The War On Drugs In America

The War on Drugs in America
The longest war isn’t one fought with weapons for freedom, land, or beliefs. It was a war against the use of illegal substances. The War on Drugs is a term that has been used for many years to describe the fight against illegal substances. However, time after time this war has failed. There has been a plethora of ideas on how to ultimately end this war. However, according to many polls, the drug problem in America is a rising problem.
In order to understand the War on Drugs, people must understand how it was caused Drug abuse is the cardinal reason why a drug war is crucial. Drug abuse is the “harmful, non-medical use of an illegal substance” (Croft 12). According to many polls, the drug abuse problem has been rising

According to a Gallup Poll, “ninety-four percent of Americans are aware that drug abuse can be dangerous” (Croft 14). However the awareness is not affecting the amount of people who still use. Approximately three million people use cocaine and heroin, fifty million addicted to nicotine, and 18 million are addicted to alcohol (Croft 8). Statistically speaking, there is about twenty-six million people who use drugs at least once a year and one hundred million who try a drug in their lifetime (Salak

However in order to stop drug abuse the government needs to stop drug business. Government officials have funded many things in order to try and prevent drug trades from occurring such as law enforcement arrests, border patrols, and hunting down drug labs” (Croft 35). Even with the funding drugs still are bought and sold in America because the drug cartel is a very big business. Many drug dealers are ones from others countries that are harder to stop because of how large the business is. (KHAN Accessed April 6th)
The Drug War should be stopped for many reasons. Drug abuse causes physical, emotional, economical, and social problems. These problems make the Drug War a mandatory war to fight. How exactly have the problems affected America? Is there any hope of them changing?
Physical problems from drug abuse can range from a variety of different complications. A rising problem that affects thirty-percent of newborn babies is addiction (Maryland Recovery Accessed April 17th). Babies who are born addicted to crack often experience health problems such as “heart attacks and behavior disorders” (Salak 28).
Problems with labor also occurs. Babies born too early, premature labor, die or have serious health complications because of the mothers using. In the most severe case, some babies do not even make it to the delivery room depending on how severe the mother addiction is (Salak