War On Drugs In America
Introduction:
The illicit economy of drugs forms complex systems which resilient networks of criminals run. Despite moves for legalization, destabilizing influences of the illicit economies together with transnational crime is going to endure and sustain national efforts for addressing the evolving threat. Cocaine, methamphetamines and heroin, continues to cross US borders through robust networks giving rise to consumption in the United States. A continued prohibition-posturing is going to be problematic in foreign policy of W. Hemisphere nations which support fight on drugs. How countries respond to a softening resolve of America is uncertain as also associated impacts on the illegal markets. US policy makers have to be ready to counter difficult dialogues and acknowledge historic costs which partner nations have to bear in their fight with illicit drugs (Thompson, 2014). The Drug Policy Alliance or DPA has scored a major victory after passage of the Californian Proposal 36, passed in 2000, making treatment rather than incarceration the option for minor substance abuse offenders. It has kept close over 100,000 violators from being imprisoned (Netherland & Hansen, 2016). This has saved taxpayer money through reduced prison population.
The problem involving substance abuse must be viewed as public health problems instead of criminal justice issues. Ending the war by legalizing drugs: We are trapped in an infinite wheel of dynastic successions because we have not dismantled the axis that allows the monarchic dominance of the mafia which involves the profitability of cocaine. The fight against drugs began on moral grounds a century ago, and now the same war has become immoral. Legalizing drugs implies accepting that a problem is addiction and the daily criminality associated with their extreme cases, and that another problem is drug trafficking. That the first can continue fighting with health programs and the work of the local police, and the second simply becomes a legal business. This change is very difficult to sell to an audience that still thinks that the prohibition of hard drugs, and not the lack of appetite of most people for them, is what prevent a large social epidemic of addiction (Netherland & Hansen, 2016).
Since then, the widespread fear of the US population towards cocaine has not changed much, although it is less associated with a possible racial mutiny. Lobbying in US institutions is an additional obstacle to the legalization of cocaine. The fight against drugs is extremely lucrative for the companies involved in it and the state security agencies, because taxpayers pay it with their taxes. Since 1970, when Richard Nixon launched the war on drugs, the United States has spent $ 1 trillion - one third of its deficit or one third of its annual health expenditure - on the various components of the fight against drugs: weapons, prisons, anti-narcotics agents, surveillance technology, but also rehabilitation and treatment (Thompson, 2014). Now that marijuana begins to be decriminalized, cocaine is the next logical step. The waste of state money by all the countries lost in this absurd war has to stop.
Legalities of the War:
In 1919, the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified, which prohibited the manufacture, sale, transportation and importation of alcoholic beverages. A decade later, the so-called Prohibition was a resounding failure for the whole world. What used to be a formal business had degenerated into a highly lucrative and often violent black market. Powerful criminal gangs fought in the streets for control of the market, while corrupting the authorities. Emblematic mobsters like Al Capone emerged. The unhealthy conditions and the lack of quality controls over alcohol caused the death of thousands of Americans due to poisoning and poisoning. Rethinking the Drug-WarIn the US, the militarization of the War on Drugs is gaining ground. SWAT teams have often raided wrong houses and killed completely innocent people.
In the US, 1. 5 million people are arrested every year for violating anti-narcotics laws. Reports on the US revised Drug Policy Overview made in 2014 revealed 67% Americans prefer provision of treatment for illegal drug users in lieu of prosecution. Only 26% respondents of the Pew-survey voted for criminal punishment in place of treatment. In 2016 US presidential election, almost all candidates irrespective of party affiliation, wanted adoption of smart policies to fight the drug-menace. Many have signaled their intentions for improving the policies on mental health with drug treatment (Hinton, 2016). Leaders wanted to reverse a zero-tolerance stand with RESET or Reclassification to Ensure Smarter Treatment bill to re-categorizes drug offenses to misdemeanors. Justice Safety Valve Act, gives the judge a lot of discretion while deciding punishment in minor drug- crimes.
Cost of War:
If the expenses that are made in all federal and state agencies related to narcotics are taken into account, the total cost of the war on drugs in the US is around $40bn per year. However, the heaviest burden falls on less developed countries, such as Latin America. A recent report by the World Bank noted that the costs of the prohibition fall disproportionately on developing countries with crops associated with the production of drugs. These costs have to do, for example, with the direct expropriation of the wealth of the farmers who harvest such products and with the institutional instability caused by the criminal organizations that distribute the drugs (Hinton, 2016).
Conclusion:
The aggressive drug enforcing policies are costing more than US$1 trn by incarceration of millions of US citizens for even casual drug usage. By regulating the drug usage instead of criminalizing it, the per capita drug use in US would be same or lower than current levels, ensure safety of consumers and be less costly for socioeconomic harm. This will also reduce mindless drug violence. By legalizing drugs, governments would have more control over the narcotics market. They could regulate and tax their production and sale, as they already do with tobacco and alcohol. In addition, the money derived from such taxes would allow them to provide treatment to addicts.
As with decriminalization, legalization would make it possible to better cope with the scourge of drug addiction by removing the stigma that weighs on consumers. Drug addiction will continue to be a scourge, but just as the prohibition of alcohol proved to be a wrong approach to the problem of alcoholism, so the War on Drugs has been a wrong way to confront problems related to the abusive use of drugs. It is time to make the right choice.
