War On Drugs Essays (Examples)

Books and television shows, such as the Corner, provide illustrations that can give a level of insight as to why this is the case. It is not drugs alone, but also the drug culture and the level of poverty that stands at the heart of the problem. You cannot simply remove drugs from the equation. Even if you confiscate drugs then the street price rises and more drugs are imported. Even beyond that, you must treat the sociological problems that led people to drugs along with the physical dependency on drugs themselves to have any meaningful impact on the problem.

The ineffective ar on Drugs has also caused a host of social changes. For every person that is incarcerated, there is usually some broken family that has to deal with their absence. hen an individual is in jail there is really nothing they can do to support their families or…

ar on Drugs

Following the Colombia's history, there has been a sequence of violence and conflicts perpetuated by class warfare ever since the Spanish era during land allocation and slavery in the country. The focus of this article will be to satisfactorily analyze the situation facing the Columbia, considering the efforts United States has been undergoing to militarize and centralize conflicts related to class. The States has been working ever since the era of J.F. Kennedy to try and take charge of the Columbian citizens and eradicate the drug related transactions. The United Sates, through their intelligence unit CIA, have been involved in many missions trying to get to the drug cartels in Columbia and have in circumstances succeeded. One of the New York Times magazines in 1997 had the story confirming that the CIA approved shipment of a ton of cocaine which was pure, to the Miami International Airport…

Although the cost of these successes can be tabulated in billions of dollars, money was also recovered from these arrests, and there is no way to measure the human lives that were not lost or affected due to the apprehension of dangerous drug lords.

Still, the EU Commission has raised the familiar argument that economics can generally used to support the side against continuing the drug war. In addition to the familiar argument of the war costing "too much," which is often hard to prove outside of strictly economic circles since safety, human life, and addiction are just a few of the variables that must be quantified in order to stage and effective debate, the EU notes that the war on drugs has damaged the economics of drug trafficking, making drugs less expensive, and therefore easier to obtain. In addition, the War on Drugs, or at least drug prohibition, increases…

This is the case in the other stages in the supply chain and therefore offers an opportunity for someone to make more money while involved in the drug business (Castaneda, 1999).

In the 70s it was said that beefed up law enforcement could effectively seal the southern border of the United States border and stop drugs from entering its borders. It is for this reason that the United States uses patrols, checkpoints, sniffer dogs, cameras, motion detectors, heat sensors, drone aircraft and up to approximately 1,000 miles of steel beam, concrete walls and heavy mesh which stretches from California to Texas. This has been an expensive precautionary measure which has unsuccessfully attempted to stop the drugs getting within the borders of the United States. Approximately 330 tons of cocaine, 20 tons of heroin and 110 tons of methamphetamine are sold within the borders of the United States each year. According…

Wakefield's daughter becomes a powerful character in the film because she proves to her father that the war on drugs fails to address the root cause of addiction.

Traffic therefore addresses several separate but interrelated issues: addiction, organized crime, law enforcement and legislation. Addiction is a fact of life; human beings become hooked on any number of legal and illegal substances. Banning drugs is no way to combat addiction. Therefore, the war on drugs does absolutely nothing to help people who use drugs to fulfill psychological needs. People who want drugs to ease their pain can always find them: on the black market or on the mainstream consumer market in the form of alcohol or prescription medications.

Organized crime is a genuine social problem that law enforcement officials worldwide must learn to deal with. Ironically, though, the war on drugs bolsters organized crime rings. The value of drug trafficking skyrockets…

The community also loses vital members who otherwise would be contributing to it (Moore, and Elkavich 782). Just by eliminating nonviolent offenders from the prison population could total prison costs of 16.9 billion dollars as of 2010 (Schmitt, Warner, and Gupta 13).

This has also had tragic impacts upon the health of injection drug users. This includes the disruption of the provision of health care to injection drug users (IDU) and increasing risk behaviors associated with infectious disease transmission and overdose (Kerr, Small, and Wood 210). Certainly, it makes sense to treat drug addicts out of jail where it will be more effective. Substance abuse education and awareness has become the most prevalent form of service provided in jails, being offered in 74% of prisons, 61% of jails, and 53% of community correctional agencies. The previous figure is as opposed to remedial education (89%) and jails (59.5%), sex offender therapy…

War on Drugs Futile Failing and Nefariously Linked to the War on Terror
Effectiveness of the War on Drugs
Outline
I. Introduction
A. History of drugs, cross-cultural perspective
1. Opium wars
2. Since Nixon, the modern “war on drugs”
3. History of drug use in different societies
B. History of government intervention in the private lives of individuals via drug policy.
C. Effects of the war on drugs
1. Is it effective? Quantify the deaths related to the WOD, as well as the social entropy in communities, families, and within individuals
2. Criminalization distracting attention from more central concerns linked to capitalism, psychological wellbeing, and healthcare.
3. National sovereignty issues and global perspective
II. Theoretical Discussion
A. Race, class, power perspectives
B. Government, public policy, global affairs
C. Criminalization, justice
D. Other sociological issues
1. Organized crime and terrorism
2. White collar crime (tobacco and pharmaceutical industries)
III. Literature Review…

Two out of five blacks sent to state prison are due to drug offenses, in fact, more blacks are sent to state prison for drug offenses, 38%, than for crimes of violence, 27% (Incarcerated pp). The budgetary demands of swollen prison populations are forcing states to reconsider their sentencing policies and examine the cost-effectiveness, fairness, and wisdom of adopting shorter sentences, eliminating mandatory minimums and increasing the use of alternatives to incarceration (Incarceration pp).

