the late eightiess, after battling the enormous cocaine usage in the early 80s, the new schemes adopted by President Reagan were really effectual. By following Ronald Reagan? s case in point for rough intervention of drug wrongdoers President George Bush had cut Cocaine usage by 80 % from 1985 to 1992 when he left office ( Bennett 140 ) . Ronald Reagan made battling drug usage one of his most of import issues. He said that drug maltreatment was # 8220 ; one of the gravest jobs confronting [ America ] . # 8221 ; And he said, ? winning the war against drug maltreatment is one of the most of import, the most pressing issues facing us today? ( NBC News ) . And every bit shortly as his 2nd term began he made a great attempt to carry through his promises. January 21st of 1984 marked the first twenty-four hours that alterations were made in the Reagan disposal sing drugs. He basically gave the FBI with DEA legal power to implement drug Torahs and investigate drug instances. He besides made the FBI responsible for describing what advancement they had made during probes, so they would be slightly accountable for increasing or diminishing drug usage. Reagan described it # 8220 ; giving the drug job the sort of focal point it needs. # 8221 ; Besides during Ronald Reagan? s term a? Office of Director of National and Internati onal Drug Operations and Policy? was formed by Congress to further battle the drug job. Two Torahs were passed in 1984, the Comprehensive Crime Act and the Narcotics Act of 1984. Congress besides established a drug policy board? because it found that drug trafficking was estimated to be an $ 80 billion a twelvemonth industry ; merely 5 to 15 per centum of the drugs imported into the state were interdicted ; and commanding the supply of drugs was thought to be a cardinal to cut downing the drug-related offense epidemic? ( America? s Habit 2 ) . Congress and the Reagan disposal did non halt at that place, in 1984 they continued to go through statute law refering to illegal drugs. They passed the Aviation Drug-Trafficking Control Act. Which would necessitate Federal Aviation Association ( FAA ) administers to revoke any Air Certificates and Aircraft Registrations for anyone convicted of a drug-related offense. Some of the most of import statute law that was base on ballss was under the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984. This contained one of the most controversial narcotic related Torahs in history, which was the Comprehensive Forfeiture Act of 1984. This jurisprudence revised old condemnable forfeiture Acts of the Apostless. ? Today few in the Congress or the jurisprudence enforcement community fail to acknowledge that the traditional condemnable countenances of mulct and imprisonment are unequal to discourage or penalize the tremendously profitable trade in unsafe drugs. . . Clearly, if jurisprudence enforcement attem pts to battle racketeering and drug trafficking are to be successful, they must include an onslaught on the economic facets of these offenses. Forfeit is the mechanism through which such an onslaught may be made? ( America? s Habit 2 ) . This jurisprudence has been the beginning of many legal conflicts and led people to impeach the authorities of unlawfully impounding their belongings and in many instances the people that lost belongings may non even be charged with a offense, allow entirely convicted of one ( Bauman 34 ) . As 1984 continued more and more statute law was sent through Congress. The Controlled Substance Registrant Act of 1984 was passed. This made it illegal to steal any sum of a controlled substance from a registrant. It besides included the prohibition of certain prescription drugs, as a consequence of their limited medical usage and their maltreatment on the streets. Another jurisprudence called the Controlled Substances Penalties Act of 1984 was besides passed ; this made punishments stiffer, in peculiar, leting up to 20 old ages and $ 250,000 mulct for big sums of certain drugs, such as LSD or PCP. It besides allowed for the punishment to duplicate for any individual within 1000 pess of a school when caught distributing. 1986 brought about another really controversial drug related jurisprudence. It was the passage of compulsory lower limits. Which has had many people ferocious about it since its passage. Mandatory lower limits mean that if a individual is convicted of a certain offense they will hold a minimal sentence to function, with no exclusions. As a consequence many people feel they have been sentenced to harsh, where as their offense was non every bit terrible as person before them but they received the same sentence. This jurisprudence besides fundamentally takes the power off from the Judgess and topographic points it into the custodies of the prosecuting officers, as they control what the suspect will be charged with and whether to accept a supplication deal or non. This slightly defeats the intent of a test in many instances because if the suspect is found guilty the justice and jury have no portion in finding how terrible the suspect? s offense was, and they can non put a sentence conseq uently. The authorities claims that these Torahs will transfuse fear in many felons, and they claim that the offense rates will travel down every bit a consequence, but this theory has yet to keep up ( Caulkins, 24 ) . Ronald Reagan ended his presidential term in 1988 as one of the most effectual drug combatants in history. He made great attempts and spent enormous sums