How to Solve the Drug Problem in the US

Drugs: A Big Problem in Criminal Justice
The problem of drug use in America is one that has been around for many years. However, with the recent passage of marijuana laws in states like Colorado, Oregon and California (to name just a few), the way the nation views drug use has shifted. Recreational marijuana use has become accepted in Colorado, where it is legal to buy and sell a substance that is still considered a schedule 1 narcotic by the federal government. In fact, in states like Colorado, there is a clear conflict between the state laws and the federal laws: the states says cannabis is legal, while the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) says it is still prohibited. Researchers would like to research the drug to better understand its medicinal qualities, but they are afraid of violating federal law, so do not. Thus, the problem of drugs and how to perceive them in the 21st century is a major problem in criminal justice today.
As James (2016) notes, “the dream of legal marijuana as it is being sold to the American public is that it will not only give states a chance to reap a tax windfall off of a drug millions of Americans already use; it will end the back-and-forth tussle among cops, users, and dealers, and shift police resources to more serious crimes.” Yet, that dream remains largely just that—a dream. Police in Colorado are still busting street dealers of marijuana (you can only sell if you are licensed), and while the black market marijuana business has declined it still exists—because there will always be a black market, no matter the product. Those who say legalization is working point to the numbers: a 98% decline in Washington and a 95% decline in Colorado in arrests for marijuana possession. Those numbers don’t reveal the other more sinister side of the drug issue: marijuana is not the only drug out there—and American culture is still conflicted about drug abuse in general (is it a mental health issue or a criminal issue?). Meanwhile more harmful drugs are pouring into the States: since the legalization of marijuana, the heroin trade has been booming. Miroff (2015) notes that “U.S. law enforcement agents seized 2,181 kilograms of heroin last year coming from Mexico, nearly three times the amount confiscated in 2009. The numbers for meth, cooked in Mexico and brought across the border, are even higher: “15,803 kilograms of the drug was seized along the border, up from 3,076 kilos in 2009” (Miroff, 2015). A three-hundred fold increase in heroin trafficking is a major problem and shows that a half-step measure to de-criminalize drugs while keeping others illegal only causes the traffickers to focus on that substance which is still most profitable on the black market. Thus, this problem is important to solve because American communities are being flooded with illicit substances that are ruining lives in numerous ways.
In order to address this criminal justice issue, three steps can be taken: 1) total decriminalization of all narcotics: if it is illegal, the black market traffic drops off substantially; 2) identify drug abuse as a mental health issue rather than a criminal offense—this will get abusers out of already overcrowded prisons and into hospitals and mental health programs where they can be treated instead of imprisoned; 3) allow supervised clinics where people addicted to heroin may administer the drug in a safe space.
Roughly half of all prisoners in federal prison are there for drug crimes (Roeder, 2015). By decriminalizing all narcotics, it cuts down on the prison population by half. This is a good thing: it puts able-bodied people back into communities, where they can support families by working and taking part in the economic life of the region. It also gets them out of prisons and into mental health programs where they can lead to treat their drug dependency. By focusing on their addiction as an addiction and not as a criminal characteristic, today’s drug offenders can lose the stigma placed on them arbitrarily by a conflicted American culture that says some drugs are okay while others are not. Drug abuse should be seen as a mental health issue—and drug use as a health issue—not as a criminal justice issue. The point is to get criminal justice out of drugs. De-criminalizing would cut down on the black market. Getting drug users into health programs would help them to be more efficient in society (and it would reduce overcrowding in prisons, where recidivism rates keep offenders from actually ever climbing out of the hole). And opening supervised clinics where drug users can indulge their problem safely (while also being tagged as individuals who will need follow-up, with the goal being to get them to stop using ultimately), will help keep the streets safe.
In conclusion, drug use is an enormous criminal justice issue that needs to be addressed. Legalization of marijuana has only helped in a limited capacity. It has not changed the drug culture: the law enforcement community is still at war with drugs—and the black market has shifted its focus from marijuana to heroin, which is claiming for more lives than ever before. The criminal justice community should reassess its approach to drugs and identify the methods it could take to reduce the negative impact that drugs have on society: those methods would include 1) de-criminalization, 2) the offering of mental health services to drug users instead of prison terms, 3) and the opening of supervised clinics where drugs can be used away from the streets and where users can be identified as individuals who will be given treatment to stop using and get their lives back on track.
References
James, T. (2016). The failed promise of legal pot. Retrieved from
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/legal-pot-and-the-black-market/481506/
Miroff, N. (2015). Losing marijuana business, Mexican cartels push heroin and meth.
Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/losing-marijuana-business-mexican-cartels-push-heroin-and-meth/2015/01/11/91fe44ce-8532-11e4-abcf-5a3d7b3b20b8_story.html?utm_term=.ba83c8a0f036
Roeder, O. (2015). Releasing drug offenders won’t end mass incarceration. Retrieved
from https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/releasing-drug-offenders-wont-end-mass-incarceration/