Violence stemming from drug-trade disputes has become an international problem. The onset of the AIDS in the 1980s hit addicts who injected illegal drugs particularity hard since the virus it passed through bodily fluids. Some governments were moved to initiate needle exchange programs in part because "slowing the spread of a fatal disease for which no cure exists was the greater moral imperative" (Nadelmann, 1998, p. 115). Practically speaking the cost of exchanging needles is considerably less than the expense of treating patients with the AIDS virus. Nonetheless, exchange programs in this country have been held back by political issues and moral judgments.

Conclusion

If we were to muster the political and moral courage to reexamine this issue in another light many of the problems that arise from drug abuse could be mitigated. If the use of drugs were to be decriminalized that would be a start. Steps taken to legalize drugs and regulate their sale would significantly reduce violence in this country and others as well as lessen costs related to law enforcement, prosecution, and the inevitable prison sentences that follow. The funds previously earmarked for enforcement could then be utilized for treatment programs. As long as the national will is set on treating drug abuse as a criminal issue instead of a medical issue little headway will be made to fix this problem.

References

Drug War Chronicle. (2005, October 28). Feature:...

population at all time high. Drug reform coordination network. Retrieved May 4, 2012, from http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/409/toohigh.shtml
Micucci, a.J. & Gomme, I.M. (2005, September/October). American police and subculture support fot the use of excesive force. Journal of criminal justice. Vol. 33, Issue 5, 487-500. Retrieved May 4, 2012, from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/results?sid=c58a1da27a12-4795-bf9b-7b85bef0ad30%40sessionmgr12&vid=2&hid=7&bquery=American+police+and+subcultural+support+for+the+use+of+excessive+force&bdata=JmRiPWFwaCZ0eXBlPTAmc2l0ZT1laG9zdC1saXZl

Nadelmann, E.A. (1998, January/February) Commonsense drug policy. Foreign affairs, Vol. 77, Issue 1. 111-126. Retrieved April 4, 2012, from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=193d35d7-25d7-4473-a347-540e2acb7f16%40sessionmgr11&vid=5&hid=24

Pager, D. (2003, March). The mark of a criminal record. American journal of sociology, Vol. 108, No. 5. 937-975. Retrieved April 4, 2012, from http://www.princeton.edu/~pager/pager_ajs.pdf

Potter, T., & Marshall, C.W. [Eds.]. (2009). The wire: Urban decay and American television. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.

Schlosser, E. (1998, December). The prison industrial complex. Atlantic monthly. 51-77. Retrieved April 4, 2012, from http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1998/12/the-prison-industrial-complex/4669/

Szalavitz, M. (2011, June 17) How the war on drugs harms American health. Time Healthland. Time.com. Retrieved April 5, 2012, from http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/17/top-10-unhealthy-side-effects-of-the-war-on-drugs/#richard-m-nixon

Walker, J. (2004, October). David Simon says. Reason.com. Retrieved April 5, 2012, from http://reason.com/archives/2004/10/01/david-simon-says