William Sobolewski
Period 4
Persuasive Essay: The War on Drugs
Over 40 years ago, US President Richard Nixon declared drug abuse to be the public enemy, which started an unprecedented international crusade known as, the War on Drugs. Today, we know The War on Drugs is a huge failure. It led to mass incarceration in the US; corruption, political destabilization, violence in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, as well as, systemic human rights abuses across the world. It has negatively affected the lives of millions of people. All of this while we waste billions of dollars every year only to create and fuel powerful drug cartels while, the goal of a world without drugs seems less achievable than ever. How could this happen?
The core strategy of the War on Drugs is “no drugs, no problems”. So almost all of the efforts in the last few decades have been focused on eradicating the supply of drugs and …show more content…
Gangs and cartels have no access to the legal system to settle disputes, so they use violence. This led to an ever-increasing spiral of brutality. According to some estimates, the homicide rate in the US is 25–75% higher because of the War on Drugs. And in Mexico, the country on the frontline, an estimated 164,000 have been murdered between 2007 and 2014, more people than in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq in the same period, combined. But where the War on Drugs might do the most damage to society is the incarceration of nonviolent drug offenders. For example, the United States, one of the driving forces of the War on Drugs, has 5% of the world’s total population, but 25% of the world’s prison population, largely due to the harsh punishments and mandatory minimums.Minorities suffer because of this especially. African Americans make up 40% of all US prison inmates. And while white kids are more likely to abuse drugs, black kids are 10 times more likely to get arrested for drug
Period 4
Persuasive Essay: The War on Drugs
Over 40 years ago, US President Richard Nixon declared drug abuse to be the public enemy, which started an unprecedented international crusade known as, the War on Drugs. Today, we know The War on Drugs is a huge failure. It led to mass incarceration in the US; corruption, political destabilization, violence in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, as well as, systemic human rights abuses across the world. It has negatively affected the lives of millions of people. All of this while we waste billions of dollars every year only to create and fuel powerful drug cartels while, the goal of a world without drugs seems less achievable than ever. How could this happen?
The core strategy of the War on Drugs is “no drugs, no problems”. So almost all of the efforts in the last few decades have been focused on eradicating the supply of drugs and …show more content…
Gangs and cartels have no access to the legal system to settle disputes, so they use violence. This led to an ever-increasing spiral of brutality. According to some estimates, the homicide rate in the US is 25–75% higher because of the War on Drugs. And in Mexico, the country on the frontline, an estimated 164,000 have been murdered between 2007 and 2014, more people than in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq in the same period, combined. But where the War on Drugs might do the most damage to society is the incarceration of nonviolent drug offenders. For example, the United States, one of the driving forces of the War on Drugs, has 5% of the world’s total population, but 25% of the world’s prison population, largely due to the harsh punishments and mandatory minimums.Minorities suffer because of this especially. African Americans make up 40% of all US prison inmates. And while white kids are more likely to abuse drugs, black kids are 10 times more likely to get arrested for drug