Persuasive Essay On War On Drugs

Improved Essays
Despite the debate and much publicity to decrease the drug use among Americans, the war on drugs has been a failure. In addition, “Just Say No” and D.A.R.E campaigns tried reaching youths to prevent them from taking drugs. In addition, many treatment programs have targeted those who are addicted to drugs to get treatment and other help that will stop them from further drug use. Since President Richard Nixon declared the war on drug Drugs it has been one of the most controversial topics in society today. After many years of drug enforcements fighting against drugs and enforcing strict laws and punishment those who break the laws; illegal drugs are still easily obtained by drug cartels and are being the sale in our communities. The continuing War on Drugs and whether or not to legalize drugs have been a major issue in America. Many people are already convinced that ending the drug war will save State and federal government money and reduce the prison rate. …show more content…
Miron and Katherine Waldlock argued: “Legalization would reduce state and federal deficits by eliminating expenditure on prohibition enforcement -- arrests, prosecutions, and incarceration -- and by allowing governments to collect tax revenue on legalized sales” (Miron and Katherine, 2012). There is more crime associated with people trying to smuggle drugs into the USA and selling it on the street. Some argue legalizing drugs like Marijuana will reduce crime because these with the prescription can legally buy and use it for medical a condition. In addition, marijuana being legal will only result in less marijuana smuggled into the USA and with the request of marijuana decline due to it being legal; this will hurt drugs cartels, importers, and smugglers. Although the majority of the U.S population is in favor of legalizing drugs, there are those who believe that legalizing drugs will rise crimes in our communities and harm individuals, family and lead to many youth experiment

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Drug legalization is one of the most conflict-ridden issues within the United States. Although, my belief identifies closely with those who see drugs as being able to assist in certain medical conditions, I also identify with those who believe that certain drugs need to be regulated in order to avoid addiction and more importantly abused. One argument, that has been made prominent, is that drug legalization would lessen the number of people who become involved and introduced to the criminal justice system. However, many people feel that because of the already growing problem with licit drugs, legalizing additional drugs would only contribute to the rate of addiction.…

    • 539 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There is also a false narrative that Americans will suddenly lose their ambition and lust for consumerism if the drug war is ended. Remember, cocaine and heroin were sold over the counter for many decades, yet no economists have felt the need to examine any potential economic damage during that era. Whereas, the criminal justice system, in contrast, hurts the economy more than any “lazy stoner.” It is difficult to quantify the indirect economic consequences from the drug war. Yet, there is a misconception that the punishment for illegal drugs, in particular marijuana, is no longer oppressive.…

    • 891 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The drug war in America is a notorious “common enemy” that has been the driving force for the increase of drug arrests, rehabilitation programs, and other anti-drug movements. However, while this movement seems to be one that all good Americans should get behind and support it is in fact a vicious cycle of incarceration and crime. The drug war extorts the funds of the poor and at best only temporarily remove the criminals from the world while making no attempts to rehabilitate and change the ways of the addicts. Because of the tremendous economic output of a prison the country has been searching for a group of people to imprison and criminalize. They found this group in the drug…

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nixon War On Drugs

    • 889 Words
    • 4 Pages

    If we shift drug use from being a public enemy to a public health issue and emphasizing treatment rather than punishment, drugs will be destigmatized leading to users being much more inclined to seek treatment, drugs will become less taboo and exciting to possible users, profits from the drug industry will decrease, incarceration rates will decrease, and racial disparity will be reduced all at a much lesser cost than the current plan. Many countries have done this and they have succeeded, like Portugal, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic. Drug use and overdoses have gone down greatly in those countries. Not only is decriminalization proven to be more effective than the policies currently in place,the billions we waste on this ineffective system will finally get put to good use and go to tried-and-true methods. All the evidence points to decriminalization being the answer- in order to bring justice to black americans, improve the nation’s public health, and actually reduce drug abuse and crime for good, we need to reform our approach for a better…

    • 889 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Drug Legalization Effects

    • 2295 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Legalization of certain drugs would work in the interest of the American government imposing a powerful positive impact on the economy as a whole. The benefits associated with legalization of drugs may take into account creation of new jobs for the people, establishment of a whole new profitable industry and generation of streams of never ending revenue, which would bring prosperity for the overall economy. The positive effects of enforcing such a law may just be short term, illogical and may lead to nothing but corruption, imposing negative impact on the overall society. Promoting the legalization of a substance that can easily turn into an addiction is not the best idea of boosting the economic growth. It is important that the moral obligation is given preference over the monetary profits for the establishment a society with strong…

