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War on Drugs Essay

This was my research paper paper for “The War on Drugs”. Which was my first paper that I put a lot of time into, it took a lot of brain storming and thinking for me to even start writing. Enjoy

Prevent This Tragedy

The War on Drugs is a deep rooted controversial campaign of prohibition and military aid that has been debated for years. We wonder if the war will ever come to an end, and if there’s a liable solution. The “war” will never end, and the only way to maintain balance in our society is by not letting any laws on drugs change. We can make a positive change within America as the first step. Legalization of drugs, increased taxes for military support, and more criminals on the streets are all examples of why “The War on Drugs” is affecting us. Over a period of time now, The United States has been enabling the war, by allowing legalization of Marijuana to take place in certain states. Winning the war, seems like an impossible task. But losing completely would diminish security and stability in our world. Applying more action and recognition will increase our awareness to stay away from this loss, and would better our economy as a whole. To better end “The War on Drugs” as a whole, we need to focus on winning the battle here in the United States before other countries.

The war on drugs being fought here in the United States, is the overall dependency for drugs. It is highly demanded for distribution, personal use, and strings in other violent crimes. We can put an end to this dependency by applying some basic principles and steps. A step in the right direction is prevention, to abolish all laws that enable the use of drugs, such as illegalization of Marijuana. The focus here is to set clear boundaries to people, and to also indicate that there is change coming into effect. Ewan Hoyle states that, “Any drug policy should seek to minimize the number of entrants into the lifestyle of a dependent drug user.” (303-304) With prevention comes change that makes goals easier to tackle. With less drugs, it allows the people and economy to grow in a positive direction. Less homelessness, dependency, crimes, and jail sentencing would be the direct result of tougher drug policies. “If we are serious about a war on drugs, then we have to subject them to regulations and controls that minimise as far as possible their ability to do harm.”(306-307) It has been said that the easier approach would be legalization, and that it would be more beneficial and successful. This is not true, however.

The concept behind Legalization is an idea to lower crime rates, controlling the potency of powerful drugs, and to eliminate trades with other countries. Drug related crime rates would be a contributing factor in lowering of crime rates, and it’s safe to say that those dealers would start selling to younger generations, the same as they would with alcohol. The possibility of dealers tempering with drugs to increase potency is almost a given. And of what would happen to those younger generations willing to give these “legal” drugs a shot. And with legalization, we may think we came with a solution, but it is merely the opposite. Scorza notes that “the argument for legalization now jockeying for public attention is an argument that we are losing, or have already lost, the war on drugs.”(5) Legalizing drugs is not the answer, it would only increase accidental deaths (overdoses) and a  “monumental alteration of human nature.”(29) Could this possibly be the better alternative, rather than the strict drug policies? Obviously not.

With legalization one would think it would put an end to our increased taxes, but it would continue to be the same. We would need to pay up more money for the wars being fought for these drugs. If drugs such as cocaine or opiate based drugs were legal and to be demanded, we would need to collect from sources such as Asia and the Middle East. And those third world countries wouldn’t be so quick to start business with the United States, and of coarse nothing ever goes smoothly. We would be fueling another battle amongst those countries, something that is inevitable. Especially when it involves such addictive substances, with high anticipation and demand. The War on Drugs going on in Mexico today is a prime example. Mark Kleiman states that “if the United States stopped importing drugs, Mexico’s drug violence would shrink dramatically.”(89-101) It is almost impossible to tell the severity of conflicts that will be caused, especially the reputation United States has for it’s known consuming greed and demand. We now begin to think that our increased taxes will grow, while sending out troops to fight for the drugs that we need.

Overall, The War on Drugs seems like an never ending war, but in reality all it takes is small but powerful change in order to approach it. If we were to help ourselves before helping others, we would be of more service and help. And these principles could be applied anywhere else that has the desire to put an end into a drug fueled environment. This nonviolent approach goes along way and overtime will save more lives and potential to the people of tomorrow. We can start by prevention, and work from there. Prevention is the deterrent we need to face the war in a positive direction. This can best benefit the people of tomorrow and provide a safe and bright future to future generations.