Denying American citizens the use of forbidden narcotics and blocking both import and export of any illegal substances, the United States war on drugs is an attempt from government officials to safeguard the public from the use of illegal narcotics. This drug war has had a presence in American history since 1971 when President Nixon addressed the nation stating, “America 's public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse. In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive.” Shortly after, new laws were implemented which were intended to deter anyone from consuming or trafficking illegal narcotics within the United States. However, instead of a drug free nation what would follow was an overflow
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In the article, “It 's Time To End the Futile War on Drugs” by Scott Soffen, the author clearly states, “Instead, they have the scarlet letter of being an ‘ex-con,’ that further makes them ineligible for work, they inevitably become the parasites of the social safety net.” (Soffen 2013) The quote shows how drug offenders after returning from prison in most cases may not go back to a normal life because the surrounding community views them as unlawful criminals ready to unleash fury at any moment. This situation only places further stress on the returning citizen who is already emotionally unstable from remaining within the cold confines of a small prison cell for a year, which may eventually lead to the civilian returning to drugs and leeching money off the …show more content…
For example, in the article, “Rethinking the War on Drugs” by Mark A.R. Kleiman, the author states, “Legalizing possession and production would eliminate many of the problems related to drug dealing, but it would certainly worsen the problem of drug abuse.” (Kleiman 2012) On the contrary, through tests and studies this has proven to be untrue. In the video, “Everything We Think We Know About Addiction is Wrong” (kurzgesagt 2015) the speaker discusses how near the end of the Vietnam war there was a rising fear that veterans would return with severe heroin addictions however, it was later found that 95 percent of drug users in vietnam dropped the use of narcotics to return to their communities in peace. The video is implying that even though people have used narcotics, they won 't let the drug run their lives and in most cases will stop using drugs to stay in tune with the rest of the community. This shows how if drugs were legalized with regulation in most cases people may try some narcotics, yet will not let the drug control their
In the article, “It 's Time To End the Futile War on Drugs” by Scott Soffen, the author clearly states, “Instead, they have the scarlet letter of being an ‘ex-con,’ that further makes them ineligible for work, they inevitably become the parasites of the social safety net.” (Soffen 2013) The quote shows how drug offenders after returning from prison in most cases may not go back to a normal life because the surrounding community views them as unlawful criminals ready to unleash fury at any moment. This situation only places further stress on the returning citizen who is already emotionally unstable from remaining within the cold confines of a small prison cell for a year, which may eventually lead to the civilian returning to drugs and leeching money off the …show more content…
For example, in the article, “Rethinking the War on Drugs” by Mark A.R. Kleiman, the author states, “Legalizing possession and production would eliminate many of the problems related to drug dealing, but it would certainly worsen the problem of drug abuse.” (Kleiman 2012) On the contrary, through tests and studies this has proven to be untrue. In the video, “Everything We Think We Know About Addiction is Wrong” (kurzgesagt 2015) the speaker discusses how near the end of the Vietnam war there was a rising fear that veterans would return with severe heroin addictions however, it was later found that 95 percent of drug users in vietnam dropped the use of narcotics to return to their communities in peace. The video is implying that even though people have used narcotics, they won 't let the drug run their lives and in most cases will stop using drugs to stay in tune with the rest of the community. This shows how if drugs were legalized with regulation in most cases people may try some narcotics, yet will not let the drug control their