Reducing Drug Decriminalization

The War on Drugs has been around since the Nixon administration in the 1970s, going back even further to the first drug ordinance passed in the 1870s targeting the opium dens in San Francisco. With over a 100-years spent on combating drug abuse by; establishing anti-drug policies, creating drug awareness programs in schools; it brings to question if those methods have had any impact on the overall objective to become a drug-free society. The United States government, White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, the Drug Enforcement Agency, as well as researchers, argue that there have been positive strides in reducing drug abuse and drug manufacturing effectively. At the same time, rejecting the strategy of decriminalizing or even
legalizing drugs, reasoning that doing so would increase drug abuse putting many people in danger including the high healthcare cost along with it. Contending that argument, a collective of world leaders, scientists, intellects, and journalists, are presenting new strategies and advocating for decriminalizing along with laws grounded in science to better approach the drug problem. Additionally, declaring the war on drugs as ineffective and a failure, citing it for its history of draconian punishments preventing efficient care and treatment by treating the drug problem criminally.