Argumentative Essay On An Unjust War

John Kovalenko

WRTG 2010: Beasley

Argument II: “An Unjust War”

Few, if any, would argue that drug abuse in the United States is not a serious problem. However, the issue remains how to address it. The current schema of the politicized, militarized "war on drugs" does not appear to be working to reduce drug use in this country. More and more prisons are being built, with increasing numbers of citizens (particularly among minority populations) becoming incarcerated and subsequently trapped in the cycle of the criminal justice system. The current policies for punishing drug users not only imposes strain on monetary resources and infrastructure; they are in fact perpetuating great social suffering and injustice. What is needed is a systematic transfer from an ideology of punishment to one of prevention and rehabilitation, but practically, as in most cases, money will talk loudest.

The present methodology of the "war on drugs" fails to recognize both the ineffectiveness of legal deterrence as a long-term solution as well as the reality of addiction as a serious disease. Additionally, a disproportionate number of minority peoples appear to stand as primary targets of this system. Arguments even exist which suggest that social betterment is not in fact at the heart of present-day drug-related legislation, but that instead, profit for particular agencies and industries involved drives the law. However, the most compelling political argument against the war on drugs is the cost.

Research shows that the U.S. hosts the highest incarceration rate among all nations in the world with 40 percent of the arrested inmates having been convicted for non-violent drug crimes. The federal government has spent billions for drug control while only a pi...

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...overnment to redouble its Prohibition efforts. Today, given many materially similar facts surrounding the history of criminal prohibition of alcohol, public opinion ought to respond reasonably once more.

In order to solve this vast and complex problem of drugs in America, we must first acknowledge that the "War on Drugs" is not actually a war at all, but is instead an attempt to avoid the real challenges involved with addressing our shortcomings as a society, as individuals, and as a nation, by imagining that drugs themselves are to blame. Perhaps today, as we see our armed forces engaged in warfare abroad, our economy in flux, and our nation heavily involved in a global "War on Terror," the illumination of the facts will yield the collective will necessary to disengage from this domestic battle of our own creation, and finally declare an end to the “War on Drugs.”