Although Richard Nixon first declared a “war on drugs” in 1971, the war escalated during the Reagan presidency and shifted its focus from treatment toward incarceration and law enforcement. As George Moss and Evan Thomas explain, Reagan came to Washington “committed to waging a war on drugs and bringing the international drug trade under control” in 1981. Thanks to the rise of the Medellin Cartel in Colombia and other cartels in Latin America during the 1980s, illegal drug trade networks flourished, and America became “the world’s major consumer of illicit drugs.” This increased usage of drugs led to many social crises, including heightened urban crime and health problems, which encouraged both the Reagan administration and private groups…
Co Rentmeester uses this photo to describe the war on drugs during the 1960’s and the US population trying to cut drugs out. Early alterations to law were enacted when “The U.S. Congress first introduced mandatory prison terms for drug use and sale with the 1956 Narcotics Control Act” (Muscoreil).…
The phrase “sex, drugs, and rock and roll” held true to its well-earned spot in 1970’s and 1980’s society. With a new, looser culture, explicit music, raunchy and rambunctious movies as well as a societal focus on many things immoral, it was an era of challenging social norms. As the use of recreational and psychoactive drugs, as well as alcohol, increased, a new problem arose; how does law enforcement and the government undo the damage being made by this new society? Laws were passed, bureaus and commissions were formed, and the President of the United States began what he called “The War on Drugs”. Over the years, some of these solutions have proven to make some impact. The initiation, tactics, and attempts at dealing a major blow to drug abuse have all affected the way America sees drugs today. A new type of warfare had made its way into the country, and after all these years, it has made its fair share of positive and negative effects.…
Thousands upon thousands of lives have been taken due to the huge demand for drugs crossing from Mexico into the United States. The murder rate is extremely high, and has caused so much chaos between both countries because of this. Drug dealers in the United States contact drug dealers in Mexico, and vice versa, to cross the drugs between borders illegally. A high percentage of the time, either of the drug dealers from both sides will have a scape goat swim the border while carrying high amounts of drugs with them, or will attempt to cross it over smuggled in a vehicle. In Mexico, it is extremely corrupt and even the law enforcement is involved in the crossing of drugs illegally. This being done causes so much conflict between the two countries and it’s very scary for anyone living in the Mexico side of it, because wars will break out over the drugs almost daily and many people’s lives end up being taken because of this. Innocent people can be caught in between a gun fight and their lives are in extreme danger, which is another reason why this drug war continues to go on. Many families try and flee their country to come into the United States so their families do not have to live in danger, but if being caught trying to cross over illegally, there are extremely harsh consequences. It is sad to know that millions of families have to live in fear and are too scared to leave their houses because they are scared of being caught in between one of the many gun fights that break out. There have been many cases where the Mexican Cartels will hire the elderly people of Mexico, and sometimes even children, to be their drug traffickers, putting them at extreme risk of being badly hurt, incarcerated, or even murdered. The Mexican Cartels believe that using children or the elderly will make it look less likely to be any type of illegal activity, but in the mix of it all, they have had many of them hurt or in extreme trouble with the law.…
Ultimately the new “war on drugs” had a negative impact on American life during the mid 1980s-early 2000s due to the economic costs, the strain put on our justice system, and the civil liberty violations that occurred. As with any other war or bureaucratic endeavor, money must be heavily drawn upon and invested. When discussing the overall cost of this “war” through this time, congressman Lee Hamilton stated that, “Federal and local governments spend over $3 billion each year to fight drugs.” (cite) In his quote it becomes apparent that the United States had become highly invested and arguably obsessed in a seemingly impossible “war.”…
In our world today you always hear about this so called ‘War on Drugs’. Living in Southern California, close to the Mexican Border I hear about this all the time. With always hearing about this so called war and seeing shows about cartels and drug smuggling, it began to spark my curiosity. What exactly is this so called ‘War on Drugs,’ are we winning, and what exactly is this all about?…
The war on drugs has been going on for over thirty years. It does not appear that a lot of progress has been made. If the United States were fighting any other war, this long, with these results, they would change direction. The United States current drug policy has consumed tens of billions of dollars and ruined countless lives. According to Unitarian Universalists for Drug Policy Reform (2006), "The costs of this policy include the increasing breakdown of families, escalating rates of incarceration, political corruption, and the imposition of United States policy abroad. For United States taxpayers, the price tag on the drug offensive has soared from sixty six million in 1968 to…
