Losing The War On Drugs Essay, Research Paper

Losing the War on Drugs

America is passing 1000000s of dollars to run ad runs with teenage

street childs nailing up the kitchen with frying pans, encephalon fried egg commercials, and

other inaccurate and deceptive ads put fear into our states young person and grownups likewise.

One such ad showed a level line encephalon scan supposedly hooked up to a drug user. It

was subsequently proven that it was hooked up to nil and most of our states childs now

cognize it. Sing the & # 8220 ; Land of the Free & # 8221 ; turn into a state that imprisons more of its

citizens than any other industrialised state on Earth is neither effectual or a good

message to direct our kids. We are constructing 9 new prisons for every one new

university ( ) . Which do you desire built for your kids?

In this state, we are locked in war we merely can non win. We strive to

protect over 10,000 stat mis of boundary line, against enemies who are driven by the enticement of

an obscene truly resulted from this war is the overcrowding of prisons, the

enlargement of jurisprudence and misgiving. If its non obvious already, I am mentioning to the war

on drugs. As clip goes on, it becomes more and more apparent that the war on drugs

is every bit useless as functionaries, who use the war as a reelection tool. To analyze this

job, I visited authorities web pages for statistics and facts covering with the

war, and was surprised what I found.

To most people the financial grounds for stoping the war are the most convincing.

For illustration, it costs over $ 30,000 per twelvemonth to house a captive & # 8211 ; this does non

include processing and legal fees, merely the existent prison costs & # 8211 ; nutrient, H2O,

electricity and guards ( ) . There are over 1.5 million non-violent drug jurisprudence wrongdoers

in prison right now, and this figure is increasing daily ( ) . That means we are

passing a lower limit of $ 45 billion per twelvemonth maintaining former tax-paying citizens,

most of whom had occupations and were lending to the economic system in some manner, locked

up with liquidators and rapers. When these people get out of gaol, they will hold

condemnable records, which will do it about impossible to acquire a nice occupation, and a

score against the authorities and society in general.

In add-on, we spend $ 37 billion per twelvemonth funding the constabulary attempts and

interdiction, and recent grounds suggests the CIA has been involved in

drug-trafficking to fund its ain private wars ( ) .Currently there is over $ 150 billion

worth of drug traffic that remains tax-exempt ( ) .If you figure a revenue enhancement rate of 15 % , that is

a sum of $ 22.5 billion of revenue enhancements that America doesn & # 8217 ; t see. The bottom line? The United states

Treasury estimations America wastes a lower limit of $ 104.5 billion per twelvemonth contending a

war that can non be won ( ) , while offense rates continue to lift ( because of the immense

net incomes made possible by the hazards involved in the drug trade as drugs remain

illegal ) , and the quality of instruction, medical attention and environmental protection

falls due to miss of money in the budget.

There are besides moral quandary in declaring war on drugs and their users.

First, drug usage or maltreatment is a medical and societal job non a condemnable job,

yet we think we & # 8217 ; re work outing the job by throwing people in gaol. The logic seems

to be, possibly if we merely take their life off, confiscate all of their personal

belongings, destroy their repute and dignity, put them in gaol with the worst

elements of society & # 8211 ; liquidators, stealers and rapers, where they will most probably be

beaten and/or raped repeatedly they will see the mistake of their ways. Not a really

enlightened sentiment.

Besides bear in head, nicotine, caffeine and intoxicant are all drugs. Nicotine is

one of the most habit-forming drugs known to adult male, behind substances like diacetylmorphine.

Cigarettes kill over 300,000 people every twelvemonth. Alcohol kills over 120,000 people

every twelvemonth ( ) .Alcohol has been linked to work forces crushing their married womans and kids. In

contrast, marihuana has a recorded history that dates back over 4000 old ages, and has

ne’er killed anyone in the direct manner intoxicant does ( ) . The DEA & # 8217 ; s own

Administrative Law Judge, after reexamining the grounds, called marihuana & # 8220 ; & # 8230 ; one

of the safest therapeutically active substances known to adult male & # 8230 ; & # 8221 ; ( ) .

It & # 8217 ; s been said that the first casualty in any war is truth. That

sentiment is seen nowhere every bit clearly as in the war on drugs. The

authorities and particular involvements have been running this war for over 50

old ages now. The authorities? spews propaganda as truth, to cover their corporate

rears, which creates misgiving and agitation, and strains

disdain and discourtesy in our kids? ( ) . An illustration & # 8211 ; We have uniformed

constabularies officers coming into our schoolrooms stating childs that marijuana

is more unsafe than intoxicant and at least if non more unsafe than

cleft cocaine or diacetylmorphine. History and scientific grounds prove that it is non. So if

the officer wasn & # 8217 ; t being honest about marihuana, what else is the authorities lying

about?

