The Drug War is commonly known as America’s fight against the use and distribution of drugs. The most common amongst those drugs includes marijuana, methamphetamines, and cocaine. The war on drugs affects Americans in many different aspects, which include U.S. domestic policy, socio-economic effects, and public support or opposition to the war. As the drug war’s economic and social affects force us to question our political system, the ongoing disagreement of whether the war on drugs should continue or not remains. When it comes to U.S domestic policy, the U.S. has a long history of implementing laws or consequences among those who are arrested for drug use. The first drug law was passed in San Francisco in 1875, which banned the smoking
…show more content…
domestic policy weighs in on drug control, the socio-economic effects of the drug war arise. As mentioned before, one of the major effects of the drug war includes the consequences in which are brought upon by conviction of drug offenses. These consequences consist of the denial of certain benefits to those who are convicted and the creation of a criminal record, which often makes employment difficult and causes former detainees to reoffend. This creates the cycle of a permanent lower class of those who have few educational or employment opportunities due to drug convictions, which in turn have resulted from attempts to earn a living in spite of having no education or employment opportunities. “They’re not living wage jobs, they’re not stable; they’re here today, gone tomorrow. Some of them are borderline illegal,” frets JoAnne Page, president and CEO of Fortune Society, which helps formerly incarcerated people find work and housing, among other things. She also said that “These are high casualty, low security ways of surviving” (WRIGHT). Another socio-economic effect of the drug war is its cost to taxpayers. Billions of dollars will continue to be spent each year towards the drug war, even after empirical evidence has shown that highly-funded law enforcement and prohibition strategies have failed to reduce drug use, availability, and distribution. “In support of the 2013 National Drug Control Strategy, the President requests $25.4 billi-on in Fiscal Year 2014 to reduce drug use and its consequences in the United States” (www.whitehouse.gov). Not only have billions of tax dollars been wasted, but drug war spending has also resulted in the defunding of other imperative services. Money directed towards drug prohibition and enforcement has meant less funding for more serious crime and has left essential education, health, social service, and public safety programs struggling to operate on meager funding. “California, for instance, spent $9.6 billion on
domestic policy weighs in on drug control, the socio-economic effects of the drug war arise. As mentioned before, one of the major effects of the drug war includes the consequences in which are brought upon by conviction of drug offenses. These consequences consist of the denial of certain benefits to those who are convicted and the creation of a criminal record, which often makes employment difficult and causes former detainees to reoffend. This creates the cycle of a permanent lower class of those who have few educational or employment opportunities due to drug convictions, which in turn have resulted from attempts to earn a living in spite of having no education or employment opportunities. “They’re not living wage jobs, they’re not stable; they’re here today, gone tomorrow. Some of them are borderline illegal,” frets JoAnne Page, president and CEO of Fortune Society, which helps formerly incarcerated people find work and housing, among other things. She also said that “These are high casualty, low security ways of surviving” (WRIGHT). Another socio-economic effect of the drug war is its cost to taxpayers. Billions of dollars will continue to be spent each year towards the drug war, even after empirical evidence has shown that highly-funded law enforcement and prohibition strategies have failed to reduce drug use, availability, and distribution. “In support of the 2013 National Drug Control Strategy, the President requests $25.4 billi-on in Fiscal Year 2014 to reduce drug use and its consequences in the United States” (www.whitehouse.gov). Not only have billions of tax dollars been wasted, but drug war spending has also resulted in the defunding of other imperative services. Money directed towards drug prohibition and enforcement has meant less funding for more serious crime and has left essential education, health, social service, and public safety programs struggling to operate on meager funding. “California, for instance, spent $9.6 billion on