Drug War Research Paper

Drug-Wars Op-Ed The war on drugs has failed throughout the world and countries globally have some sort of problem pertaining to narcotics and other drugs. The United States is on top of the list of countries for drug use and abuse of drugs. It got so terrible that forty years ago President at the time Richard Nixon declared the United States government 's "War on Drugs," a campaign of prohibition and foreign military aid and military intervention. Having foreign countries participate in the "War On Drugs" gives the United States assistance to define and reduce the illegal drug trade. The problem is so immense globally that the United Nations held a Convention of Narcotic Drugs to try to combat the issue. With all the world 's leaders discussing
about the drug wars the problem still remains.
The war on drugs cannot be won, it is a waste of time and costing our country millions of dollars and only to result in failure. The United States faces a major problem with the drug war and their approach of criminalizing the use of drugs hasn 't helped them fix the issue. President Richard Nixon declared the government 's war on drugs forty years ago and all their efforts still amount to high drug usage and a dangerous drug trade. The United States policymakers assumed that a forceful law enforcement towards drug use would diminish the market for it. This was not the case of course because the large-scale drug market has grown vastly over the years through a rise in organized crime. For over forty years since the declaration of the war on drugs by President Nixon global efforts to curb the drug trade and punish drug users has failed and instead brought upon wide scale violence and organized crime. Having the use of drugs be illegal hurts our country. Each and every drug offender convicted has to go to prison where they are housed and fed at the expense of taxpayers. In the article Numbers Tell of Failure in Drug War
written by Eduardo Porter (2012), he reports that "almost one in five in mates in state prisons and half of those in federal prisons are serving time for drug offense" (p. 616). A shift must be made towards thought to send drug abusers to rehabilitation centers rather than incarcerating them. There are so many people convicted for drug offenses that an overcrowding of the prison system has arose costing taxpayers millions. Criminals are being sent to prison for small and first time offenses because we classify the laws are so strict. We ought to think to decriminalize drug offenses to be able to send drug offenders to treatment as opposed to sending them to prisons to reduce the continual overpopulating of the prison system. A drug offender stuck in prison they will continue to use drugs once they are done serving their time because they did not get treatment with their drug dependence and the cycle will begin all over again. Contributing to the overpopulation of the prison system can be due to the fact that drugs have become much cheaper and easier to obtain over the years.
Prices continue to stay low even if the supply is cut short through drug seizures. The drug busts actually help the drug cartels because for the time being the price of the drug increases and is more profitable. This alone indicates how well the war on drugs is being handled by the United States and Mexican governments. Most of the drug activity is of the drug trade in Mexico and the cartels smuggle these illicit drugs into the United States. These two countries are not getting it done because we constantly see the violence that results from the drug wars. In the article, A Lucrative War written by Ben Enrenreich (2010), a freelance journalist and author states that, "the bloodshed is simply the result of heightened competition" (p. 580). Drug cartels, many located in Mexico, are extremely powerful within their business and they have been successful for many years. The black market for the illegal drugs is such a profitable market that these drug cartels are so wealthy that they can bribe officers and government officials to get their way. The drug trade and smuggling by the Mexican drug cartels must be stopped to ever end the problems that come with
it. The drug trade and the war on drugs has created many problems that nobody has found a effective solution for. The whole drug trade operation has been going on for so long that it has gotten very large and uncontrollable. Before we focus on the drug trade we must cure our population of their drug dependence. We must offer different types of health treatment services such as rehabilitation centers or other programs that helps drug users cut back their drug reliance. The shift of thought must go from enforcement to more of abuse prevention and treatment for addicts. The government must not be so harsh to offenders and recognize drug use as more of a problem or addiction than a crime. Possibly legalizing such drugs could allow the drug market to be taxed and regulated giving the government more control over such a profitable market. Our country needs to implement harm-reduction tactics to better combat the war on drugs because the actions of the government right now do little to diminish the use of drugs. The worldwide conflict of the drug wars has impacted many countries. There has been many violent acts that can be attributed to the drug wars and this is not something that we want to continue. The countries involved are not doing what is right and must change their ways to better combat this global issue. The issue must be solved in a way by redefining the criminal offense of drug use and continue to change the communal thought of drugs as a crime. When the government of a country can stop their citizens from using these illicit drugs will be the day that the war on drugs is won. This is not possible so the only best solution is to implement harm reduction devices to cure the population of any sort of drug addiction.

Works Cited

Ehrenreich, B. (2010, October). A lucrative war. The London Review of Books, 32 (20), 15-18

Porter, E. (2012, July 3). Number tell of failure in drug war. The New York Times, p. B1+

War on drugs: Report of the global commission on drug policy. (2011, June). Retrieved from: http://www.globalcommissionondrugs.org