Office of National Drug Control Policy. National Drug Control Budget: FY 2014 Funding Highlights. Washington, DC: Executive Office of the President, April 2013. Web. Feb. 19. 2014…
The "war on drugs" started over 100 years ago in San Francisco, California when the first law against drugs was enacted to stop the "smoking of opium." In all actuality, this law was against the Chinese people living in the U.S., because they were known for smoking of the opium as a custom. The government feared that opium induced Chinese men would try to lure white women to them. The next drug that was considered illegal was cocaine. The law enacted against cocaine was against Negroes. The government feared that Negroes would use the drug and become violent and go on rampages of raping white women. (Schaffer, n.d.)…
As early as the Reagan administration until 1986, there were anti-drug campaign funded by the federal government were their declared $250 million war on drugs. The war on drugs were one of the main reasons for mass incarceration and is responsible for close to over half of the arrest in the United States. According to Lynch (2012), changing of drug laws have caused the increase in the number of prison population and caused the overcrowding of federal penitentiary systems. Alexander (2010) argues that race has an impact on whether or not an individual will be locked up in prison. The new drugs laws have a tendency to target those who are poorer non-white offenders; which subsequently means that more black individuals are being incarcerated…
War on drugs is pointless and it wastes billions of tax dollars with no positive result. US has spent $1 trillion since 1971 yet prices are going down but drug use has increased rapidly. You can see that the money spent on the war on drugs is pointless because it does not help out the drug abusers to stop using drugs. There is no positive result in the end and were not helping the drug abusers by spending money on putting them in jail when there is no lesson to this because they are addicts.…
Is the difference between marijuana and alcohol really worth $20 billion annually? In June 1971, President Nixon declared a “war on drugs.”() The problem is that the department of corrections was ill prepared to house the newly made convicts. This created over population in prisons all over America because of a failed attempt to “crack down.” It is a fact that countries with overbearing drug laws tend to have more drug problems than those who don’t. Now that new studies and facts are coming to light we have finally entered a stage in which to rebuild drug reform. The American war on drugs is a failing system that needs a major overhaul.…
Today’s Drug laws seem to do more harm than good. The so-called drug war hasn’t seemed to be as effective as it was intended to be. Its original intent lies in its name, to attack the drug problem in America. Nixon started the war on drugs in the late sixties to stop drug abuse at the source, the distributors. Another intention for the war on drugs was to show individuals taking part in this illegal activity that their participation would cause serious consequences. The government has taken drastic measures to keep drugs out of our nations streets, from attacking the frontline in The Columbian drug fields, to making numerous drug busts in urban cities across the United States.…
In 1971 Nixon Declares the “war on drugs” this entailed placing marijuana under a schedule one drug, dramatically increasing the size of and presence of federal drug agencies, and made strict prison penalties if caught with a schedule one drug. As the war on drugs became more and more prominent in society there emerged a growing racial disparity in drug related arrests and prison populations. Which brings the question of was the war on drugs focused on targeting low income African American neighborhoods, and was the war on drugs justifiable? Based on my research and time spent in class learning about this topic the war on drugs has done nothing but harm society and discriminate class and race. This is why I am advocating to end all prohibitions on adult possession and distribution of schedule 1 and 2 narcotics. Mandate that all states establish…
The War on Drugs costs the U.S. government and its tax paying citizens billions of dollars each year yielding little success in curtailing the illegal drug trade. Through research, I discovered that since 1982, countless government drug related programs, despite having little to no effect, received yearly budget increases. The Just Say No marketing campaign received a total of 33 billion dollars, yet, the U.S. remains the top country for illegal drug use. 49 billion dollars was spent on building a 1,000 mile long, heavily fenced concrete wall, drone aircrafts, motion detectors, heat sensors, and border patrol to curb drug trafficking. However, the National Drug Control Policy reports that 330 tons of cocaine, 20 tons of heroin, and 110 tons of methamphetamine are sold in the U.S. every year and nearly all of it is smuggled across the borders. Mexican drug cartels also grow marijuana in vast fields throughout the country and some are inside of our national parks. As for marijuana, most is grown domestically in vast fields inside of some of our national parks. The War on Drugs is the Prohibition of our time, and let’s face it, prohibition didn’t work and neither will the War on Drugs.…