Worse yet, if marijuana is non that bad, possibly cleft and diacetylmorphine aren & # 8217 ; t either.

Their are besides some logical jobs with back uping such a war. This is a free

state with over 10,000 stat mis of boundary line and over 247 million dwellers ( ) .There

is merely no manner you can watch all of the people all of the clip if we are to

continue with the freedoms we have. A big per centum of the drugs brought into

the state are brought in by people get downing little balloons filled with pure

cocaine or diacetylmorphine.

This is about impossible to forestall. There is no manner you will of all time be

able to eliminate drugs from this state without declaring Martial

jurisprudence, making door-to-door hunts and increasing boundary line security

dramatically. Clearly, America would non subject to Draconian constabularies.

The job with drugs is non their consequence, it is the corruptness that

is tied to the immense net incomes that making illegal concern bids. Statisticss show that

illegal drugs kill far less people than fleshiness & # 8211 ; that is, an dependence to nutrient ( ) . So

why doesn? T America make Twinkies illegal? Increasing punishments for drug offenses

will merely increase the monetary values and thereby the net incomes for people willing to take the

hazard. Along with these net incomes will come increasing war in our vicinities as

packs and traders fight and kill for the tremendous net incomes. Americans will ne’er see

any of this money because, being illegal, it is non taxed. Supply is driven by

demand. Equally long as there are people that want to set their province of head, there

will be person to assist them make it, and seting our province of head is portion of

human nature. There are many ways to modulate usage of marihuana without merely

legalising it. Our state must do a drastic alteration to pattern our Torahs after those

of other states who are successfully modulating the usage of marihuana.

Possibly the fact that drugs are less forbidden in the Netherlands lowers their

temptingness to citizens, or possibly the fact that they are forbidden in the United States

makes them more appealing to rebellious adolescents. Whatever the instance, surveies

about mock the stringency of the anti-drug Torahs of the United States, as they show

them to be wholly uneffective.

This summer I will hold the chance to go around Western Europe,

and among all of the topographic points I visit, I find Amsterdam to be one the most challenging.

Specifically, populating in and watching a metropolis map, in which drug usage is considered

a wellness job instead than a condemnable issue, will be different than anything I have

of all time seen. I have ever been funny as to the extent of which the drug policy was

abused by the people of the Netherlands, in relation to the purely enforced drug

policies of the United States. However, recent surveies show that the usage of both soft

drugs ( marihuana, hasheesh, and mushrooms ) and difficult drugs ( rapture, cocaine, and

heroine ) are significantly lower in the Netherlands per per centum of the

population, than in the United States ( Dutch Embassy ) . As a consequence, I find myself

oppugning the United States of America? s? War on Drugs? , and the money, clip,

and work the Criminal Justice section devotes to implementing a system of Torahs

that seemingly are non working.

I have researched the metropolis of Amsterdam rather extensively.. Among all of the

things I learned about the metropolis, I found the metropolis? s tolerance to sexual look and

drug usage singular. Rather than penalizing citizens for their personal pick to utilize

hemp merchandises, the metropolis uses coffee stores as topographic points to? separate marihuana

tobacco users from the under universe? ( 12 ) . These java stores are purely licensed and

taxed, and non merely function as a convenient and respectable topographic point to purchase and

fume hemp merchandises, but besides serve as a beginning of gross for a flourishing metropolis

( ) . The Dutch authorities takes a libertarian attack to human rights, in that it

believes that what citizens do with their ain organic structures is of no concern to the constabulary

or the control of province. In conformity, the authorities runs an array of plans

that are considered unthinkable by the criterions of American jurisprudence. For illustration, the

Dutch authorities exchanges used panpipes for clean 1s to command the spread of

diseases among hard-core drug maltreaters. The Netherlands? s hands-on attack of

assisting and covering with difficult drug maltreaters is a refreshing and different attack at

work outing a apparently unmanageable job, particularly after watching the United

States condemn and shun those citizens who have lost control of their lives.

