Illegal drugs including cannabis, cocaine, LSD, heroin, and opium were once legal and used for recreational purposes. These drugs were also used in various medical and psychiatric treatments and could be found in everyday products. Gradually overtime what was once legal become illegal. The official war on drugs has been going on for over forty years in the United States and globally. It has cost the United States federal and state governments trillions of dollars in resources and manpower. The resources and manpower are used to control the flow of drugs in and out of the country and to arrest, prosecute, and to imprison those that have broken drug laws. The battle between federal and state law enforcement and the drug manufacturers and growers, drug traffickers, drug dealers, and drug users has cost thousands of law enforcement officers and civilians their lives. These deaths have been both in the United States and other countries. However, after all the financial and human costs, the drugs are still being manufacturers and grown. Drug traffickers and drug dealers are still selling their product and the drug users are still addicted to the drugs. There are other solutions to the war on drugs that may save both money and lives and may get the addicts off drugs.
The War on Drugs
The “war on drugs” has failed to stop the production, sales, and use of illegal drugs but has increased the American prison population and has promoted violence, health hazards, and the spread of disease around the world. Today, the war on drugs is a never ending crusade of wills between the United States government and the drug manufacturers, drug traffickers, drug dealers, and the drug users. The international war on drugs cost the United States billions of dollars every year in resources to prevent the drugs from entering its borders and to keep them off America’s streets. The American taxpayers pay for processing and housing of those in the illegal drug trade that have entered the state and federal court and penal systems. The war on drugs endangers thousands of civilians and law enforcement officers every year in the United States and globally. This is due to altercations between federal, state, and foreign law enforcement agencies, the United States military, and those in the illegal drug trade. Competition between those in the illegal drug trade to produce and sell their products also endangers thousands of lives because of “turf wars.” Those that are arrested for drug use rarely get adequate treatment for their addiction and are exposed to violent criminals in the prison system, creating the possibility of more violent criminals and crime in the future. Even after spending trillions of dollars to combat the drug issue in the United States and beyond and at the price of human life and safety, it still continues with no end. The drugs are still being cultivated, manufactured, sold, and used and enriching the pockets of drug cartels, organized crime, and terrorism organizations. The illegal drug users are still addicted to the drugs and are exposed to violence, health hazards, and disease because of the prohibition on drugs. The prohibition on illegal drugs and their use is not working or helping those addicted to drugs. The war on drugs is a failure.
The History of Drugs in the United States
The position of the United States towards drugs and drug use has not always been so black and white. This viewpoint has had many transitions over the centuries, with conflicting voices. Duke (1995) states: “The idea that government should determine for its people which psychoactive drugs they are free to consume and jail them for using others is a fairly recent arrival in the United States. Except for an occasional fling with prohibition at the state level, Americans were free until 1914 to consume any drugs they chose and to buy from anyone who chose to sell them. Those rights were widely exercised” (p. 571.) Certain drugs that are considered too dangerous today to be legal and available to the public were seen as being harmless and beneficial in the past. Various illegal drugs including cannabis, cocaine, LSD (also called acid), heroin, opium, and methamphetamine were once legal. The recreational use of some of these drugs, were seen as being no different than drinking alcoholic beverages to chemically change mood and perception for the user. These drugs could be even found in everyday products and were not always used just for their potential mood and perception altering side effects. Huebert (2011) states: “For most of U.S. history, all drugs were legal. How legal? As libertarian writer Harry Browne put it, “Few people are aware that before World War I, a 9-year-old girl could walk into a drug store and buy heroin.” In fact, before Bayer sold aspirin, it sold Heroin™ as a “sedative for coughs…”(para.2.) These substances and the products they were in were believed to be safe enough that both adults and children could use them without dangerous side effects. These drugs were also utilized for medical and psychiatric purposes. People were prescribed them by their doctor or psychiatrist to assist them with various medical and psychiatric illnesses and disorders. The scientific, medical, and psychiatric communities studied them and believed that they could be present and future answers to certain illnesses and disorders.
Overtime the war on drugs stopped the recreational use of these drugs and discontinued or slowed the study of these substances and any present or future benefits they may have contributed to society. It took them out of the hands of the American public that once were trusted to use them. It also took most of these substances out of the hands of the scientific, medical, and psychiatric communities. Drugs that were allowed to be studied and used by science were placed under heavy rules and regulations. The Controlled Substances Act (CSA) was put into place in 1970 and has gradually strengthened control over drugs deemed illegal in the United States. The Drug Enforcement Admiration’s Controlled Substance Schedules (2012) states: “Schedule I Controlled Substances have no currently accepted medical use in the United States, a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision, and a high potential for abuse. Some examples of substances listed in Schedule I are: heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), marijuana (cannabis), peyote, methaqualone, and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (“Ecstasy”)” (para.4.) The war on drugs has slowing created a billion dollar black market. It has put these illegal drugs in the hands of dangerous drug cartels, organized crime, and terrorism organizations, taking them out of the hands of law abiding American citizens and the scientific communities.
