Activity 8

In 1971, President Richard Nixon described illegal drug use as “public enemy number one in the United States” (Head, 2015). This announcement of a “war on drugs” is still prevalent today. The term refers to the federal government’s attempts to ideally end the use, sale, and import of illegal drugs, allowing for the reduction of drug abuse. In my opinion, we have lost this war against drugs for the following reasons.

To begin with, the direct monetary cost of taxpayers on policing, court personnel, and resources spent on imprisonment is estimated at $40 billion per year (Becker & Murphy, 2013). These monetary costs are only a portion of the overall costs when we think about human well-being, particularly when referring to the amount of people incarcerated because of the much more severe punishments that the war on drugs has inflicted. Even minor drug users or possessors suffer the hardship of finding employment with a background that includes jail time. From 1980 to today, the U.S. prison population has dramatically increased from about 330,000 to 1.6 million, with 50% of federal prison inmates being convicted of the sale or use of drugs (2013). Hypothetically speaking, if I had been in jail for a drug offense and had to put that on my application for admission to the University of Florida, I probably wouldn’t be a student right now. Besides the money lost and people impacted, evidence has shown that drugs such as cocaine and heroin have actually been getting more potent in the last twenty or so years, further suggesting that our efforts to fight drugs has failed. It can also be argued that when a substance is illegal and highly punishable, it is harder for addicts to get the treatment they so desperately need because they might be frightened to speak up about their problem. It doesn’t seem logical that we can confidently say we as a nation have won the war against drugs when we have seen such an increase in the use and prevalence of a problem that we began trying to eliminate over 40 years ago. 

References 

 

Becker, G. S., & Murphy, K. M. (2013, January 4). Have We Lost the War on Drugs? - WSJ. Retrieved from http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324374004578217682305605070

Head, T. (2015). The War on Drugs - Key Facts. Retrieved from             http://civilliberty.about.com/od/drugpolicy/p/War-on-Drugs-Facts.htm