The consequence of the Netherlands tolerant society is amazing, as its citizens do

non mistreat their freedom. Harmonizing to a study by the Center for Drug Research at

the University of Amsterdam, ? merely two to three per centum of Dutch over the age of

twelve 12 had used marihuana over a one-month period? ( Media Awareness

Undertaking ) . In contrast, in the United States, ? a 1996 authorities survey concluded

around five per centum of the population used the drug at least one time a month? ( Media

Awareness Project ) . Other surveies concluded that United States high school seniors

usage hemp about six per centum more than high school seniors from Amsterdam

( Drug Policy and Crime Statistics ) . Overall, these surveies showed a significantly

greater maltreatment of hemp by people under the age of 18 in the United States,

than in the Netherlands ( Drug Policy and Crime Statistics ) . In add-on, non merely is

difficult and soft drug usage significantly lower in Amsterdam, offense is besides well

lower in Netherlands. Both the United States slaying rate, and offense related deceases,

mean about eight times more than that of the Netherlands ( Drug Policy and

Crime Statistics ) . Meanwhile, the United States spends 54 dollars more per

capita on drug related jurisprudence enforcement ( Drug Policy and Crime Statistics ) . This is

dismaying, as these figures depict? The War on Drugs? as a waste of money and

resources.

Is there truly a? War on Drugs? in America. Well, allow? s compare our? War

on Drugs? to a protypical war fought between two conflicting powers. In a war,

two opposing sides have soldiers. In this instance, The US has constabulary, DEA, Customs

Agents, Swat Teams, and Special Task Forces to call a few. What does the enemy

hold? Better yet, who is the enemy? Well, the enemy is our ain people. Eighty

per centum of drug apprehension are for personal usage. The people arrested have callings,

households, and in most instances are otherwise jurisprudence abiding and revenue enhancement paying citizens. It is

good known that wars cost money. The? War on Drugs? is no exclusion, yearly

bing 18 billion dollars federally and 50 billion dollars nationally ( ) . In a

war, both sides feel justified, but are willing to negociate. In the? War on Drugs? ,

both sides feel justified, but one is non willing to negociate. War ever captives

on both sides. However, in this war, merely one side takes captives. Seven-hundred

1000 are locked up every twelvemonth ( ) . Wars are traditionally fought on

battlefields. The? War on Drugs? is fought on our streets and effects our

kids. The war is non against drugs, but is against our Human Rights as defined

in The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution.

The Declaration of Independence provinces that we have & # 8220 ; inalienable rights & # 8221 ; and

the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the US Constitution province that there are other

rights than those listed in the & # 8220 ; Bill of Rights & # 8221 ; and that those powers that the people

did non expressly give to the authorities still belong to the people. The people

retain their unalienable rights as they have non given the authorities the power to

act as their moral dictator.

Further, the rule of unalienable rights, one of the rules upon which

this state was founded, Tells us by logic that belongings rights are the most

of import rights we have. If we do non hold the unalienable right to have belongings

so we ourselves are slaves to those who do. If we do hold the right to have

belongings than we have the right to utilize that belongings as we see fit, so long as we do

non harm others by such usage. If we do non hold the right to utilize our belongings as we

see tantrum, so the ownership of that belongings is a fake ; it means nil and we are

in fact slaves.

Our most basic belongings is ourselves, that is, our organic structures and our heads. If we

are non slaves to the authorities ( or to those who control the authorities ) so we

hold the unalienable right to utilize our organic structures and our heads as we wish, even if it

injuries us, merely so long as we do non harm others or their belongings. This fact, in a

genuinely liberty-loving society, is non problematic, it is a given and can non lawfully be

taken from us, otherwise there is no true autonomy, no free society, merely a society of

slaves or quasi-slaves.

Marks, Alexandra. ? US is losing the War on Drugs. ? The Christian Science Monitor 5

Jan 2000: 1-2.

? Traveling Dutch? . ? The Economist ( US ) . 15 Jan 2000, 55-57.

Massing, Michael. ? Beyond Legalization. ? The State 20 Sept 1999: 19-21

MacCoun, Robert J. , Reuter, Peter. ? Does Europe Make It Better? . ? The State 20 Sept

1999: 28-31.

? Drug Policy and Crime Statistics. ? Dutch Embassy. 6 Aug 1998.

( hypertext transfer protocol: //www.netherlands-embassy.org/drug-inf.htm ) .

? The Netherlands: Dutch Marijuana Use Lower Than US. ? Media Awareness Project.

16 Apr 1998. ( hypertext transfer protocol: //www.mapinc.org/ ) .