One of the main contributions to the incarceration rate per capital is the current laws on illegal substance in America. During the presidency of Ronald Reagan, “Federal mandatory minimums were incorporated in the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act” (Seigel 162). regarding sentences both for dealers and users. These restrictions and rules are far from perfect; Unreasonable laws only serve as a catalyst to problems worsening. The idea of decriminalizing drugs to most is questionable. Far often people are not aware of the difference between decriminalization and legalization. Decriminalization essentially reduces the penalty and alters the course of action taken on those who are caught with illegal drugs. Legalization is having no laws over what can and cannot be marketed and distributed. This is very important to know, as the confusion of the two greatly hinders any chance of this being a reality.
It is far from unusual for people to question the change on current drug laws. Quite a few concerns can come up, such as what’s wrong with the current system. Thoughts and ideas like these are a …show more content…
The fact that we have the most prisons, jails, and other various, and I cannot emphasize this enough, tax payer funded institutions, makes more money come out of our own pockets. We the people not only blindly turn our eyes away, but we also add to the problem by doing so. The way that this matter is handled could be solved, or at minimal, improved. The decriminalization of drugs, again, the reduction of penalty, not removal, could be extremely beneficial for so many people. As Portugal, has already had a very successful change in their society with doing so. “By 2010, close to a decade after decriminalization, only 1,950 people were in prison for a drug crime, almost half as many as the 3,647 non-use-related drug offenders in prison in 2000” (Laqueur
It is far from unusual for people to question the change on current drug laws. Quite a few concerns can come up, such as what’s wrong with the current system. Thoughts and ideas like these are a …show more content…
The fact that we have the most prisons, jails, and other various, and I cannot emphasize this enough, tax payer funded institutions, makes more money come out of our own pockets. We the people not only blindly turn our eyes away, but we also add to the problem by doing so. The way that this matter is handled could be solved, or at minimal, improved. The decriminalization of drugs, again, the reduction of penalty, not removal, could be extremely beneficial for so many people. As Portugal, has already had a very successful change in their society with doing so. “By 2010, close to a decade after decriminalization, only 1,950 people were in prison for a drug crime, almost half as many as the 3,647 non-use-related drug offenders in prison in 2000” (Laqueur