Synthesis Essay On War On Drugs

February 27th, 2012
Analytic Paper #3
“Although our war on drugs must be fortified with the best laws, enforcement efforts and resources, we would not be successful without your individual commitment to this cause.” -- Mel Carnahan Just say no? The legalization of drugs has been a huge issue in politics for an exceptionally long time. Many people believe that the legalization of drugs will allow the government to gain more control and therefore reducing crime on the streets. The idea that a state of freedom actually exists in America is hypocritically voided and nullified by our drug laws. Debates regarding drug legalization have divided our society. Whether one thinks that drugs should be banned or not solely depends on one’s influenced morality viewpoint. Why are drugs illegal? If we look at the most broad and common answer, drugs are illegal for our own protection and safety. However, we see many
other dangerous and unhealthy activities that are not (yet) prohibited by the government, like smoking tobacco. Therefore, I believe that the government control of drug use is one area which will never fully be under control and does more harm than good. This, however, does not mean that I believe all drugs should be available like candy. I believe that the idea of some form of government regulation and control is a good concept but it needs a lot of improvement. Drug abuse has progressively become a tool for crime organizations and bureaucracies (whether by street or government laws) used to transform drug addiction into a part of our capitalist society through countless laws against drug abuse. The profitability of drugs does have its pros and cons. On the upside, government regulation of drugs means that drugs can readily control how much is sold and how much is appropriate for public consumption. More specifically, these factors may include the legal age to purchase the drugs and how much per month (for example, the control of Sudafed from behind the pharmacy counters) may be given to a person. Also, I believe that an important factor that would certainly lessen our drug issue is our health care. If medications and drugs were made affordable to the public, then the chances would certainly lessen that people would turn to the black market. Thus begins the criminalization stigma and process. The government profiting off of the drugs can be good or bad.
It is bad because it continues to fund the capitalization cycle in which most taxpayers suffer, but it can be a good thing as well because they could control the prices of the drugs and how much to tax them, thus reducing the demand for the drug due to the high prices. Therefore, the money could be delegated toward the improvement of other aspects of our society, such as the education system. Drug use has always been a major predicament for America to overcome. The banning of illegal drugs is reminiscent to the days of Prohibition in the 1920’s. For 13 years, the banning of alcohol in this country merely resulted in the rising of organized crimes. (White 2/10/12) Just like the prohibition on alcohol forced the practice of drinking to go merely underground and not completely banish as intended (ie through speakeasies), Marijuana, a popular street drug, is highly indulged in a discreet way because of present marijuana laws in place. This can only mean that the drug world is concealed yet
obvious. Although some may say that this same approach of banning drugs would solve the rising drug problem in today’s modern world, narcotic laws result in a booming black market, where the prices of drugs skyrocket. These high prices cause people to turn to crime in order to support their habit. In Craig Reinarman’s article, The Social Impact of Drugs and the War on Drugs, it examines that the war on drugs is “Drug wars, anti-drug crusades, and other periods of marked public concern about drugs are never merely reactions to the various troubles people have with drugs.” (Inciardi & McElrath 54) If we use the example of the high costs of some prescription medications, a person’s economic state may play into their decision to find elsewhere to obtain their medications. Sociologists look into the factors that make people turn to the world of drugs. The sociologist is mindful of the social forces shaping that behavior. They focus in social groups and their structure and, organization and cultural elements that lead down the drug path. Reinarman’s view is that the drug issue is deeper than what drug policies fail to address. The laws are too broad. Alcohol is not illegal, yet people become alcoholics. Do we put alcoholics in jails and prisons? In August 2011, the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) came out with the new definition of addiction. ASAM defines it as a “chronic brain disorder” and “not simply a behavioral problem” (White 2/16/12) Also, “the disease is about brains, not drugs. It’s about underlying neurology, not outward actions.” (White 2/16/12) Reinarman believes that America’s war on drugs will only become successful if we all address and “confront” our society’s drug epidemic by accepting and understanding the problems that contribute to the issue. So is the war on drugs completely hopeless? I do not believe so. I do believe that it has a great concept to protect the citizens of America, but since the anti-drug campaign has been going on for 200 years, Reinarman has called the policy “drug scares.” He explains that he calls them “scares because…they are a form of moral panic ideologically constructed so as to construe one or another chemical bogeyman…” (Inciardi & McElrath 54-55). With the rampant use of drugs in our society, it has become second-nature for us to see its abuse everywhere and turn a blind eye. The criminalization of drugs has given way to a social domino-like effect that affects everyone. Our criminal justice system, for example, is over inundated with the overflow of drug related cases. Our prison system is overpopulated with the majority of inmates in for drug offenses. Millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money are being spent to building more prisons to accommodate the rise of the prison populations. This means that the more money taken to fund the prison system, the less money is being spent on our education and healthcare system, thus perpetuating the cycle of the social influences that attribute to how one turns to drugs. To shift our funding priorities, our lawmakers will have to choose cost-effective criminal-justice policies and focus on public safety strategies that curb crime and invest in education that will surely enhance the future and stop the toxic cycle of the drug world.

Work Cited
Carnahan, Mel. BrainyQuote. Xplore. Web. 25 Feb. 2012. Reinarman, Craig. "The Social Impact of Drugs and the War of Drugs: The Social Construction of Drug Scares." The American Drug Scene. By James A. Inciardi and Karen McElrath. 5th ed. Los Angeles, CA: Roxbury, 2001. 54-60. Print.