of money on the drug war ; he had successfully passed big sums of statute law through Congress, which had helped to check down on drug smuggling and drug usage, slightly. His married woman had started the DARE plan, to seek and acquire immature childs to neer get down utilizing drugs ( Goodwin 1 ) . President George Bush had many of the same thoughts as Ronald Reagan ( he was his frailty president for eight old ages ) . George Bush? s version of the Drug War started on September 5, 1989, when he made his ain attempt to halting drug maltreatment. His program called for 7.9 Billion dollars from Congress in order to pay for increased jurisprudence enforcement ( $ 6.3 billion ) and more money for prisons ( $ 1.6 Billion ) . Bush? s chief attempt was to assail the drug demand, and non truly aim the supply, bar and intervention. The logic was that if the demand could be greatly decreased the other things would non be as of import. He made the provinces comply and threatened to cut their support if they did non ( Check 2 ) . George Bush did do a really of import determination with respect to the fillet of drugs being imported from South America. He made the determination to occupy Panama, and arrest Manuel Noriega, a ill-famed General that was assisting to help drug trafficking from So uth America. American military personnels surrounded Noriega and he surrendered, he was arrested and brought to test in the United States where he was convicted of a assortment of charges ( ? George Bush? 4 ) . Which include? cocaine trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering, taging the first clip in history that a U.S. jury had convicted a foreign caput of province of felon charges? ( Noriega 1 ) . George Bush? s program to contend drugs was besides slightly effectual. Cocaine usage was down 21 % over his disposal ( Check 2 ) and down 80 % overall from 1985 until the terminal of the Bush disposal ( Bennett 140 ) . Bush took a good base on drugs, and achieved consequences. He had successfully curbed drug usage and successfully arrested one of the largest drug providers in the universe. Overall the Bush disposal had been comparatively successful with respects to halting drug maltreatment, despite passing big sums of money to battle the job. As the Clinton Administration started in 1992 drug usage began to lift once more. He did go on the tradition of passing big sums of money on commanding illicit drugs in the United States. But unlike his predecessors Ronald Reagan and George Bush, he did non achieve about the consequences that they did. Drug usage was up about across the board, in 1993 about 13 % of all 8th graders had smoke marijuana. This was over dual the per centum that had on two old ages earlier in 1991 under George Bush. A Michigan research worker described it as? a job that is acquiring worse at a reasonably rapid pace. ? Under the Clinton Administration Cocaine, Heroin, and Marijuana had all reached new degrees of usage ( Bennett 140 ) . Many more people are being convicted of drug related offenses, which seems like the policies are working but this is non needfully the instance. Today about 93 % of all inmates have a drug related charge. The legal system with respect to drugs can be racially biased every bit good. The punishments for possessing? cleft? cocaine are much stiffer than for pulverization cocaine, even though the two substances are chemically indistinguishable. ? Crack? cocaine is more of a street drug than pulverization, and? cleft? is by and large much cheaper. As a consequence, many hapless, minority communities are caught with cleft alternatively of the pulverization sort of cocaine. This makes them susceptible to much stiffer punishments and compulsory minimal sentences. This coupled with the fact that many minorities can non normally afford good legal council normally puts them in a state of affairs where they have to plea deal and will decidedly acquire jail clip ( Burdge 3 ) . ? Since the passage of compulsory minimal sentencing for drug users, the Federal Bureau of Prisons budget increased by more than 1,350 % , from $ 220 million in 1986 to about $ 3.19 billion in 1997 ( Bureau of Justice Statistics 20 ) . Overcrowding in prisons is one of the biggest jobs with the modern twenty-four hours justness system. It takes monolithic sums of resources to run them and there are excessively many inmates that likely should non even be in gaol in the first topographic point. ? In 1998, the United States imprisoned more than 1,185,000 people for nonviolent discourtesies at an one-year cost of more than $ 24 billion? ( Irwin 7 ) . The sum of taxpayer money that is being wasted in prisons is really alarming ; it seems as though alternate methods should be reached. ? Assuming recent captivity rates remain unchanged, an estimated 1 of every 20 Americans ( 5 % ) can be expected to function clip in prison during their life-time. For Afro-american work forces, the figure is greater than 1 in 4 ( 28.5 % ) ? ( Bonczar 1 ) . In 1997 the entire inmate population was estimated at 1.36 million grownups. The entire cost for? Correctionss, judicial, legal and police costs: $ 71,465 per inmate? ( Bureau of Justice Statistics 4 ) . These statistics are galvanizing, and these are non the lone jobs with the modern twenty-four hours drug war. It appears that excessively many basic American values have been undermined in the name of the drug war ( ? Is Truth the Casualty? ? 