According to a March 2004 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association titled "Actual Causes of Death in the United States," tobacco is number one with 435, 000 deaths per years, followed by poor diet and physical inactivity at 365,000, then alcohol at 85,000 deaths (Annual pp). Adverse reactions to prescription drugs accounts for 32,000 deaths, while motor vehicle crashes cause 26,347 deaths (Annual pp). All illicit drug use, direct and indirect is responsible…

The first sub-question is based on the determination of factors or variables that will help provide a quantitative measure to identify specific elements of legal restrictions and punishments. This will involve a review of all extant legal punishments on substance abuse, including a meta-analysis of relevant literature on these laws/regulations. From the meta-analysis and legal review, the variables and factors deemed appropriate for the study will be determined. Thus, the first sub-research question is, "What are the variables or factors that will help determine the success of legal punishments in curbing substance abuse?" Alternatively, the specific objective could be developed as, "To identify the variables or factors that will determine the success of legal punishments in curbing substance abuse."

Consequently, these variables or factors will help determine a measurement system that is numerical / quantitative in nature, and will ultimately determine if the legal restriction/punishment has been a success or…

The war on drugs led to the creation of stringent measures and policies that create more difficult problems in the country, which include the worsening of the prison system, rising illegal drug prices, and proliferation of drug trafficking. Considering drug addiction as a criminal act led to the increase of criminals in prisons, creating an inefficient and defective prison system. Furthermore, because drugs have been considered illegal and distribution have been hampered, its prices have increased in response to these policies. Inevitably, drug trafficking also resulted from these stringent measures. These reasons, in effect, led to Friedman's belief that war on drugs is unethical.

Schmoke (1996) presented a contrasting picture of war on drugs and drug addiction in society. For him the war on drugs is ethical and drug addiction as unethical. This stance was built on his belief that drug addiction, in order to be considered as an ethical…

.." (Painter, 2006) Painter states: "y more meaningful measures, however, the Drug War has been an extraordinary failure. Drugs are more available at higher purity and lower prices than they were at the start of the decade. y all accounts thus far we have been unable to spend and jail our way out of this problem." (2006) the result of the War on Drugs is that the government programs have in reality created "...a different set of principles for supply and demand." (Painter, 2006) Resulting from privatization of the prison system is that the 'supply' to fill the demand are human beings which answer the call for occupancy in prison cells and the demand can be seen as the powerful growling belly of the prison beast demanding to be filled so the coffers of those who run these prisons will be filled. Painter states: "Instead of the lower the price…

War on Drugs

Would You Apply This Strategy Across the Board or Employ Different Stances Depending On the Substance?

The same approach will be applied to every drug for them to become decriminalized.

Defend your Position

Drug legalization is a very complex issue. Most Americans are not in favor of it, but there is still a powerful and very audacious lobby in the United States that is of the opinion that the proper course to take is legalization (Hartnett, 2005). Proponents of this drug legalization are of the opinion that current drug policies have proved harmful to individuals, families, and the society at large. They oppose current drug laws and policies for different reasons.

To some people, these laws are impingement of individual liberties. Some see these laws as a huge waste of government resources and cite the opinion that legalizing drugs could yield millions in revenues from taxes, while…

OD

The war on drugs is politically charged, and intimately connected with the failure of American imperialism to fizzle out and fade away. As Lazare points out, "the anti-drug crusade has emerged as a holy crusade in its own right," (14). The ar on Drugs has become woven into the fabric of American identity along with catchall phrases like liberty, freedom, and justice for all. Common sense has been incinerated faster than a DEA bust disposes of bushels of cocaine. It would all be funny if it weren't costing so many lives, in multiple countries. This research places the ar on Drugs within a social, cultural, historical, and economic context; and based on an a review of literature, makes recommendations for change.

Methods include a review of literature and subsequent analysis and synthesis of concepts, facts, and ideas. Three central and several ancillary sources were used to conduct the literature…

America's enforcement of its corrective drug strategy has resulted in a scheme of apartheid justice. Approximately half the yearly marijuana arrests are of Latinos. This result is no accident; imbalanced handling of minority groups permeates every phase of the criminal justice system. Black and Latino-Americans are wronged by unequal marking and unjust conduct by police and other law enforcement officers; by racially slanted charging and plea-bargaining choices by prosecutors; by prejudiced sentencing performance; and by the failure of judges, elected bureaucrats, and other criminal justice policymakers to restore the unfairness that have come to pervade the structure (Small, 2001).

