The biggest financial burdens can be seen in public spending and numbers of prisoners. Gary S Becker, an economist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, and Kevin M Murphy, a Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business wrote an article on ending the War on Drugs. The War has caused massive spending on “the police, the court personnel used to try drug users and traffickers, and the guards and other resources spent on imprisoning and punishing those convicted of drug offenses” (Becker & Murphy). The fiscal costs have been difficult for the country to bear. These massive costs have not been worth it for the damage that has been caused. According to Becker and Murphy, “Total current spending is estimated at $40 billion a year.” The number of people incarcerated in the US has skyrocketed since the beginning of the War. “The total number of inmates in state and federal prisons in the United States has grown from 330,000 in 1980 to about 1.6 million today” (Becker & Murphy). That prison population growth is very problematic to manage. “About 50 percent of the inmates in federal prisons and 20 percent in state prisons have been convicted of either selling or using drugs. A huge amount of these offenders are not as violent like murderers or worse. Ending the War on drugs would slow the intake of these mass amounts of nonviolent offenders and …show more content…
Our impoverished inner cities and minorities with no other way to turn get involved in drugs with no way out except the back of a cop car. America should take a softer stance on drugs because addicts looking for medical help should not have to fear the law for medical treatment. If change does not come to our drug enforcement, even more violence may ensue. Our minorities will be further discriminated for drug use and addicts will turn to crime rather than openly seeking the help they so desperately