Drug War Research Paper

The United States paid out in excess of $2.5 trillion on a number of actions, both domestic and abroad, designed at reducing the international flow of illicit drugs, throughout the last forty years (). “Despite these efforts, empirical evidence indicates that these prohibitionist drug control policies fail to effectively reduce the consumption or production of drugs” ().In this paper I will talk about how the drug war is ineffective while analyzing the costs and problems created by prohibition and benefits of legalization of illicit drugs which will ultimately conclude my argument. The drug war is and always will be a waste of money. The problems that I will talk about created from the drug war that result in a waste of money are the effect of drug prohibition on prison costs, Cannabis, the black market and consumption rates
Prohibition has failed its goal at reducing consumption of illicit drugs. “Evidence largely indicates that prohibitionist policies fail to achieve their stated objectives of reducing drug consumption and production”.111 “empirical evidence indicates that prohibition is ineffective at reducing drug consumption by any significant margin; in the United States, drug prices have been stable or declining despite …show more content…
prison population soared from about 300,000 to 1.6 million inmates, and the incarceration rate from 100 per 100,000 to over 500 per 100,000. The incarceration boom is unprecedented in American history, and unseen anywhere else in the world; traditionally indistinguishable from its peers, the United States is now the world’s largest jailer, both in absolute numbers and in rate. Home to only five percent of the world’s population, it now houses over twenty percent of its prisoners. 1 though explanations differ, almost all analysts agree that a major cause has been the War on Drugs” 1. This is evidence that there is a significant impact from drug prohibition