It appears from reading this article that there is indeed some bias that takes place in the war on drugs. One cannot dispute the fact that the war on drugs is a necessary operation that must be undertaken. The drug crime rate in this country is high and something needs to…

Outline
I. Introduction
A. History of drugs, cross-cultural perspective
1. Opium wars (ACLU, 2020)
2. Since Nixon, the modern “war on drugs” (Pearl, 2018)
3. History of drug use in different societies (ACLU, 2020)
B. History of government intervention in the private lives of individuals via drug policy (ACLU, 2020); Baumbauer, 2012).
C. Effects of the war on drugs
1. Is it effective? Quantify the deaths related to the WOD, as well as the social entropy in communities, families, and within individuals (London, 2005; Pearl, 2018)
2. Criminalization distracting attention from more central concerns linked to capitalism, psychological wellbeing, and healthcare (ACLU, 2020; Coyne & Hall, 2017; London, 2005).
3. National sovereignty issues and global perspective (Coomber, Moyle, Belackova, et al., 2018; Von Hoffman, 2016).
II. Theoretical Discussion
A. Race, class, power perspectives (Netherland & Hansen, 2017; Putt, Payne & Milner 2005; Taylor, Buchanan & Aynes, 2016).
B. Government, public…

National Prominent Drug elated 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 ichard 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. epresentatives in many states have already determined that cannabis has many medical…

progress and status of the drug trade and the War on Drugs and how they have developed into threats to California by creating more economic issues in the state. It also discusses how unstable immigration and border policies and an inappropriate approach strongly contribute to the spread and intensifying of the threats. The paper uses the intelligence liaison process as a methodology. This process consists of juxtaposing strong international relational theories, diverse methods of data collection and analysis, and conclusions as well as a comparison of conclusions with existing theories. Findings reveal that the drug trade and the War on Drugs have produced economic imbalance in resources among decision-makers; laxity and instability of immigration and border policies between Mexico and California; and the need to change the single-front policy on narco-terrorism to several policies in order to address multiple aspects. Recommendations include a general uplifting of values and participation of…

Drug Laws: The Impact of Changing Social Norms and Shifting Morality
There is a veritable universal consensus that the federal government’s half century-long “war on drugs” has been a dismal failure, and there has been a corresponding sea change in public opinion concerning the use of cannabis and other formerly illicit drugs in recent years. Indeed, two-thirds of the states in America have already legalized marijuana in some fashion, and many others are considering this harm-reduction approach for their own citizens as well. This trend is being driven in part by the recognition that enormous tax revenues can be generated from commerce that was conducted on the black market in the past, and it is reasonable to suggest that these trends will continue well into the foreseeable future. To gain some fresh insights the antecedents of these trends, the purpose of this paper is to examine how shifting morality affected…

Society answer is to throw them back behind bars for even the smallest infraction of the law. This is why examining the policies for drug crimes needs to be carefully examined. There is no one size fits all in these situations and each needs to be judge separately.

Some say that the mandatory minimum sentences for illegal drug offences is fair while critics say that these sentences are too harsh, especially for first time offenders whose crimes are of low severity. Proponents say that if the sentences are too lenient it has the effect of increasing the crime rate (Thompson, 1998). Again, each case needs to be looked at on an individual basis. The severity of the crime as well as the perpetrators past record should play a large factor in the punishment handed down. Also, rehabilitation efforts should play a factor in the sentencing. Instead of putting these individuals…

War on Drugs

The concept of the 'War on Drugs' was first coined by President Nixon back in 1971 in an effort to discourage the illegal trafficking of drugs. The primary motivation for this was the way that many states were falling victim to the dynamics of the drugs and terrorism links prevalent in the region. There have many studies conducted that show various authentic connections between the drug business and how a majority of the money it produces is used to fund terrorism and destructive activities.

Throughout the late 19th century, numerous parts of the United States, from time to time, have faced numerous disruptions in their efforts for the peace process because of the growth of the drug industry. The entire debate on war in drugs now revolves around whether or not, certain drugs must be legalized/not legalized and their trafficking and distribution monitored. In a recent article,…

War on drugs is one of the biggest human rights and social justice atrocities currently in the United States. There are actually no winners in the war on drugs, not unless leaders of drug smuggling operations can be considered "winners." Law enforcement loses because their precious resources are being diverted from serious crimes to drug crimes. Ordinary citizens lose because police officers are overly concerned with non-violent drug possession and even distribution cases than they are with actual societal harm. Drug use causes no more harm than alcohol use, and it makes no sense to retain drug prohibition when harm reduction seems to call for more open approaches to drug regulation.

As Benavie (2009) points out, the damage caused by the war on drugs includes an uptake in violence because of the operations of organized crime, contaminated drugs like the recent fentanyl crisis leading to preventable deaths, property crimes due…

"As a case in point we may take the known fact of the prevalence of reefer and dope addiction in Negro areas. This is essentially explained in terms of poverty, slum living, and broken families, yet it would be easy to show the lack of drug addiction among other ethnic groups where the same conditions apply." Inciardi 248()

Socio-economic effects

Legalizing drugs has been deemed to have many socio-economic effects. A study that was conducted by Jeffrey a. Miron, who was a Harvard economist estimated that by legalizing drugs, this would inject about $76.8 billion in to the U.S. every year. 44.1 billion dollars would come from savings made from the law enforcement measures and 32.7 billion would be from tax revenue. This revenue can be thought to be broken down as follows: 6.7 billion dollars from marijuana, 22.5 billion from heroin and cocaine and the rest from the other…

Drug Education

he DARE program, whose short form is derived from "Drug Abuse Resistance Education," has developed so quickly, from the time since its commencement 18 years ago, that it is at the present being educated in 75% of school districts all over the country, as well as in 54 other countries. Particularly, in the lives of elementary school students, skilled and qualified police officers who educate and lecture the program have turned out to be vital figures; in addition to that, in thousands of communities, the program's red symbol has taken on symbolic status on -shirts and bumper stickers (1).

Is D.A.R.E. Effective?