The Financial and Human Cost of the War on Drugs
Becker and Murphy (2013) state: “President Richard Nixon declared a “war on drugs” in 1971. The expectation then was that drug trafficking in the United States could be greatly reduced in a short time through federal policing—and yet the war on drugs continues to this day” (para.1.) The official war on drugs in the United States has been going on for over forty years, costing federal and state governments trillions of dollars with little positive results. The various major drug trades including marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine continue to grow and manufacture their products in the United States or other countries and sell it to American and foreign users. The importation and exportation of illegal drugs involves both non-dangerous mom and pop growers and manufacturers and extremely dangerous drug cartels. These drug cartels have ties to organized crime, the illegal gun trade, human trafficking, and terrorist groups around the world.
The Office National Drug Control Policy (2012) states: “Drug trafficking organizations and associated criminal groups pose a persistent and dangerous threat to communities across the United States” (para.2.) Federal and state law enforcement agencies must have the resources and manpower to control the flow of drugs into the United States from other countries, which may also include illegal guns and modern day slaves. State and local law enforcement agencies must control the growing and manufacturing of drugs and the conflicts between those in the drug trades. This is both to keep the public safe and to try to control the sale and use of drugs. The United States taxpayer pays for the surveillance, arrests, prosecution and public defense, housing, and medical and dental care of those that have broken drug laws. Branson (2012) states: “About 40,000 people were in U.S. jails and prisons for drug crimes in 1980, compared with more than 500,000 today. Excessively long prison sentences and locking up people for small drug offenses contribute greatly to this ballooning of the prison population… A Pew study says it costs the U.S. an average of $30,000 a year to incarcerate an inmate, but the nation spends only an average $11,665 per public school student”(Para. 10 and 14.) Without proper drug addiction treatment both inside and outside the prison system, a number of drug offenders are rearrested and put back into the legal system.
The non-violent drug offenders are affected negatively by the war on drugs. Those that are prosecuted for non-violent drug possession are put into the prison system with criminals that have committed murder, rape, armed robbery, and other violent crimes. The non-violent drug offenders are exposed to the prison lifestyle and other criminality. Prison life includes isolation, over population, and physical and sexual assault. Even if there is a drug treatment available in the prison setting the stresses of prison life and violence and the availability of smuggled drugs into the prison system may affect its outcome. Garland (2006) States: “Overcrowding, cruel conditions and a lack of constructive activities for inmates fuel violence in America’s prisons and threaten public safety because most inmates return to their communities ill-prepared for daily life…”(para.1.) After release, the non-violent drug offender may repeat their drug addiction or commit other crimes that might include violent acts learned in prison. The over population of the United States’ prison system also allows the release of violent offenders before non-violent offenders because of mandatory sentences for drug possession. These mandatory laws endanger the public when violent offenders are released before non-violent offenders to relieve a prison’s overpopulation.
The illegal drug user is also negatively affected by the war on drugs even if they never become part of the court and prison systems or the victim of the illegal drug trade’s violence. The illegal drugs that are sold to the user have no regulations in their cultivation or production. The plant based substances in illegal drugs may have been grown with illegal and toxic pesticides and fertilizers that have been banned around the world because of the dangerous chemicals that they contain. The plants may have also been exposed to herbicides that are used by law enforcement agencies and military personnel around the world to eradicate drug farms and plantations. Organic and chemically synthesized drugs including cocaine and methamphetamine may have been processed with toxic substances. These chemicals may include ammonia, levamisole, sulfuric acid (drain cleaner), lithium (batteries), methanol/alcohol (gasoline additives), and other household products that can be obtained legally and economically. The toxic chemicals used in the production of these drugs also can affect their level of potency and chemical side effects. Boesler and Lutz (2012) state: “Drugs bought through criminal networks are often cut with contaminants; dealers sell more potent and risky products; and high-risk behaviors such as injecting and needle sharing in unsupervised and unhygienic environments are commonplace” (para.12.) In these conditions the illegal drug user is exposed to chemicals that can cause health risk including cancer, heart and brain damage, and other long-term or fatal disorders. Sharing needles and other drug paraphilia can help spread diseases including HIV/AID and hepatitis. The illegal drug user that wants help for their addiction may feel they cannot risk being arrested by law enforcement or harmed by their drug dealer, so they never seek help for their addiction.
