We have been fighting drug abuse for almost a century. Ever since the Prohibition Era and the Great Depression drug abusers fill the streets, courts, and prisons. The war on drugs can be considered as a worthless “war”. The United States is engaged in a fight that has spent over $1 trillion trying to prohibit drugs that are almost impossible to vanish (Dickinson & Nadelmann, 2016). Not only does drugs cause our legal system to overcrowd, but it also causes prostitution, abuse, and can cause certain people to commit suicide or murder. In 1986 a narcotics survey was taken and out of 3,000 people interviewed, 476 were active in narcotic usage in the street community at their time of interview (Inciardi, 1986). A woman from the survey also said she started using drugs and it led to prostitution (Inciardi, 1986). People get hooked on drugs which cause them to sell their body in illegal ways in order to fulfill their …show more content…
The Great Depression has cause organized crime, which caused black markets, which then caused illegal drugs and the purchase of illegal drugs. After drugs and the prohibition of alcohol both came into play the nation went under a difficult war that has possibly created an unsolvable situation. States who have made certain drugs legal have now uncrowded their prisons with less drug offenses allowing serious offenses like robbery or murder criminals to take their place. Making marijuana legal would lower the amount of prisoners in prison. The Federal of Bureau of Prisons Statistic says that in July 2016 46.4% of prisoners are from drug offenses (Federal of Bureau of Prisons, 2016). If the government would pay more attention to spending money for education, cancer treatment, and other national problems, instead of the war on drugs our nation could possibly focus on more important