If the evaluation and measurement for the accomplishment of D.A.R.E. is fame and recognition amongst the masses, then yes: D.A.R.E. has been extremely successful in magnetizing extensive admiration, as well as monetary support. Furthermore, D.A.R.E. has accomplished a point of observation unmatched and unequalled by any…

Substance use is frequently associated with child abuse and domestic violence. It also is a leading contributor to marital dissatisfaction, family breakups and rejection of family members. The importance of the family in understanding alcohol and drug use and abuse is underlined by these highly destructive consequences of alcohol and drug dependency on the abuser and the family. (Lala; Straussner; Fewell, 17)

Peer Group plays an important part in resolving the problem as they are able to take the drug or alcohol abuser more into confidence compared to others since most people associate themselves with their respective peer group in terms of habits, tastes and concerns. It has been demonstrated that a drug abuser will definitely abide by a member of the peer group to which he belongs and obey requests of abstinence more than anyone else. Educational system also plays an important role in tackling the prevalence of the…

In jails, not one of the violent criminals was under the influence of heroin at the time their crime was committed. Twenty-one percent of state inmates incarcerated for violent crime were under the influence of alcohol alone at the time they committed their crime. The number of those under the influence of marijuana alone was too small to be recorded statistically. (National 1998) These facts indicate that it is not the drug users that are committing the crimes, but the people who deal with drugs. If there was no money to be gained from dealing with drugs, these criminals would have to find legitimate jobs and the police would only have to worry about traffic.

The efforts to target youth with drug education in the ar on Drugs has fallen far short of its original goals. The ONDCP is budgeting less than 12% of the $100 million it was planning…

One example of the kind of policy change that is being suggested by some in the particular war on Meth is the reduction of the ability of meth makers, especially large scale makers to realize the supplies of a small number of raw materials used to make the drug pseudoephedrine is quaaludes, as this drug was successfully removed from the radar screen by the banning of the chemicals used to make it, and this may be an option for all synthetic drugs.

Reurer 170)

orks Cited

Boulard, Garry. "The Meth Menace: Battling the Fast-Paced Spread of Methamphetamine May Mean Attacking It from Several Fronts." State Legislatures May 2005: 14.

Boyum, David, and Mark A.R. Kleiman. "Breaking the Drug-Crime Link." Public Interest Summer 2003: 19.

Organized Crime." The Columbia Encyclopedia. 6th ed. 2004.

Hanson, Gayle M.B. "Drug Crime Doesn't Pay, or Does It?." Insight on the News 19 June 1995: 16.…

Economists are concerned with the impact that the sale of drugs has on both individual and economic freedoms and frame their argument from this perspective. Others argue that reliance on the criminal justice system has not produced significant results and that it is time to reframe the argument to focus on the education, prevention, and treatment of drugs.

From the economic perspective, there are apparent differences between government prohibition and legalization of drugs. It has been estimated that total government expenditures devoted to the enforcement of drug laws is well in excess of $26 billion. These figures are also significant in state and local law enforcement agencies with drug related incidents making up one fifth of the total investigative resources and drug enforcement activities. Approximately 25% of the total prison population, municipal, state and federal, is made up of drug law violators. In fact, ten percent of all arrests are…

Drug Law Reform (Pro)

According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the United States' policy on illegal drugs is threefold: stopping drug use before it starts, healing the country's drug users, and disrupting the market. The United States' war on drugs has been going on for at least the last three decades. Given the duration of this war, some have questioned the effectiveness of it, wondering if the money spent is really making a difference and bringing about results.

Actually, the effects of this policy on illegal drugs have been mixed. According to a study conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) covering current and emerging trends in drug abuse for 21 major U.S. metropolitan areas, some drugs are decreasing in use while others are increasing. For example:

C]rack accounted for a substantially greater percentage of primary admissions than powder cocaine in all [surveyed] sites.…

Unfortunately, the American government has been looking in the wrong place for these models, especially in Asia and Latin America. For example, the coca plant from which cocaine is derived grows in abundance in many geographical regions of northern South America and in Central America, where growers make huge profits as compared to efforts to force farmers and peasants to grow legal crops which inevitably do not produce enough profits in order to survive.

Of course, over the last twenty years or so, the U.S. federal government has done much and at great expense to attempt to eradicate the growing of coca but these efforts have also failed miserably. As Nadelmann relates, even if foreign supplies of coca and other drugs like heroin could be cut off, "the drug abuse problem in the U.S. would scarcely abate," due to the fact that much if not most of the drugs like…

Therefore, a closer look at what is needed is in order.

Needed Changes, Stakeholders and Barriers to Change

The decades that followed ockefeller and Felony Offender made it clear that these laws were in dire need of change for a variety of reasons. Perhaps most importantly among the reasons for a need for change was the fact that many of those in need of recovery from drug addiction were instead being locked away in prison, burdening the justice system, breaking up families and torturing people with a definite disease. On the other side of the argument, however, barriers to change in these policies was led by staunch conservatives who, not realizing the many facets of drug addiction, were too fast to dismiss addicts as criminals who were only getting what some felt they deserved (nysda.org). In reality, however, there are effective solutions to the debate.

