Has the war on drugs really helped the drug prblem in the US or has it made it worse?

Answer 1

I feel it has become worse. I watch all these marijuana raids on t.v., over 1 million dollars worth of marijuana seized, etc.. The police are busting Marijuana dealers and users left and right. But you don't hear about the police making Heroine bust, and here in Chicago that is the bigest problem on our streets. Heroine has become so widely used amongst people from all walks of life. The addiction rate is incredible! The pushers are now lacing heroine with Fetinol which is causing overdoses and deaths all over the city. The Heroin addicts can't get high enough, its crazy!
If they hear of a drug spot where people are overdosing from they go running there in hopes to get the good sh*t!
If we legalized Marijuana for personal use it would free up the police& Feds to go after the hardcore drugs. Alcohol is more damaging than marijuana, but as long as you are of legal age & don't consume in public, you are free to do what you want with it.

Answer 2

As far as the drug problem itself is concerned, I don't think that the "war on drugs" has really made much difference either way, in terms of the prevalence of drug use/abuse. I expect it would be about the same whatever the government does. The war on drugs has certainly created a lot of collateral problems, most notably the terrible prison overcrowding we have, and the ruin of peoples lives because they became addicted. It would seem, that after 30 years of a failed policy, we would, at least, begin to look at alternatives, but, unfortunately, that hasn't happened, and is not likely to happen soon. It is political suicide in this country to even suggest the decriminalization of drugs.
I'm inclined to believe, that drug use is a problem we'll never solve.

Answer 3

I don't know how much you know about our legal system, but the war on drugs has been a waste of tax payers money. Especially when the drug are confiscated and the same drugs are circulated back to the streets. There is corruption in every city because there is money to be made. In my city we had a cop that was part of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program. During the day he would go to the schools and talk to the kids about the DARE program, and at night he was "The Dope-man".

Answer 4

I have no references to back up my theory but I think it doesn't work because the cause of the drug abuse is not addressed. If someone intends to get high they will find a way to get high. For example using OTC cough medicine or inhaling refrigerator coolant. I wish people would use the photographs of what a pretty girl looked like before the drugs and then the after when it's hard to believe its the same person anymore. Everyone wants to look good so in my opinion it may stop some from wanting it at all.

Answer 5

Absolutely not. The war on drugs is a sham & a waste of taxpayers money. Read Sheriff Bill Masters book on the subject "Drug War Addiction: Notes from the Front Lines of America's #1 Policy Disaster". Bill has been the Sheriff of San Miguel Co. in Southwest Colorado since 1980.

Answer 6

it incredibly is impossible to wisely answer a query it incredibly is so politically loaded and which assumes failure in the two situations. Comparisons are impossible to make with any accuracy between 2 efforts that are being fought in thoroughly different techniques, yet once you elect to make certain the stages of failure by the numbers of deaths of human beings, on my own, the conflict on drugs has been the greater advantageous burden. merely in the process the time of the Clinton administration, a recent 8 3 hundred and sixty 5 days era, over one hundred,000 human beings died through fact of drug-appropriate deaths. in the process the six years of the conflict in Iraq, 4000 human beings died. i think of a case could be made that it incredibly is extremely confusing for the government to salary conflict against drugs through fact drug clientele at the instant are not the enemy of the human beings. they're the human beings. I additionally think of a case can be made that the conflict in Iraq is assembly expectancies, that's never a definition of failure.

Answer 7

It has made it so much worse. You can actually get less jail time for killing someone with a gun than for simple marijuana possession. Is that ridiculous or what? Also, it is a huge waste of money. It costs so much to imprison people. Imagine how much of the money saved by legalizing drugs could go towards worthwhile things, such as feeding the hungry. Everyone should read Reefer Madness by Eric Schlosser. It completely changed the way I look at Drugs and the War on them.

Answer 8

A growing group of police, judges and other criminal justice professionals believe the War on Drugs to be our country's most destructive social policy.. Based on their long years of experience working the front lines of the drug war they have concluded that it's time to end drug Prohibition.

Across North America, citizens are realizing the futility of asking police and the criminal justice system to "control" a multi-billion dollar annual illegal drug market. Despite the best intentions, cops have no way to monitor and control a market that is run by mysterious, unidentified players who work behind closed doors and on the shadowy streets and alleys of our residential neighborhoods.

An illegal network cannot compete with a licensed, regulated free market system of distribution. That's the common sense approach we've applied the past 72 years for the most dangerous and risky drugs - alcohol, tobacco and pharmacueticals.

Legalizing drugs will not solve all the very real problems we have that are the byproducts of drug abuse. But it will eliminate virtually all violence affiliated with the current illegal market. And it will immediately allow police and public regulators to identify all dealers thanks to the open system of licensed regulation.

Meanwhile, the tens of billions of taxpayers dollars spent across North America to wage the 35 year old, frutiless "War on Drugs" can be rechanneled into providing improved education and more drug treatment options for those citizens with true abuse problems.

More information available at Law Enforcement Against Prohibition http://leap.cc , a non-profit educational org

Sincere inquiries and feedback also welcome by writing me, Steve Heath using email heath at leap.cc

Steve in Clearwater FL USA

Answer 9

Drug problem in the US? There's no drug problem here; we can find whatever we need to get high, and at a damned good price, too ...

The war on drugs in the US is the same sort of dumb show--a blur of spinning wheels meant to hide the lack of forward motion--as the security screening at airports. The drug warriors probably have not aggravated addiction and other symptoms of the drug problem, but I doubt that they have improved things either. The biggest issue here is that it represents a huge waste of resources. See this link to an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times about federal DEA crackdowns on marijuana clubs that are legal under California state law: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-klausner26jan26,0,7295338.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail
This reflects an inherent institutional bias: DEA agents, like any other cops, want arrests and convictions, and it's a lot easier to bust pot-smoking cancer patients than a meth lab owned by the Hell's Angels.

Answer 10

Consider that we have spent hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars on the war on drugs since the 80's, yet there are more drugs on the streets of this country then there has ever been. Drugs are easier to get for some kids than cigarettes. Cocaine, crack, and heroin are stronger and more potent than they have ever been. Every few weeks we hear about the huge busts they make at the border, they show off big bundles of pot and cocaine and say they are making progress, yet the average user on the street never sees a dent in the supply. Think about that and you'll have your answer.