The Connection Between Crime And Drugs

Critics argue that legalization of certain drugs will not end the drug war and that instead, it will cause more violence and issues for the county’s well being. In the mid-1980’s the cocaine epidemic hit and a large amount of crime, deaths from overdoses and violence came with it. The result of this was laws being placed with minimum punishment for drug trafficking to attempt to control the issue. Throughout the early 1990s crime started to slowly decrease and in 2013 the amount of crime was reduced in half. One viewpoint is that once the title of being non-violent labeled drug traffickers crime started to rise anew. Some crimes included murders of innocent bystanders and more drug flow into the U.S (Cook1). William J. Bennett and John P. Walters, Boston Globe writers, complicate matters further when they write “For 25 years before President Obama, U.S policy confronted drug

Later, in the early to mid 1900's, cocaine would be linked to blacks and marijuana would be linked to Mexicans. Many people believe that many of the drug laws put into place were done so because of racism. When the United States banned opium importation, many other nations began to have concerns about the growing drug abuse problem throughout the world, specifically the abuse of opium in many of the nations of Asia. This concern led to meetings of several nations whose mission was to restrict narcotics to medical use [2].

Texas born and raised means a lot of things, but for me it means diverse. As a child, I grew up in the southside of San Antonio and attended a Catholic school which contributed majorly to how I act now and has impacted how I view others. However, in the 7th grade, I moved to the Texas Hill Country and learned a plethora of contradictory views. This has led me to form my own opinions on what is right and wrong and meshed city and country life to create a well-rounded, diverse Texan.

In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, drug use became a major concern for most Americans. As the War on Drugs and “Just Say No” campaign were being thrust into the spotlight by the government and media, the public became more aware of the scope of drug use and abuse in this country. The federal and states’ governments quickly responded by creating and implementing more harsh and punitive punishments for drug offenses. Most of these laws have either remained unchanged or become stricter in the years since then.

Drug abuse and predatory criminality go hand in hand in a few, select social groups, while in others, drug abuse most often occurs without criminal behavior (other than the fact they’re doing drugs.) Despite what most might think, drug abuse typically follows predatory criminality. As drug abusers keep trying harder drugs due to necessity, the intensity of their criminal behavior escalates dramatically. When using more than one type of drug at one time, studies show that the frequency of criminal activity increases. But, when these drug offenders decrease the amount of drugs they put in their system, their rate of criminal activity also decreases, which shows that drugs can cause a person to commit crime. This shows that drug usage can cause crime and stopping drug usage can slow or even halt criminal activity.

In 1909 Congress declared that opium smoking was a federal offence by passing the Anti-Opium Act. The Anti-Opium Act was unfair toward the Chinese because this minority group was highly known to smoke opium while whites abused the drug in other ways. According to reports drinking and injecting tinctures of opiates were popular among whites (Bobo & Thompson, 2006).

The Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914 was the first of many laws due to the laissez-faire attitude toward drug use in the United States. Brecher 1972 states (as cited in Powell & Redford, 2016) society’s view on drugs was not problematic until the end of the nineteenth century. After the Civil War, a widespread epidemic of drugs swept across the nation, which fuels the drug wars of today (Powell & Brecher, 2016).

Drugs have played a part of the United States of America criminal justice fabric for generations. The scare tactics of the 1960s gave way to the contradictory messages of the late ’70s and early ’80s. In the 1970’s drugs became glamorous and recreational to many citizens. Prior to the 1970’s, citizens that abuse drugs was seen by policymakers as suffering from a social disease that could only be helped by treatment. Policymakers posture change drastically in the mid 70’s. In 1973, only twelve percent of the population reported to the Gallup poll that they had tried drugs. By 1977, that number was doubled. Notably, in 1978, 66 percent of Americans said Marijuana was becoming a serious issue in their respective communities (Riley, K.

Hemp is one of the most desirable, industrial plants on the planet. The plant is also one of the most versatile plants known to man and can be used for the purposes of feed, clothing, paint, paper, and plastic, but cultivation is still illegal. More importantly, hemp is one of the most eco-friendly and sustainable resources that can improve people’s lives with minimal environmental impact.

Drug legalization is an enduring question that presently faces our scholars. This issue embraces two positions: drugs should not be legalized and drugs should be legalized. These two positions contain an array of angles that supports each issue. This brief of the issues enables one to consider the strengths and weakness of each argument, become aware of the grounds of disagreement and agreement and ultimately form an opinion based upon the positions stated within the articles. In the article “Against the Legalization of Drugs”, by James Q. Wilson, the current status of drugs is supported. Wilson believes if a drug such as heroin were legalized there would be no financial or medical reason to avoid heroin usage;

Since the early 1960’s there have been an alarming increase in drug use in the United States in 1962, four million Americans had tried an illegal drug. By 1999, that number had risen to a staggering 88.7 million, according to the 1999 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse.

Way before marijuana was ever used as a popular recreational intoxicant, it was used as a widespread industrial product. Originally brought over to America by British settlers, marijuana hemp was prized for its versatility. It was also used to make a lot of things like, paper, rope, and cloth. In fact, it has been established that both George Washington was not only the father of the United States and a cannabis plantation owners, but also a user of the plant for relaxation and merriment (Schwartz, 2008). There are way more cons than pro’s.

The so-called “War on Drugs,” as declared by the Nixon administration in the signing of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, marked the beginning of the current era of mandatory minimum sentencing, racism, privatized prisons, and a powerful constituency that profits as a result of the prohibition of drugs. Psychoactive substances have been apart of the human experience as long as humans have walked the earth. There is little hope that drug production will ever be curtailed, so long as there is a demand; a demand that has remained steady even though it has been forty years since the beginning of said war. As Judge James P. Gray from the Superior Court of Orange County has so plainly put it: “Where did this policy

Proponents on the legalization of drugs believe if drugs were to become legal; the black market worth billions of dollars would become extinct, drug gangsters would disappear, addicts would stop committing crimes to support their habit and the prison system would not be overwhelmed with a problem they cannot defeat. The decriminalization of drugs will only make illegal drugs cheaper, easier to get and more acceptable to use. “The U.S. has 20 million alcoholics and alcohol misusers, but only around 6 million illegal drug addicts. If illegal drugs were easier to obtain, this figure would rise”(Should Drugs be decriminalized? No.November 09, 2007 Califano Joseph A, Jr).”

Drugs and crime are literally everywhere. Drug abuse and crime go hand-in-hand. Drugs cause crime. Legalizing drugs is not the answer. Punishments should fit the crime. Repeat offenders should have harsher punishments. The history of drugs shows increasing drug use, abuse, and crime rates that relate to drug use and abuse.