Effective Solutions to the Debate…

Drug Legalization

Pros

Most of the arguments for legalization of drugs are based on the pragmatic realities that it is difficult or impossible to legislate morality. Drug use has always been part of society and even though it may not be socially desirable there are many benefits that can be gained through legalization. One primary benefit is definitely financial. In a study by the Cato Institute, the report estimates that drug legalization would reduce government expenditure about $41.3 billion annually; roughly $25.7 billion of this savings would accrue to state and local governments, and roughly $15.6 billion to the federal government; about $8.7 billion of the savings would result from legalization of marijuana, $20 billion from legalization of cocaine and heroin, and $12.6 billion from legalization of all other drugs (Miron & aldock, 2010).

There are many other benefits beyond money as well. The United States has an expensive and…

Drug Trafficking

The author of this report is to answer a few questions relating to drug trafficking. The primary focus of the questions and answers will be on two sources in particular, those being the movie Traffic and the class text authored by Thio, Calhoun and Conyers. The questions include references to the links between drugs and crime, the roles and events surrounding certain people in Traffic and so forth. There will be references other than the two mentioned above throughout the answers, as is required by the parameters of the assignment. While many depict drug use as a victimless crime, this is far from being true and the scope of the people that can be affected by drug use, drug dealing and drug trafficking literally knows no bounds or limits.

Analysis

There is a heavy amount of examples of how drug use and crime are related, but the author…

Drugs Legal

Drug Prohibition Causes More Problems Than it olves

This is a paper on drug prohibition and its disadvantages. It has 1 source.

During Prohibition, Americans discovered that making popular substances unlawful cause more problems than it solves. Like alcohol and tobacco, drugs should be legal in this country as most of the problems related to drug use arise from the fact that they are illegal and hence more tempting.

Imagine this: Your fifteen-year-old son is going out to a fast food store, suddenly two gangs start shooting at each other, your son gets shot and dies in a cross fire.

The government of the United tates spends more than $18 billion of tax payer's money on the drug war. The increased expenditure finances the Drug Enforcement Agency, Office of National Drug Control Policy and is used to build a new prison every week. Add to this the financial…

To begin with, once the drugs have already been taken and an addiction problem has already developed, the best strategy is treatment (Marlatt & Donovan, 2005). Because these two substances, drugs and alcohol, are so damaging to the body, the best initial treatment would be to detox. This allows for the body to get used to the idea of not having any stimulant or depressant to regulate emotions and gives the individual the opportunity to start from scratch (Botvin & Griffin, 2005). Being completely free of the substance will also allow for a more thorough treatment to be implemented without the fear of a relapse.

After the initial detoxification stage, psychological treatment needs to be provided to these individuals as their body is going to go through a complete physiological change that is inevitably going to unbalance their emotions. Aside from the physical addiction that individuals go through when attempting…

The later stages focuses on dealing with the problems related to the drug use withdrawal like the withdrawal syndromes, the tendency to relapse. The later stages also focus on restoring the self dignity and also impacting the participant with the prerequisites to self-manage the drug abuse issue once the probation and treatment duration ends (Tara, 2007).

The drug courts are also said to be significant to the economy of the U.S. The drug courts save the taxpayer money for each participant in the treatment as compared to the same individual or one with a similar problem but going through the criminal court system. This is realized by the reduced recidivism cases among the graduates from the treatment facilities recommended by the drug court systems (Daniel, 2003).

In general, the drug use is very addictive and a problem that dealing with it in the U.S. society is very difficult. This is…

Angela Garcia goes at providing more information regarding Hispanic addicts in the U.S. And their personal experiences. She relates to how New Mexico treatment facilities deal with numerous cases of addicts who experience overdose several times in their lives, are unable to defeat addiction, and eventually experience death. These individuals are in a condition where they accept their situation and believe that there is nothing that can be done for them. To a certain degree, however, it appears that Hispanics reacted differently to heroin when compared to other racial groups in the U.S. Many Hispanics in New Mexico apparently use heroin as a means to compensate for how they feel as a result of "then recurring pains associated with the ongoing history of loss and displacement that had come to characterize Hispano life" (Garcia 2008:720). Such patients are considered to suffer from a chronic addiction and they are generally believed…

social poblem of using and selling dugs is potayed in music. I'm inteested in studying this because music has at once been accused of gloifying dug cultue and also as being one of the few means of allowing uses to vent on the ealities of dug cultue. Clealy, the elationship between dugs and music is a complex one. This pape will seek to shed light on the motivations fo atists to incopoate dug cultue in thei songs and what they pesumably gain fom it, and what society pesumably gains fom it as well.

The fist song that this pape will examine when it comes to the teatment of dugs as subject matte fo songs is in the wok of 2 Pac in his famous song, "Changes." This song is so emakable in that it addesses a temendous amount of social injustice in that is still alive and well in the…

Human Ecosystem & Technological Change

Drugs should not be legalized

Drug policy in the United States has been on the forefront of polarizing issues in the political spectrum. The United States has been regulating and criminalizing the use of drugs for roughly a century and in the last few generations these efforts have culminated in what has been referred to as a "war" on drugs. This war has resulted in a large number of American citizens being incarcerated for the involvement in the drug trade or for their own personal drug use. In one report, the Bureau of Justice Statistics estimated that roughly fifty-five percent of federal prisoners are incarcerated due to drug-related crimes and spends about twenty-two billion dollars annually of this effort (Head, N.d.). Whether you are for, or against, drug criminalization and the war on drugs, one of the factors that makes this such a polarizing debate…