If The United States Stopped the War on Drugs
Ending the war on drugs could save the United States government billions of dollars a year and taxing the sale of drugs could add to the United States budget. Miron and Waldock (2010) state: “…legalizing drugs would save roughly $41.3 billion per year in government expenditure on enforcement of prohibition… drug legalization would yield tax revenue of $46.7 billion annually, assuming legal drugs were taxed at rates comparable to those on alcohol and tobacco” (executive summary para.2 and 3.) These savings and the new tax revenue that would come from the sales of these drugs could help fund health care, medical and pharmaceutical research, and better treatment for those that have addiction problems. Millions of people in the United States go without proper health care and some die of preventable illness. Part of the new revenue could be put into funding a government health care program that would not affect the funding of other government programs. The new revenue could also help finance ongoing medical and pharmaceutical research and to study drugs like marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, opiates, and other drugs to see if there is any beneficial components to cure and treat medical and psychiatric illnesses and disorders and to better understand their addictive properties. Legalization would allow addicts to receive treatment for their addictions just like an alcoholic or someone addicted to prescription drugs, without the fear of being arrested by law enforcement or harmed by their drug dealers.
The legalization of drugs would gradually stop the violence that prohibition promotes. Baird (2012/2013) states: “Drugs have little intrinsic value. It’s prohibition that gives an astronomical “price support” to traffickers. The profits are enormous and so are the violence and corruption needed to protect them” (p. 29). Legalizing and taxing drugs would authorize the growing and manufacturing of these drugs by legitimate farmers and manufacturers. This would take the drug business slowly out of the hands of the illegal drug cartels, organized crime, and terrorism organizations. These criminal elements would no longer be able to profit or benefit from the United States and most of the foreign drug trade because growers, manufacturers, and dealers would no longer have to depend on their protection and financing to keep in business. The legalization of drugs would also strength the United States national security. Miron (2009) states: “Prohibition has disastrous implications for national security. By eradicating coca plants in Colombia or poppy fields in Afghanistan, prohibition breeds resentment of the United States. By enriching those who produce and supply drugs, prohibition supports terrorists who sell protection services to drug traffickers” (para.10). If the war on drugs was stopped terrorist would no longer receive protection money from drug growers and manufacturers, and it could possibly create American allies on the war on terrorism.
The legalization of drugs would also allow for the regulation of drug production and safety. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida (2013) states: “{There is} no quality control. When drugs are illegal, the government cannot enact standards of quality, purity or potency. Consequently, street drugs are often contaminated or extremely potent, causing disease and sometimes death to those who use them” (para.11.) Legitimate growers could not use dangerous illegal pesticides and fertilizers to cultivate their crops. Manufacturers could not use dangerous household products in the production of their legalized drugs. Both would be facing finds and even prison time if they did not follow strict guidelines from federal and state regulations. If a person chose to use these legalized substances, they would have the same protection as those that take over-the-counter and prescription drugs and those that drink alcohol.
Conclusion
Just like alcohol and most narcotic prescription drugs, illegal drugs are not without their side effects and/or addiction issues. There are those that can use a substance occasionally for years for recreational purposes and never become addicted to that substance. Others can use a substance once or twice and become completely addicted. This can be found in those that drink alcoholic beverages and those that take prescription drugs. But somehow today certain mood and perception altering substances that once were seen as harmless and beneficial to society are considered more dangerous to the user and must be controlled and made illegal. This reasoning is why the United States started the “War on Drugs” that continues today. The war on drugs has cost American taxpayers trillions of dollars and endangered millions of lives over the forty some years it has been fought. The war on drugs has not stopped the growing and manufacturing of illegal substances. This war has not stopped the importation or exportation of these drugs into the United States and it has not stopped the selling and use of these drugs. It has given violent drug cartels, organized crime, and terrorism organizations around the world control of these substances and taken them out of the hands of the scientific communities and the American public. The war on drugs has made these substances more dangerous to the user because of the way they are grown and produced and has not cured addiction. Those that are addicted to these substances rarely get the drug treatment they need. Those that enter the penal system are exposed to prison violence and overpopulation and are lost in the system. The war on drugs has failed in its mission and must be stopped.
Update on Marijuana Laws 2018: From 1996 to the present, various states have legalized some form of the use of medical and recreational marijuana, including Alaska (medical and recreational), Arkansas (medical), California (medical and recreational), Colorado (medical and recreational), Connecticut (medical), Delaware (medical), Florida (medical), Illinois (medical), Hawaii (medical), Louisiana (medical) Maine (medical and recreational), Maryland (medical), Massachusetts (medical and recreational), Michigan (medical), Minnesota (medical), Montana (medical), Nevada (medical and recreational), New Hampshire (medical), New Jersey (medical), New Mexico (medical), New York (medical), Ohio (medical), Oregon (medical and recreational), Pennsylvania (medical) Rhode Island (medical), Vermont (medical and recreational), and Washington (medical and recreational), plus Washington DC (medical and recreational).
References:
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida (2013). Against drug prohibition. ACLU of Florida. Retrieved from: http://www.aclufl.org/take_action/download_resources/info_papers/19.cfm?print=true
Baird, V (2012 / 2013). Long and violent “war on drugs” has been a colossal failure. CCPA Monitor, 19(7), 28-29. Retrieved from: http://web.ebscohost.com.glacier.sou.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=15&sid=d0633c7a-929b-4407-9217-0123e448ad73%40sessionmgr11&hid=26
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