The "War on Drugs" in the United States, is a waste of time and a waste of taxpayer's money. Taxpayers in the United States are paying billions of more money on the war on drugs then, we are for the war in Iraq, far more causalities from the war on drugs then in the war in Iraq and hundreds of more prisoners in the war on drugs then in the war in Iraq. Since the war on drugs began, arrests went up 50% however; the number of users and the supply of drugs stayed the same. President Bush even wanted to spend more money on the war on drugs. Even though, most cities and states can translate back to spending three quarters of their budget on the war on drugs alone. While, our society can st ...view middle of the document...
Violence occurs when rival drug dealers move into other drug dealer's neighborhoods, kill other dealers to make more of a profit, or rip off other drug dealers. Also, because the prices for drugs are so high most drug users commit violent crime in order to get money they need to purchase drugs. As we see, violent crime goes hand-to-hand when it comes to drugs. In almost every city you would see that 80% of all felonies cases are drug related.Police agencies spend so much time investigating drug offenses; they don't even have time to investigate crimes like homicide. Every dollar we spend on the investigation, prosecution, and incarceration of drug users or drug dealers, is less money to investigate, prosecute, and incarcerate other criminals. Getting "tough" on drugs inevitably translates into getting "soft" on all other offences. (Gray, 2001. p. 69) Today, our court systems are so backed up. Drug cases and other defendants including murders and rapists get away with softer plea bargains then they really should. Also prosecutors don't have enough time and resources to prosecute them the right way.Police Corruption is fueled by the war on drugs. (McNamara, 2003. p. 33) This is another problem dealing with the war on drugs. The war on drugs has a powerful corrupting influence on police forces across the country because police officers know that they can rob drug dealers with no problem at all. No drug dealers or drug buyers are going to report a police officer stealing from them because they know they will be arrested. The corruption of police officers begins gradually with the officers finding rationalizations for stealing the drug money. Then, the corruption is perpetuated by the police code of silence, an unwritten rule that prohibits police officers from informing on one another's misconduct. As long as the war on drugs continues honest and innocent officers will be transformed into corrupt gangster. (McNamara, 2003. p. 34) We can only end it by ending the drug war polices that breed it.The biggest obstacle to change is decade's worth of rhetoric. Immeasurable numbers of Americans have been programmed by this rhetoric to believe the there are no viable alternatives to our current drug policy. Many people oppose change simply because they have not been exposed to our thought about the actual facts of the so-called war on drugs. (Gray, 2001. p. 238)In addition to rhetoric, we also need to come up with new polices for the war on drugs. Education policies are programs that tell people the truth about drugs especially when educating children. " Today, there are many education programs that use false facts about drugs, especially the ads on T.V. How can we teach people about drugs, when the people that are teaching no nothing about drugs and are just criticizing them?" Lying or criticizing drugs will not get us anywhere; it is just going to cause more problems. An example of this would be a police officer saying to the general public that mariju...