Drug Policy

American Drug Policy: Marijuana

Marijuana is one of the most vilified drugs in history and it very difficult to see just why this is so. The United States used to have a thriving agricultural concern that consisted of hemp (marijuana) famers producing plants for their fibers and seeds. The fibers were used in products such as rope and paper and the seeds were used to make oil which served as a lubricant and a food additive. Unfortunately, people became aware of its psychotropic properties and growing marijuana for any reason was banned. This ban also coincided with the introduction of products that were superior to those made of hemp. The drug usage properties of marijuana had been known for centuries and it had been used in religious ceremonies and as an additive to medicines, but it could also be used in quantities that made the user completely incapacitated…

Drug Laws

The Shortcomings in our Current Drug Law Policy: Research Proposal

As a major policy issue in the United States, the ar on Drugs has been one of the most monumental failures on modern record. At a cost of billions of taxpayer dollars, thousands of lives lost and many thousands of others ruined by untreated addiction or incarceration, America's policy orientation concerning drug laws is due for reconsideration. Indeed, the very philosophical orientation of the ar on Drugs and of the current drug policy in the United States has been one of prosecution and imprisonment rather than one of decriminalization, treatment and rehabilitation. As our medical and scientific communities characterize addiction as a disease, the United States government continues to characterize this disease as a crime. And in doing so, it has created an unnecessary criminal class in the United States. The research proposal will set out to prove…

Drugs

Decriminalization of drugs is an ineffective legal policy that has harmed millions of Americans. Since Nixon's declaration of "war" on drugs, American policy towards mind-altering substances has been as violent and futile as the term "war on drugs" would suggest. Drug use is not qualitatively different from alcohol use. The prohibition of alcohol failed miserably in the early 20th century, leading also to a proliferation in profitable black market businesses that fueled organized crime. The same pattern has been occurring with mind-altering substances of all types. Drug cartels have blossomed throughout the Americas, and the global black marketplace is teeming with criminal behaviors that are linked to protecting the lucrative but illegal drug trade. If trading in drugs were akin to trading in alcohol, then drug cartels would no longer need the massive stashes of weapons used to protect their property. The war on drugs has ruined far more…

ar on Drugs: Interview

America's war against drugs has cost millions of taxpayer's dollars, and its legacy is a public education campaign steeped deeply in the anthem "Just Say No!" Despite these expensive and extensive campaigns against the use of drugs in American society, drug use has continued and often even expanded among specific groups of individuals. Books like Charles F. Levinthal's Drugs, Behavior, and Modern Society are common, and give a wealth of information about the physical and psychological aspects of drug abuse. hile drug abuse does exist, and is certainly a serious problem for many individuals in the United States, the overwhelming focus on drug abuse has left little room for a more moderate view of American's relationship with drugs.

In our modern society, drug use is often almost seen as synonymous with drug abuse. As a whole, many Americans often view anyone who uses drugs as an…

Drug Legalization

This week, Columbian drug smugglers surgically opened six Labrador retriever and Rottweiler puppies and stuffed packets of heroin inside their bellies. Countless human beings have willingly stuck packages of illegal substances into any available bodily orifice or swallowed unknown quantities only to pass them out later. These instances indicate the grimly extreme lengths drug smugglers are willing to go in order to circumvent American drug prohibition laws. Drug trafficking is one of the world's most dangerous businesses; trafficking is intimately connected to crimes ranging from theft to murder to terrorism. In an article in Canadian paper the National Post, Ted Carpenter notes that both leftist and rightist paramilitary groups have "been financed largely by that country's cocaine trade." Carpenter continues to state, "The harsh reality is that terrorist groups have been enriched by prohibitionist drug policies that drive up drug costs ... hat anti-drug crusaders refuse to acknowledge…

Drug Enforcement Administration, the Controlled Substances Act, and the War on Drugs all show that drug prohibition has been framed as a federal issue. Recent state-by-state legalization of cannabis (marijuana) has challenged and undermined the efficacy of federal drug laws and anti-drug policies. Almost half the states have now legalized marijuana for either medical or recreational use (Hill, 2015). The state-by-state legalization scheme creates legal and ethical conundrums. For example, Hill points out that federal anti-drug legislation prohibits legal marijuana businesses operating in states like Colorado to use national financial institutions for banking. Without access to the usual range of financing options, cannabis dispensaries and other related businesses are driven to a cash-only business which can "attract thieves and tax cheats," (Hill, 2015, p. 597). Other problems include the inability of Americans to legally transport cannabis over state lines, even between two states that both legalized the drug. Canada recently…

Drug Abuse in America

(Approximately one page)

Looking at drug abuse in America, what are the most important predictive factors in drug abuse? Why does it matter and how does it inform American understanding of drug related issues in society? How does crack or methamphetamines impact the physiological, psychological, and social conditions of abusers? How would your response impact policy?

Drug abuse in the United States is rampant and the country has been involved in a War on Drugs for several generations. Today in the United States, according to the ureau of Justice Statistics, 55% of federal prisoners and 21% of state-level prisoners are incarcerated on the basis of drug-related offenses which represents an incarcerated population greater than the population of Wyoming; 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, Key Facts About the…

Drug addiction is not merely a failure of will or weakness in character, however having this 'brain disease' does not absolve the addict of responsibility for his or her behavior, but it does explain why an addict feels compelled to continue using drugs (Leshner 2001). Environmental cues that surround an individual's initial drug use and development of the addiction, actually become "conditioned" to the drug use and thus are critical to the problem of addiction (Leshner 2001).

