Is mass incarceration really the solution?
Why is a drug like alcohol legal, and other drugs are not? Why does the misuse, and abuse of drugs, such as marijuana, and cocaine lead to harsher sentences than the misuse, and abuse of alcohol? The answer lies in on the War on Drugs. Before I lead in to the crux of my argument, let me juxtapose one more question, Was the War on Drugs even necessary?
While I was always weary on the whole premise for making our communities safer by discouraging the use of illicit, and in some cases licit drugs, and prosecuting their use, I fell upon an article titled “Report: Aide says Nixon’s War on Drugs targeted blacks, hippies” that only reaffirmed my beliefs on this issue. In reading the article, I was particularly …show more content…
I have even had firsthand experiences with individuals who have had illicit drugs to conquer their demons. Seeing how the misuse, and abuse of drugs caused my friends to suffer, made me in part sympathetic to people that go through drug addiction, yet at the same time it made livid towards individuals that sell drugs illegally, along with the current system that criminalizes drug use, and abuse, rather than finding ways to help the individual instead. Casually strolling through the library, I stumbled upon a book called “Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets” by Sudhir Venkatesh (Venkatesh, 2009). It gave me a newfound perspective towards people who partake is selling drugs, along with reaffirming my point on how the War on Drugs destroyed poor urban communities. Along with this, it was interesting to find how a gang leader named JT came into a life of drugs (Venkatesh, 2009). A college educated man, who grew up relatively well considering his circumstances, came into a life of drugs after he could not find a job based on the color of skin. While there a variety of other factors that could have hampered in his pursuit of employment, the premise that people of color naturally have a harder time finding, and holding employment still holds true. As such, JT took matters into his own hands and started dealing drugs from the same housing complex, the Robert Taylor Homes, from which he grew up from (Venkatesh, 2009). His rise to become one of the leading drug dealers of his housing project exposed the complex, interconnected system that helped glorify the drug trade in its peak (Venkatesh, 2009). We see through JT story of how the criminalization of drugs disproportionately affected his community. JT’s story led me to think in the larger picture of how the
Why is a drug like alcohol legal, and other drugs are not? Why does the misuse, and abuse of drugs, such as marijuana, and cocaine lead to harsher sentences than the misuse, and abuse of alcohol? The answer lies in on the War on Drugs. Before I lead in to the crux of my argument, let me juxtapose one more question, Was the War on Drugs even necessary?
While I was always weary on the whole premise for making our communities safer by discouraging the use of illicit, and in some cases licit drugs, and prosecuting their use, I fell upon an article titled “Report: Aide says Nixon’s War on Drugs targeted blacks, hippies” that only reaffirmed my beliefs on this issue. In reading the article, I was particularly …show more content…
I have even had firsthand experiences with individuals who have had illicit drugs to conquer their demons. Seeing how the misuse, and abuse of drugs caused my friends to suffer, made me in part sympathetic to people that go through drug addiction, yet at the same time it made livid towards individuals that sell drugs illegally, along with the current system that criminalizes drug use, and abuse, rather than finding ways to help the individual instead. Casually strolling through the library, I stumbled upon a book called “Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets” by Sudhir Venkatesh (Venkatesh, 2009). It gave me a newfound perspective towards people who partake is selling drugs, along with reaffirming my point on how the War on Drugs destroyed poor urban communities. Along with this, it was interesting to find how a gang leader named JT came into a life of drugs (Venkatesh, 2009). A college educated man, who grew up relatively well considering his circumstances, came into a life of drugs after he could not find a job based on the color of skin. While there a variety of other factors that could have hampered in his pursuit of employment, the premise that people of color naturally have a harder time finding, and holding employment still holds true. As such, JT took matters into his own hands and started dealing drugs from the same housing complex, the Robert Taylor Homes, from which he grew up from (Venkatesh, 2009). His rise to become one of the leading drug dealers of his housing project exposed the complex, interconnected system that helped glorify the drug trade in its peak (Venkatesh, 2009). We see through JT story of how the criminalization of drugs disproportionately affected his community. JT’s story led me to think in the larger picture of how the