3 ) . Police and other governments in many instances are mistreating power and withstanding certain civil and human rights provided by the United States Constitution. ? In 1996, 71 % of all wire lights-outs were authorized for province and federal narcotics enforcement. To contrast, merely 2.8 % were for snatch, extortion, theft, larceny, loansharking, vigorish and graft, combined? ( Maguire 418 ) . These Numberss show that the authorities appears to be seting excessively much attempt into drug enforcement, the authorities is giving drug hatchet mans excessively much freedom to look into anyhow they please. Regardless if there is a drug job or non, taking civil autonomies and go againsting the fundamental law is non what the American populace had in head for a drug free America. The United States authorities and its drug policies have become so rigorous and the people in charge have become so obstinate, that they refuse to see anything otherwise. And they refuse to see that the war has been lost. From 1994 to 1995 cocaine production had increased by 20 dozenss and cocaine ictuss had dropped by 73 dozenss. As a consequence about 33 % or 93 more dozenss of cocaine were on the street than in 1994. In 1995 32 dozenss of diacetylmorphine was seized, the authorities estimates that merely 11 dozenss of diacetylmorphine will provide the state. Even drug Czar Barry McCaffrey said, ? [ apprehensions ] will non work out the drug problem. ? He suggests that people coming to their senses and to halt utilizing it will be the lone hope for a drug free America. One of the biggest jobs in drug bar schemes has been the failure to introduce. The authorities has used the same methods for the last 20 old ages and kids merely tune them out by now. Most adolescents have non seen d rugs destroy lives as they have been advertised to make. And most parents from the 60s and 70s that used drugs experience uncomfortable stating their childs non to utilize them, because they did themselves ( Witkin 60 ) . It? s obvious that the? drug war? as Ronald Reagan intended it has non gone harmonizing to program. Since Clinton? s disposal began, consequences have gone downhill, and go oning this? war? is going really dearly-won. There are a twosome of possible solutions ; many people feel that legalising certain drugs would be the best solution. This seems as though it would merely go a pestilence on society, similar to tobacco and alcohol. It would besides be really hard to implement many of the bing Torahs. Some politicians feel like that by rehabilitating drug users it will be cheaper and more effectual than seting them in prison. At the same clip some politicians feel that we should merely be harder on drug users. There is non truly much more we can make in footings of doing Torahs tougher on drug users. They are already really tough and are non working and are devouring monolithic sums of money for enforcement. Rehabilitation seems like it would work, and much more cost effectual than roug h intervention. Compulsory intervention for drug users seems like it would be a solution at least deserving seeking on a national graduated table. This has been tried in Arizona, where non-violent users and Sellerss are being sent to rehab alternatively of gaol. This policy appears to be acquiring consequences and may be ready for a attempt on the national degree ( Beals 25 ) . Bibliography Work Cited America? s Habit. Shaffer Library of Drug Policy. 15 February 2000. . Bauman, Robert. ? Take it Away. ? National Review. 20 February 1995: 34-8. Beals, Gregory. ? The Buzz on Drugs. ? Newsweek. 6 September 1999:25-9. Bennett, William J. ? We? rhenium Losing the Drug War. ? The World and I. June 1995:140 Bonczar, T.P. and A.J. Beck. Lifetime Likelihood of Traveling to State or Federal Prison. Washington D.C. : Agency of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice, 1997. Burdge, Roger. Home page. 1 March 2000. . Bureau of Justice Statistics. Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1997. Caulkins, J. , et Al. Compulsory Minimal Drug Sentences: Throwing Away the Key or the Taxpayers # 8217 ; Money? . Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1997. Check, Dan. Home page. 1 March 2000. . Department of Health and Human Services. National Household Survey on Drug Abuse: Population Estimates 1997. Washington D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1998. ? Drug Bust: The Longest War ; Geraldo Rivera Reports. # 8221 ; NBC News. NBC. 20 June 1999. ? Escobar, Pablo. ? Home Page. 10 March 2000. . Ewoldt, Jeff. ? Dissenters: End the war on drugs. ? QUAD-CITY TIMES. 28 July 1996. 15 February 2000. . Falco, Mathea. ? America? s Drug Problem and Its Policy of Denial. ? Current History. April 1998:145-9 ? George Bush. ? Grolier Online. Grolier Interactive Inc. 1 March 2000. . Goodwin, Lee. Home page. 15 February 2000. . Irwin, Josh, Vincent Schiraldi, and Jason Ziedenberg. America # 8217 ; s One Million Nonviolent Prisoners. Washington, DC: Justice Policy Institute, 1999. Is Truth the Casualty of the Drug War. Common Sense for Drug Policy. 1 March 2000. . Maguire, Kathleen and Ann L. Pastore, eds. Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics 1996. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1997. # 8220 ; Noriega Moreno, Manuel Antonio, # 8221 ; Microsoft? Encarta? Online Encyclopedia 2000 hypertext transfer protocol: //encarta.msn.com? 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation. Witkin, Gordon. ? Why This State is Losing the Drug War. ? US News and World Report. 16 September 1996: 60