Everyone in society plays a particular role. Social justice advocates might be concerned about incarceration rates that show racial disproportions and a fiscally conservative taxpayer would also be worried about the cost of said “war on drugs.” State legislatures need new ideas and solutions to come out of the war on drugs, considering policy change is in their hands. The United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. The inmate population grew considerably by 1,849 prisoners a week in 1996; that is 264 people a day. One out of every 155 U.S. residents has been behind bars, putting the United States only second to Russia and it’s per person rate of incarceration.
These high levels of incarceration have in turn made sending people to prison profitable. Mass incarceration is not only a huge problem within itself but it has additional negative effect on productivity both economic and societal, and parental availability to their children. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) reports that from 1980 to 2008, the number of people incarcerated in America quadrupled-from roughly 500,000 to 2.3 million people” (“Criminal Justice Fact Sheet”, n.d.). According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) “The United States imprisons more people—both per capita and in absolute terms—than any other nation in the world, including Russia, China, and Iran” (“Banking on Bondage: Private Prisons and Mass Incarceration”, 2011). When a nation begins to incarcerate that many of its citizens people begin to question what exactly is causing this trend?
Since the Nixon administration declared a “War on Drugs”, countless people have been arrested and charged for non-violent crimes like drug possession. 51 billion dollars are spent each year to finance this and over 1.5 million people have been arrested for non-violent crimes. Even politicians, like congressman Ron Paul, have said that the “War on Drugs” is a failure and reform is needed, reform that focuses on the real causes such as traffickers and, as well, drug education. These offenders make up for 16% of the prison population in the United States that has led to the highest incarceration rate in the world. 2,266,832 are currently incarcerated in the United States.
The legal drinking age in the United States is 21 years old. That means anyone younger then this is breaking the law and a lot of bad things can happen to them. One bad thing that can happen to them is getting caught with the liquor and having to deal with the police. There are four underage drinking laws that the cops follow: possession, purchase, use and lose and zero tolerance (“Underage Drinking” 1). Each one of these laws can make someone go to jail and pay a huge fine.
A contributing factor could be that there are growing numbers of terrorists, gangs, and other violent prisoners the government is now housing. ADMAX, a supermax prison the federal government has provided, holds many of the greatest threats to the American ways. People like Zacarias Moussaoui, Al Qaeda terrorist; Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber; Terry Nichols, accomplice in Oklahoma City bombing; and Richard Reid, Islamic shoe bomber are all housed in this institution. Another growing cause of prison population is poverty. During the last two decades, there has been a gap in America between the lifestyles of those who grew up poor and those who didn’t.
Drug trafficking is a serious and frightening business. Drug trafficking has a huge effect on the government the safety of the people. The United States is doing everything it can to stop drug trafficking. Each year the exchange of money and blood are given trade for drugs, we’re left with many unanswered questions. Drug trafficking is an epidemic in the world not just the United States.
Every year in the United States several hundred thousand non violent drug users are incarcerated in prison. Of these non violent drug offenders the overwhelming majority of them are arrested for the lone possession of marijuana, ostensibly for personal use. In the last decade alone more marijuana users have been put in prison than murderers, rapists, thieves, and any other violent criminals combined. The current legal system must be manipulated to use the citizen’s tax money more efficiently towards incarcerating real criminals as opposed to unnecessarily spending billions to keep marijuana users in prison. By eliminating society’s laws levied against marijuana users, taxpayers in America can save billions of dollars that may be allocated towards other threats.
The view on drugs in society has constantly been changing throughout the past one hundred years. Even with all of the drug enforcement laws that the government has, we still see people using and abusing drugs. Is the War on Drugs really worth the time and money spent on it? History of U.S. Drug Policy: The use of drugs dates back to the
Drug Trafficking in the United States Sharika Stewart English 112: English Composition II Prof. Kari Lomanno December 10, 2012 Drug trafficking in the United States is an invisible war that has been going on for over a century. Throughout those years we have seen limited progress on controlling our national borders, while drugs are still making their way into the United States. Drug trafficking is the most serious organized crime problem in the world today and choosing this topic is more of a personal reason because of all the unanswered questions. With that being said, the problem of drugs will affect all the countries in one way or another. Four presidents, Ronald Regan being the most aggressive, waged a war on drugs.
Drug Trafficking in the United States 03-30-2012 The topic that I have chosen to write my paper about is drug trafficking in the United States. There are a few reasons why I chose to write about drug trafficking in the United States the first reason is because of all the negative effects that it has on the United States as a whole, because it has gotten several friends of my in trouble with the law and dead, and finally because of how most people overlook the importance and severity of drug trafficking. I feel that by writing this paper it will give many people a lot of insight as to what is going on in the United States. That is why I chose to write my paper on drug trafficking in the United States. The claim that