Essay on War On Drugs

Introduction

When people think of addicts and those who have been victims of their circumstances, most do not think of these peoples’ abusers being the American government. In June 1971, the official War on Drugs began once Richard Nixon declared drug sales, production, importation, and smuggling to be the country’s public enemy number 1 (Britannica). The "war" was created or began as America’s efforts to combat illegal drug use and sales by increasing penalties, enforcement, and incarceration for drug offenders, which included users and dealers alike (Britannica). The war on drugs began officially in 1971 but heavily continues to this day with a heavy set agenda-pushing against drug culture and its ever-changing aspects. The movement has been able to prove and disprove its statistics as new information arises but has tried to make great efforts to make significant impacts on American drug users, overdose rates, and importations of illicit drugs and the numbers that follow each. 

The Description

These great efforts began with the concept that if the government leads a movement that aims to stop illegal drug use and distribution they must make changes towards the legal system and its laws to achieve their goals (American Progress). These changes were extremely difficult to accomplish since drug use has been present in the United States since the nation's creation. (Cato). Even though the country was based on drug use of all kinds, people saw the rights and the wrongs in this way of morality and began to restrict drug use a step at a time over the next few decades (History). The first few acts and laws that limited and outlawed the consumption of illicit drugs were: The Smoking Opium Exclusion Act in 1909, the Harrison Act in 1914, the ratification of the 18th amendment (which lead to the banning of manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors), the National Prohibition Act (Volstead Act) in 1919, the ratifying of the 21st amendment (which overturned the 18th amendment and ended prohibition),  and the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 (History). 

Those acts and movements were considered the most significant steps taken earlier before the War on Drugs, but those acts and small steps lead to those who wanted the idea of drug use and its sale to be criminalized (History). These small steps lead to the steps taken by key figures in the movement, one of these figures was Richard Nixon. In 1970, Richard Nixon, who was holding the presidency at the time, signed the Controlled Substances Act also known as the CSA, which was a set of laws that called for the regulation of certain drugs and substances wholesale (History). These acts had five schedules overall, each one attacking a different section of the drug world and culture the movement was aimed to destroy and overtake (History). The first schedule, for example, covered the most dangerous drugs, as they pose very high for addiction with little evidence of medical benefits (History). These higher-level drugs include marijuana, LSD, heroin, and MDMA or Ecstasy. These schedules covered the sale, distribution, and importation of these drugs as each one of the five does, but with each, they focus on one area of the culture in particular allowing for more efficient tactics to tackle the entire drug culture (History). With these agendas and focuses on the drug culture, Richard Nixon noticed the rise in recreational drugs during the late 1960s and began to create laws and policies targeting specific types of substance abuse. As a part of the War on Drugs initiative, Nixon increased federal funding for drug-control agencies and proposed strict measures, such as mandatory prison sentencing for drug crimes (History). Nixon also announced the creation of the Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention, otherwise known as SAODAP, as well as the establishment of the Drug Enforcement Administration, also known as the DEA. Both agencies were created to focus on types of special policing that are committed to targeting illegal drug use and smuggling into and out of the United States (History). At the start of the DEA, the agency had 1,470 special agents with a budget that consisted of less than 75 million dollars. Nowadays the agency has over 5,000 agents with a new budget of 2.03 billion dollars (History). With a majority of the War on Drugs agenda already established, the War on Drugs took a slight hiatus, between 1973 and 1977. During this time, eleven states decriminalized marijuana possession. 

As well as the decriminalization of marijuana, by the late 1970s, there was a huge glut of cocaine being shipped into the United States. This lead to a decrease in the drug's price resulting in dealers of the drug converting to the powder form of crack because of its abundance and price (History). With this conversion, the sale of crack cocaine continued to rise and unforeseeable rates, causing the crack epidemic to grow. As early as 1090, reports of crack use began appearing in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Houston areas. During this time, President Ronald Reagan reinforced and expanded Nixon's War on Drugs policies, which allowed for a refocus on drugs and the passing of severe penalties for drug-related crimes in Congress and state legislature led to a massive increase in incarceration for nonviolent drug crimes (History). In 1984, Nancy Reagan launched the “Just Say No” campaign, which was intended to highlight the dangers of drug use and its aftermath. This was followed by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act passed in 1986, which established mandatory minimum prison sentences for certain drug offenses (History). These laws were later heavily criticized as having racist ramifications. During this time, critics also pointed to data showing that people of color were targeted and arrested on suspicion of drug use at higher rates than whites, overall, the policies led to a rapid rise in incarceration for nonviolent drug offenses (History). Leading into more recent actions taken in the War against Drugs, which started in 2009 and ended in 2013, 40 states took steps to soften their drug laws by lowering penalties and shortening minimum sentences (History). 

This change in pace from asking and demanding for maximum sentences and penalties came from the understanding that making these laws and restrictions stricter will not change the drug sales or the drug markets in certain areas, finding that the worse the drug restrictions the worse the trade in certain areas (History). The development of these concepts allowed for the correlation between increased imprisonment rates and more restrictive laws to lead to breakthroughs within the system. This correlation allowed for the chain of law enforcement and drug culture to be brought closer to finding a permanent solution.  Overall the history of the War against Drugs is meticulous and shows effort upon the government in the epidemic against drugs, their use, and the victims that came from their effects physically, psychologically, and financially (History). 

Positions Against the War on Drugs, The Government’s Response, and the Reforms Needed

With the War on Drugs and its motives laid out in completion, the movement and its reasoning behind it are elaborated upon in detail, but it is simply from one side of the equation with the War on Drugs and all of its participants (Cato). The other side of this equation is the position against the War on Drugs. Proponents of drug prohibition claim that such policies reduce drug-related crime, decreased drug-related diseases and overdoses, and are an effective means of disrupting and dismantling criminal enterprises (Cato). However, the discovery that prohibition is not only ineffective but counterproductive, helped to achieve the goals of policymakers both domestically and abroad. This allowed for the connection that the domestic War on Drugs has contributed to an increase in drug overdoses and fostered and sustained the creation of powerful drug cartels (Cato). Overall the position against the War on Drugs has a strong agenda and set of ideals in their reasoning, however, these concepts of the War contain flaws and will not be guaranteed a high rate of success. The government does not admit to certain aspects of these flaws but has addressed and corrected them when needed

The responses that came from the government on these issues covered the entire movement. They addressed acts and reforms that tried to compensate for losses and negative consequences that appeared within the programs.  Most acts were altered to a certain extent allowing for improvement to happen with the movement (Cato). These improvements were in the areas of decriminalization, regulation, research, proper training forms, better reform and rehabilitation programs, and the changes in the way of life for those who have recovered in these programs (Cato). These responses allowed for the improvement of overall drug sales, distribution, the improvement of drug users lives after their addictions, the availability of recovery centers, the availability of medication to those who need it even though the effects of the epidemic of opioids limits that, and the regulation of drugs for both legal purposes and illegal purposes. In these responses and reforms, these programs were shown to need improvement but have been able to accomplish and tackle their purposes efficiently (Social Work).