The War on Drugs

National Prominent Drug Related Issue

A Discussion of National Drug Policy

The United States has been regulating and criminalizing the use of drugs for over a century. In recent decades, this effort became what is referred to as a "war on drugs." However, this "war" has become largely unpopular with the American people. The federal government is spending over twenty-two billion dollars alone on a so-called war that 76% of the population view as a failure (Head, N.d.). Since the time that Richard Nixon first declared war on drugs in the late 1960s to the present day the so-called war has become so unpopular that President Obama has become the first President that has stopped referring to the criminalization of drugs as a "war." "

One of the most divisive substances in the drug trade has been marijuana. Representatives in many states have already determined that cannabis has many medical uses and have approved marijuana to be prescribed to patients by their doctors. The body of evidence that focuses on the medical uses of cannabis continues to grow and it is reasonable to suspect that the potential medical uses will continue to grow. The American Medical Association has publically stated that (AMA, N.d.):

"Our AMA urges that marijuana's status as a federal Schedule I controlled substance be reviewed with the goal of facilitating the conduct of clinical research and development of cannabinoid-based medicines, and alternate delivery methods. This should not be viewed as an endorsement of state-based medical cannabis programs, the legalization of marijuana, or that scientific evidence on the therapeutic use of cannabis meets the current standards for a prescription drug product."

In fact, marijuana is often compared to alcohol which is already legal. The World Health Organization (WHO) found 3.3 million deaths in 2012 were attributed to alcohol consumption and a comparative assessment published in Scientific Reports found alcohol to be 114 times more deadly than marijuana (Castillo, 2015).

The views on marijuana are rapidly changing within the general public. Compared to 1969, when only 12% supported legalizing pot, the majority of Americans today support legalizing recreational use of the drug. Sixteen states have decriminalized the possession of marijuana -- it is not legal in these states, however there is not criminal consequences to possessing the drug (Bloom, 2015). Furthermore, It is legal to purchase marijuana in four states -- Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington -- as well as in the District of Columbia (Stebbins, 2015). For a drug that is classified as a class I substance, it is becoming widely accepted in the American culture.

The war on drugs has become unpopular with the majority of Americans. The criminalization of drugs has become on the biggest issues that fills prisons; more than half of the federal prisoners in the U.S. have been convicted on drug related crimes. Many families have personally had their lives affected by this policy. Even among the families that have had no interactions, directly or indirectly, with drug enforcement operations, still are affected by the policies through their tax dollars and the use of public funding to arrest, prosecute, and house criminals that have been convicted on drug charges. Furthermore, there is growing evidence from other countries that legalization is an effective way to combat drug abuse. For example, health experts in Portugal have stated that Portugal's decision 10 years ago to decriminalize drug use and treat addicts rather than punishing them is an experiment that has worked and there is no doubt that the phenomenon of addiction is in decline in Portugal (Kain, 2011).