    • 2295 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Legalizing Drugs

    • 1024 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Over the past 45 years drug statistics have shown that the drug war and its efforts to keep illegal substances out of the nation and hands of the American people is not working. The drug war is feeding the drug kings, inflating the price of illegal drugs, and increasing violence among rivals much like the alcohol prohibition supplied the bootleggers and organized criminals in the 1920’s. According to the DPA, the United States has spent more than $51 billion annually on the drug war. In 2014, the U.S. had the highest incarceration rate in the world with approximately 1.5 million arrests for drug law violations.…

    • 1024 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Encyclopedia Britannica defines prescription drug abuse as “the excessive, maladaptive, or addictive use for nonmedical purposes despite social, psychological, and physical problems that may arise from such use”. Prescription drug abuse has been a trend on the rise for over a decade now. Although adolescents and college students view prescription drugs as “safer “and “more acceptable”, the younger generation needs proper education on the danger and effects that can occur when misused. Through tighter regulations and being more informed we might be able to cut the number of adolescents who may fall victim to these “harmless” drugs.…

    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Ending The War On Drugs

    • 1196 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The War On drugs has cost the United States a lot of money despite being the War being very unsuccessful. Some say the War On drugs is a war on people or a war on minorities. According, to Dirk Chase Eldridge, the author of “Ending The War On Drugs”, the United States has 5 percent of the world’s population but consumes 60 percent of its illicit drugs. For decades, The United States has conducted a costly, escalating, and largely futile, war on illegal drugs. The War on Drugs has been paid for using billions of taxpayer dollars for decades.…

    • 1196 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Drug War Persuasive Essay

    • 1224 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Drug lords and cartels are a major problem in modern society, they distribute drugs into communities and sometimes turn these areas into warzones. They have a huge amount of power, even over some country’s governments. They control a lot, drugs, guns, entire cities and countries. There is some things being done to solve this problem, but so far it’s barely made a dent in the trade. It’s still running strong after all the attempts to shut it down.…

    • 1224 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Drug abuse is one of the most discouraged behaviors in our country, yet there are over 40 million illegal drug users in the world today and America is the biggest market for these substances. The troubling epidemic surrounds our lives everyday. We hear horrific tragedies on the news everyday about the growing epidemic but in most cases are to busy categorizing these children and downplaying there deaths because of their addiction. One of the most commonly used and highly addictive illegal drug on the black market today is heroin. Heroin is the narcotic derivative of the opium poppy plant that poses a threat to our society, which could be injected, sniffed, snorted, or smoked.…

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    While the War on Drugs has helped reduce illicit drug use to some degree, our government should surrender in the War on Drugs as the progress has been brutally insignificant, the consequences have heavily outweighed the benefits, and theres are many other solutions that are considerably more effective and far less abrasive to communities. Our government should surrender in the War on Drugs as the progress has been brutally insignificant As the progress of the War on Drugs Quote #1: "Nowadays the UN Office on Drugs and Crime no longer talks about a drug-free world. Its boast is that the drug market has “stabilized”, meaning that more than 200m people, or almost 5% of the world's adult population, still take illegal drugs—roughly the same proportion…

    • 787 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Drug arrests in the United States reached over 1.5 million, in 2014 and 83% of those arrests were for possession alone. This is why many Americans are not opposed to the idea of decriminalizing drugs. With that being said, many Americans also feel as though the process…

    • 1023 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The argument on whether drugs should be legalized has been going on for so long now. Some people say as an Americans we have the right to choose whether we want to do drugs or not. It is really hard to control the consumption of drugs, because people are going to do them whether they are legal or illegal. Other people say that the laws that are being enforced now are good to control drugs. “There will also be more unpublicized fatal and maiming crashes, more job accidents, more child neglect, more of everything associated with substance abuse”(M. Kendrecke).…

    • 1002 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The drug market is stronger than ever, yet the drug war has been in full force for several decades. The effects here in the United States, are quite similar to the effects internationally, but there are many solutions other than a drug war, to stop the use of drugs. Nobel laureate and economist Milton Friedman remarked on the issue, “However much harm drugs do to those who use them…seeking to prohibit their use does even more harm both to users of drugs and to the rest of us…Legalizing drugs would simultaneously reduce the amount of crime and improve law enforcement. It is hard to conceive of any other single measure that would accomplish so much to promote law and order” (Donohue 146). Friedman is right.…

    • 1405 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    His life really changed because he started to use drugs and until today he talks about how he ruined his life over a small decision. What I am saying is that people like this are everywhere in the world. If a person becomes addicted they can get treatment many peoples who has gotten therapy or treatment…

    • 1459 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays