War on Drugs

Ask yourself, “has American drug laws reduced drug use?” Your answer more than likely is “of course not”. We have more people in prison for using drugs than ever before. We have to look at history to see what was done wrong so we can be more affective instead of wasting a lot of time and money. Prohibition didn't stop people from drinking; it stopped people from obeying the law. Whenever something is banned, a black market will appear and flourish. Since it was no longer being produced there were bootleggers, or people who made liquor at home, to be the new suppliers. Where there is black market demand, there will be criminals trying to get their piece of the pie. In a study of more than 30 major U.S. cities during the Prohibition years, the amount of crimes increased by about 24% and police department costs rose by 11% (Miron 244).

A few years after the alcohol prohibition was put in place, studies show that alcohol consumption rose approximately 60% compared to before prohibition (Miron 245). After prohibition ended in 1933 the black market dissolved and crime was decreased. I used prohibition as an example because its model is pretty similar to what is happening currently. There is no study that fully proves that marijuana causes any health or danger risks to people who are not using it but Alcohol and tobacco are proven to be far more harmful and are currently fully legal.

From 1963 to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, marijuana and heroin usage became more common among U.S. soldiers in non-combat situations during downtime to pass the time or as a stress reliever. Many of the servicemen ended the heroin use after returning back home but returned to America addicted. From 1971 on, returning servicemen were required to take a drug test and those who tested positive for heroin were not allowed to return home from Vietnam until they had passed the test with a negative result. Shortly after, President Richard Nixon announced a “War on Drugs”. This was the start of the drug problem in America. Here in America we have this term for the modern prohibition but differed because this prohibition deals with drugs. We call it the “war on drugs”. I feel like the people working towards this goal have good intentions but are going about trying to limit drugs in America the long way. I feel like the efforts are ineffective because we are criminalizing the users and pretty much trying to bully people into not using drugs. As far as stopping the import and the distribution of drugs go, I can't complain about those strategies. What I can say is that when addicted people, throwing them in jail for being sick is too sensitive of an issue to be dealt with this way and tends to make things worse if anything.

The Mexican Drug War is probably the most commonly talked about effort to stop drugs from being imported to America from Mexico, hence the name. Many drugs are distributed out of Mexico into the United States, such as cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine, and heroin. This particular effort is an example of what we are doing wrong. Billions of dollars are spent every year to build new walls along the Mexican border, staff teams to enforce border regulations, and stop immigration and smuggling. All reasonable efforts to want to work towards but so much money is spent on hunting these smugglers and immigrants and deporting them, which is similar to treating the symptoms of a health issue instead of trying to fix the source of the problem. This is a never-ending cycle that leads to no progress. We’ve spent about a trillion dollars fighting this war with money that could have been more useful elsewhere. Arresting people who have possession of illegal drugs is one thing but there is a whole other big issue. Prescription drugs are abused just as much as illegal ones. 52 Million people in the US, over the age of 12, have used prescription drugs non-medically in their lifetime. The number of prescription medicine abusers in 2011 was 8.76 million (“Drug Facts”). If we spent most of that money towards health and education to treat addiction and support prevention