The Drug War

The beginning of the 1960s, drugs became a symbol of youthful rebellion, social upheaval, and political dissent, while the government researched and tested their medical safety and efficacy. However, June 1971, President Nixon declared a war on drugs, saying that drugs were the number one threat to the American Public; spending more than $51,000,000 annually on the drug war every year (Drug War Statistics) The Drug has still not been solved, but has sadly created many more problems. The drug war has not only been going on for 40 years, but were enforced more than hundred years ago and fueled by discrimination and racism. “The first anti-opium laws in the 1870s were directed at Chinese immigrants. The first anti-cocaine laws, in the South in

America's current political stand is to spend billions of dollars a year In order to fight and defeat the enemy, drugs. “We spend $50 billion per year trying to eradicate drugs from this country. According to DEA estimates we capture less than 10 percent of all illicit drugs.” (The United States War on Drugs) Showing us that the money being spent is doing little to no change to the amount of drugs supplied and demanded in the United States
Part 2
When trying to solve the drug problem, many ideas and concepts look great on paper but do not work in the real world. We can not arrest and incarcerate addiction out of people, the human brain does not simply work like that. “Despite 44 years of aggressive policing and incarceration at the cost of a trillion dollars, 21 million Americans are still addicted to drugs or alcohol. The drug epidemic in America is at its worst ever, because the war on drugs is all wrong.”(Top Drug Official: The Old War on Drugs Is All Wrong). Botticelli, a former alcoholic sober for 27 years, believes it's not only inhumane, but it's ineffective and it cost us billions upon

One organization, The Drug Policy Alliance, has “committed to identifying and promoting health-centered alternatives to harmful, punitive drug laws. We are working to stem the tide of low-level drug arrests, to reverse draconian sentencing practices that cultivate discrimination, and to eliminate lifelong barriers faced by people with even a minor drug conviction.” (Fighting Drug War Injustice) The Drug Policy Alliance however, is not the only organization that sees this problem, but also The United States Government. Certain government agencies are aware of the problem and are looking at other countries for help according to (For Safe and Effective Drug Policy, Look to the Dutch.) Asked the question “Why has the Netherlands—a country sometimes viewed as having a permissive approach to drugs—had better results than so many governments with much more strict policies?” The answer is enforcement, In the Netherlands there are far fewer arrests for minor drug offenses. “Lighter enforcement did not lead to more drug use. About 25.7 percent of Dutch citizens reported having used marijuana at least once, which is on par with the European average. In the comparatively strict United Kingdom, the rate is 30.2 percent and in the United States it is a whopping 41.9 percent.” The entire drug war is wrong, the government is