Therefore, when those cues are present at a later time, "they elicit anticipation of a drug experience and thus generate tremendous drug craving" (Leshner 2001). This type of cue-induces craving is one of the most frequent causes of drug use relapses, independently of whether drugs are available and even after years of abstinence (Leshner 2001).

In March 2006, it was reported that researchers from Liverpool, England discovered a gene that directly affects the…

14). Soon, Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act, which was signed into law in 1937. Like the Harrison Act, the Marijuana Tax Act placed marijuana into the same category as the cocaine and opium drugs. It was now illegal to import marijuana into the United States (McWilliams, 1991). However, this law was ineffective in curbing marijuana use (Brecher, 1986, p. 14).

By the early 1940s narcotic addiction had significantly reduced in the United States (Harrison, Backenheimer and Inciardi, 1999). However, this was not the result of legislative initiatives. Instead, it was because World War II was cutting off the "supplies of opium from Asia and interrupt the trafficking routes from Europe" (Inciardi, 1992, p. 24).

Several other legislative efforts in the supply reduction department served to establish more severe penalties for violations of drug laws, and tighten controls and restrictions over legally manufactured narcotic drugs (Harrison, Backenheimer and Inciardi, 1999).…

All too often, the human stories of how and why certain people get involved in such rings are avoided. Tobon looked past this, and has become a valuable person to the Colombian community. The police even call him now, when they find the body of a mule. One way in which to deprive criminals of their unsuspecting dupes is by eliminating backbreaking poverty, by giving individuals a chance to pull themselves up by the bootstraps without having to resort to illegal measures. In the meantime, mules are a different sort of criminal than the ringleaders of these drug trafficking organizations, and so therefore ought to be tried in a court of law differently.

1. PBS (2009). The Border

Accompanying website Last accessed March 2010: http://www.pbs.org/kpbs/theborder/

2. -. Drug Trafficking in the United States DEA Fact Sheet.

Last accessed April 2010: http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/state_factsheets.html

3. Altschuler, David & Brounstein, Paul. (1992) Patterns of…

Drug legalization is a highly controversial issue, which has been given top priority in political agenda. Many oppose legalization of cocaine but there are just as many people favoring legalization on various grounds. It is important to study both sides of the problem to see if legalization is practical or not. Those who oppose legalization of drugs maintain that cocaine is a dangerous drug which if legalized will send the wrong message that "it is OK to try such drugs" (Legalizing drugs may not be bad idea: 17 A). Opponents maintain that it is the responsibility of law enforcement agencies and other authorities to maintain stricter control over drug use in order to maintain "a delicate balance on drug initiatives." (Hemenway, 2002)

Drug legalization is a sensitive issue that many regard as problematic and believe that it is not in the jurisdiction of United States to allow or disallow legalization…

ar on AIDS

Affordable retroviral drugs now!

Fighting the 'good fight' against AIDS in Africa

It's one of the most long-standing theoretical ethical debates: you know someone is dying, and will die if they do not get a certain kind of medicine. However, the medicine is prohibitively expensive. Do you steal this all-important medication? Or do you allow the person to wither and die, because stealing is wrong -- or rather, because the pharmaceutical companies 'deserve' to make a profit? Of course, you ensure that the individual has the medication, ideally by pressuring the store or company to give you the medicine for free. But although this moral impulse may seem like a 'no brainer' on an individual level, on a mass level, people are still dying in record numbers from AIDS in Africa, in a way that would be unacceptable, if it took place in the so-called developing world.…

It explains how an Iraq War Vet became a military consultant in Hollywood. It quotes a professor who says that as the war goes on, the stories of war will become the fabric of American culture and identity. For example, many popular television programs began to incorporate the Iraq War into their stories. hese include the episodes from ER, Las Vegas, Extreme Makeover, comedy Arrested Development, and soap opera Days of Our Lives. he article quotes one producer saying: "I think people are just ready to watch . . . something that is contemporary and important and dramatic and exciting." his comment by a producer shows that war generates interest in war stories and thus people's love and glorifying of war stories. Explaining to my viewers that such breeding of interest in war stories may have very negative consequences for our culture and the nation is important to my blog.…

This article addresses why children and adolescents may become violent, what factors influence them, what are the signs, and what preventive measures work in society's attempts to end violence among children and adolescents. In our society today, many parents have become irresponsible, not only allowing their children to immerse themselves in violent video games and movies but also causing a lot of violent behavior among their children by having unhealthy marriages, abusing their children, and becoming alcohol and drug addicts. This problem needs to be addressed, and therefore I found it important to include into my blog.

4. http://www.parentingbookmark.com/pages/NCP03.htm

The last material I decided to include into my blog is an article by a professor of education who talks about the connection of toys to violence. This article points out that we often look at violence in media, TV, the Internet as causes of violence among Americans but we rarely…

Private armies and warlords support themselves with these crops -- an instance of exploiting (in fact, abusing) the environment to pay for war (Global esources, 2004).

Use of esources to Finance Conflict

Forest products are also often used to pay for conflicts. Timber requires little investment and can be converted to cash more cheaply than oil, which requires technology. Control over timber resources can shift the balance of power during a conflict and affect how long the conflict lasts. Underfunded armies, military, police, and rebel forces often finance themselves by cutting trees. Conflicts in Cambodia, Burma and Liberia have been funded with timber, and in each of those countries the wood produced more than 100 million dollars per year (Global esources, 2004).

