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...

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…