Therapeutic Drug Policy

There are too many people in prison in our country and any people in prison today are non-violent drug offenders. The American war on drugs has targeted people in poverty and minorities, who are more likely to be involved in drug use. This has created a pattern of crime and incarceration and “...[a] connection between increased prison rates and lower crime is tenuous and small.” (Wyler). The prison system in our country today focuses on punishment for the inmates rather than rehabilitation for life after their release.

Through my research I have found our involvement in the drug world follows the same theme that seems to recur with our government and their policies. We talk a good game that formulates a structure and a well-worded policy that appears to be in the best interest of American citizens and foreigners alike. However we also aid these countries. The problem doesn’t lie within our policies or the simple compassion from our government that drugs hurt our society. The problems occur with those that implement and enforce these policies. Cocaine and its market cannot be eradicated. The efforts of many of our political leaders have been futile because of the supply and demand of the product. In 1989, President Bush had a plan that he called, “The cheapest and safest way to eradicate narcotics” (Menzel pg.43). The result was the following,

The United States have imprisoned many people in the country than any other due to drug wars. In the year 2014 more than 1.5 million people were arrested for drugs. Drug offenses by itself caused these

Since Nixon and Reagan started the war on drugs the United States have struggled to keep a drug policy that would actually keep people from using drugs. The war on drugs was something that change the history of this country, by making drug trafficking their main priority. This is becoming a big issue since this issue is something that many Americans do everyday. During the time in 1971, President Richard Nixon was the man that created the Drug Enforcement Agency. This was the program called the war in drugs. This was supposed to keep narcotics out within our country and our borders. During 1994, the war on drugs caused people to go to jail, especially the non violent drug users. Criminalization is overcrowding the prisons by putting people

Western countries struggle with the control of drug abuse. America, for example, has been failing with eliminating or reducing the chronic issues of drug abuse and crimes associated with drugs. America’s goal around these problems consistently has been complete

policy. We also need to create a policy that treats drug addicts with medical rehabilitation. We

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.

“According to a new study released by the World Health Organization, the U.S leads the world and takes the gold for the use of tobacco, pot, and cocaine, far outpacing other countries”(US Ranks #1). According to an article on alternet.org America abuses drugs worse than any other country. It is no secret that the United States’ economy is nearing an all time low. With the economy being nearly as bad as ever in the history of our country it is very concerning that our drug use is at an all time high. If a large percentage of United States citizens do not have jobs, cannot afford food, clothes, shelter, and the government is providing money for these people, where is the

Drug policy in America has not changed much over the past two decades, but according to Sacco (2014) “over the last decade, the United States has shifted its stated drug control policy toward a comprehensive approach; one that focuses on prevention, treatment and enforcement (p.1). One approach to this is allotting billions of dollars to the Federal Drug Control Budget. As of 2014, the majority of funding for this budget went into supply reduction (59.9%), demand reduction (40.1%), and domestic law enforcement (36.8%). Only 35 percent of the funding was provided for treatment of drug abuse, and 5.1 percent for drug abuse prevention (Sacco, 2014, p.16). These numbers have not changed since 2005, when they were within a 5 percent difference

There are groups of people in the criminal justice system who considers drug addiction a personal issue, not a criminal one. This could not be further from the truth; drug abuse is illegal and should be treated as such. It is a catalyst for many crimes seen today from mugging to murder. If the numbers of those who abuse drugs are reduced, the amount of crimes associated with the addiction are also reduced. Not only will crime levels be reduced, most of those who undergo treatment tend to be better prepared to do more with their lives and not re-offend.

The United States is not immune to the worldwide drug addiction epidemic. Drugs pour in from Mexico daily, then distributed to throughout the country. The economic crisis in America is creating an excuse for drug use (e.g., depression, hopelessness). This chemical fix not only creates problems for the addict, but the family and community as well. Every addict has an enabler, a person who makes the addiction possible through various venues of support (e.g., financial, denial). Addicts are only concerned with their next fix and will resort to any means to obtain it (e.g., theft, prostitution, pan-handling). Some have even resorted to extremely desperate measures; for example, murder for inheritance or life insurance proceeds.

Drug abuse and crime is not a new concept and the statistics around the problem have continued to rise. According to (Office of Justice Programs, 2011), there were an estimated 1,846,400 state and local arrests for drug abuse in the United States. Additionally, 17 percent of state prisoners and 18 percent of federal inmates said they committed their current offense to obtain money for drugs (Office of Justice Programs, 2011). Based on this information, we can conclude that our criminal justice systems are saturated with drug abusers. The United States has the highest imprisonment rate and about 83 percent of arrests are for possession of illegal drugs (Prisons & Drug Offenders, 2011). Based on these figures, I can conclude that we should be more concerned about solving the drug abusers problems and showing them an alternative lifestyle rather than strict penalty of long term incarceration which will inevitably challenge their ability to be fully functioning citizens after release.

Drugs are a huge problem in the US there are hundreds of people currently addicted to drugs in some states alone and we are trying to solve this problem and whenever a drug addict is caught they are usually sent to prison, tons of people sent to prison when it's not even the best option. Currently, people are completely unaware that rehab is a much better option than prison for drug offenders because it is both economically superior and helps addicts reintegrate into society.

Drugs are a major and growing problem in the U.S.. It has become a national problem and is affecting and ruining many lives of people and their families. It needs to be stopped. It may never be able to be fully put to end, but there is always room to help and subdue it. If we don’t it will come to a point where there is no stopping it and no going back. The numbers of people using will just go up with no chance of going down. We need to do something. We need to make a

Drug addiction have been a problem for many countries. People lose their family, going into prison and even losing their life because of drug addiction. Countries like the United States have been working very hard on trying to prevent drug from importing to their countries illegally and they also open programs that prevent and treat people from using illegal drugs. Base on the Office of National Drug Control Policy the United States have spent 15billion dollar on drug prevention and treatment programs. However, I think that spending 15 billion dollar on the drug war will not prevent lesser and lesser people from selling drugs or using drugs. I believe that the condition of the economy and the economic order is the ultimate cause for the drug addiction and drug wars.