Incompatible Uses Leading to Conflict

Use or misuse of resources can be very profitable on one hand but ruinous to another. For example, jurisdictional conflicts have heated up…

He is more interested in "things," than what those things will bring. "Nick went over to the pack and found, with his fingers, a long nail in a paper sack of nails, in the bottom of the pack. He drove it into the pine tree, holding it close and hitting it gently with the flat of the axe. He hung the pack up on the nail. All his supplies were in the pack. They were off the ground and sheltered now" (as quoted in Vernon)

However, with time Nick is able to find some semblance of his early self. He overcomes challenges and moves forward the best he can. Despite the fact that he is walking uphill through burned land with a backpack that is too heavy, he is now in a familiar place and happy to be here:

Nick slipped off his pack and lay down in the shade.…

This social, cultural, and economic war has only brought on more disgrace to neighborhoods that are still torn with violence and poverty. The shady history that this war has, makes it that much more doubtful that there were ever any good intentions involved in the first place. It has been a war for power, money, and regulation by the United States' own government. It has been a way to keep the poor poorer and to make the rich even richer.

The War on Drug's history is only reason enough to discontinue its implementation. No actual noticeable achievement has been made to even put a dent into a system of illegal drug trafficking, and although Baum declared a failure in this system more than fifteen years ago, it has officially been declared that the War on Drugs has been lost. Billions of dollars in taxpayer money has gone into a system…

Chemistry and Recreational Drugs

The objective of this study is to examine chemistry as it relates to recreational drugs. Toward this end, this study will review literature in this area of inquiry and report on the same.

Recreational drugs refer to drugs such as marijuana, methamphetamine, ecstasy, cocaine, and other such drugs. The chemistry of each of these recreational drugs is unique and each cause specific effects to the individual taking these drugs. The top five recreational drug chemists include: (1) Raphael Mechoulam known as the king of cannaboid research and to have identified delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol as an active ingredient of Cannabis Sativa in 1964; (2) Albert Hofmann -- famous for LSD research; (3) Charles Romley Alder Wright -- lecturer on chemistry at St. Mary's hospital Medical School in London who synthesized heroin in 1875 in his search for a non-addictive alternative to morphine; (4) Anton Kollisch who synthesized MDMA in…

Anti-Drug Campaign for Teens

The Campaign

At present, marijuana is the most used drug and most frequently available in United States of America. The American youth takes serious dosages of marijuana. At least 60% of the adult population in United States of America was prone to marijuana in 2002. The statistics were prepared in the supervision of The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. The website address is www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov .

Social marketing campaigns as well as social awareness programs are imperative to raise and propagate awareness pertaining to excessive drug abuse in United States of America. But in this case, the social campaigners as well as social marketers are armed with effective programs and messages, but remain hesitant to reach the teen audience. It's a tad bit complicated. Wordsen and Slater (2004) concluded that creating targeted ads regarding marijuana and its abuse through PSA's tended to be less…

The main reason why legalizing all types of drugs will bring more good than harm is because regulation could be put into effect. Things could be more under control. The current system is not working, and that is apparent in the rates of crime that are still high, and the number of people still using, and putting themselves into very well-known danger. Either way, whether it is legal or not, people are still accessing these drugs. They are still able to go out and purchase something that is supposed to be illegal and it will continue to occur if nothing productive and progressive is done. The government, economy, and everyday folks could benefit if these substances are legalized. The policies should be based on actual effects on communities, people, and the country, not on moral and ethical grounds.

eferences:

(1) Caulkins, Jonathan P., et al. How goes the 'war on…

In many respects, contemporary legislation of illicit narcotics is analogous to alcohol prohibition in that the illegal status of narcotics provides a vacuum filled all too eagerly by criminal enterprises. In principle, narcotics could be regulated, taxed, and controlled by government authorities in exactly the same manner as alcohol and tobacco.

Instead, current U.S. law invests billions of dollars annually attempting to prevent and prosecute illicit drug use and sales.

Conclusion:

Undoubtedly, illegal drug use in the U.S. is associated with a significant amount of crime including very serious crimes. However, much of the crime generated by illicit narcotics legislation prohibiting their unauthorized use. Just as Prohibition-era alcohol legislation presented an opportunity for criminal enterprises to profit by filling a need through an illicit black market, contemporary drug laws provide the identical opportunity in the case of illicit drug trade and distribution.

According to many critics of the position of…

That compared with 19% for alcohol and a secondary drug; 12% for alcohol alone; 3% for smoked cocaine; 2.4% for methamphetamines; and 2.3% for heroin (Abrams).

It is estimated that by 2010 there will be 35 million teens in America (Levinson). This is a significant demographic to be concerned about. There would also be an increased chance of illicit drugs falling into the hands of children, just like cigarettes and alcohol now that are prohibited from being sold to kids. A greater availability, in general, would increase the likelihood of children being able to obtain them (Messerli).

Harm reduction is one of the primary benefits of legalizing illicit drugs; however, opponents feel that this theory is fatally flawed. Although the suffering of drug users should be reduced, their destructive habits shouldn't be tolerated. "Harm eduction advocates forget the thousands of impressionable teenagers for whom the law is a reminder that…