Research Paper draft 1

Fighting without thinking

Wars that causes harm to its own people is a war that should not be fought. The “War on drugs” is the government’s fight to police the "use of illegal drugs and protect the U.S citizens from such drugs. However, the “War on drugs “has been targeting many of the minorities in poor neighborhood. Also, many of the drug users are unfairly treated by the law as they are given an unfair years of jail time compared to other more hateful crimes. Also, funding to continue the “War on drugs” has been spent inappropriately as the number of people using drugs has not decreased. Also, the war on drugs has generated more private prisons allowing them to exploit prisoners. However, there some victories by “War on drugs” has been that some communities feel safer and raised awareness of the dangers of illegal drugs. Ultimately, the War on drugs should be stopped or fought in a more efficient manner that is helpful for society overall.

To start, the war on drugs started in June 17, 1971 by U.S president Richard Nixon as he led thed charge to stop drug abuse by increasing funding for programs to control the circulation of drugs and treat drug addicts. In the article, Programs that were passed by the U.S congress was the Anti-drug act of 1986, it “established a series of “mandatory minimum” prison sentences for various drug offenses” (The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica), and dramatically increased the number of prisoners. These programs targeted many people from poor background especially African Americans because many of them possessed cocaine and other drugs. At first it was widely-supported by the public as the media made the public more afraid of drugs and movements such as the “Just Say No” campaign, which was a privately funded effort to educate schoolchildren on the dangers of drug use” (The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica). However, soon people began to realize the disparity of a larger number of African Americans sent to prison than any other race, and these laws seem to target the minorities. Also, currently the public is disfavoring the war on drugs which led to many reforms in the legalization of marijuana in many states. Overall, the war on drugs was an inadequate plan and should be discontinued as it is not supported by many US citizens.

To continue, the war on drugs is targeting minorities and is unfairly treating them. In the article “Everyone does drugs, but only minorities are punished for it” by German Lopez clearly shows how minorities are targeted by the US law enforcement. The graph on the right shows white and black people have similar rates of the usage of all kinds of drugs and for drugs like cocaine, heroin, and hallucinogen they are even used more by the white community. However, according to the US drug arrest chart “In 2007, black people were 3.6 times more likely to be arrested for drugs than white people” (Lopez 1). The charts do not correlate because there should be similar rates of arrest for both ethnicities, but there are an increasing number of arrests for black people than white people. To support, “The ACLU found that 62 percent of SWAT raids are used for drug searches, and drug-related SWAT deployments primarily impacted people of color” (Lopez 1) shows that law enforcers are unfairly targeting a specific race even though white communities use as much drugs as the black communities. In brief, the war on drugs caused black communities to become unfairly targeted by law enforcers for the usage of drugs and they should be equally treated like any normal US citizen.

Furthermore, the laws against drug users are very harsh and illogical. The article, “Everyone does drugs, but only minorities are punished for it” by German Lopez shows how the law makers in the US government imposes laws that make it easier for minorities to be sent to jail. The chart in the right reveals how these laws are biased as they target black people and protects the white people because “Black people use crack at higher rates than white people, while white people use cocaine at higher rates than black people. So, the tougher sentences on crack make it much easier for law enforcement to come down on black drug offenders.” (Lopez 1). Also, the stark difference these drugs are treated is unreasonable because “Crack and cocaine are pharmacologically identical drugs” (Lopez 1), so they should be managed similarly as well. To conclude, the governments’ war on drugs is inappropriately handled and is targeting the minorities with unfair mandatory sentences.

To continue, another issue the war on drugs has caused is the increase of corrupted private prisons. This article called “Corporate America Exploits Prisoners: Inmates Become Assets for Major Companies to Expand Profit Margins” by Wilson Delgreco explains how the war on drugs is causing an increase of the creation of corrupted private prisons. The U.S is spending billions of dollars to maintain the many police, judges and correction facilities, which made them eventually lean towards making contracts with private prisons to save money. Private owned prisons are taking advantage of prisoners by making them work for cheap labor by paying them only as little as “at a rate of less than 25 cents per hour” which allows them to profit by a huge margin. Even many well-known companies such as Microsoft and Victoria’s Secret are using these prisoners because of the extreme profit they could make. As the minimal pay laws does not cover for prisoners and they even lose many basic human rights like health care insurance or compensations from injuries due to these facilities. In brief, the war on drugs helped private prisons exploit more prisoners to help the “elite” get richer.

The war on drugs is a very controversial topic discussed frequently by the public and even by public officials. In the article, “Marijuana Legalization and Regulation” supports the discrimination of marijuana and looking for other solutions to regulate this drug. Marijuana is a drug that is smoked or consumed as a psychoactive (mind-altering) drug. Drugs are always put down by the government and only advocates the negatives and not the positives of some illegal drugs. To support, the article states that “State and local governments would acquire significant new sources of tax revenue from regulating marijuana sales” which is a long-term method to dissuade users with high taxes on marijuana. To conclude, the government should be looking for more long-term solutions than short term-solutions like mandatory minimum sentences for drug users.

            The war on drugs is a long struggle between the government and the people. The war has many viewpoints and it’s view continually changes as time goes on and how people react and feel about the war on drugs plays a huge factor in that. The war on drugs has caused harm to many minorities by treating them unfairly with anti-drug laws. Also, these anti-drug laws have created a way for private companies to harm these minorities as well by exploiting and mistreating them. However, the government should look for solutions that can benefit the minorities communities while also regulating these drugs in an indirect way. In conclusion, the “War on drugs” should be ended or the government needs to change their ways that does not harm their own people in the process. 

Citations:

“Drug | Definition of drug in English by Oxford Dictionaries.” Oxford Dictionaries | English, Oxford Dictionaries, en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/drug.

The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. “War on Drugs.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 19 Aug. 2016, www.britannica.com/topic/war-on-drugs.

Lopez, German. “Everyone does drugs, minorities get punished.” Vox, Vox, 1 July 2014, www.vox.com/2014/7/1/5850830/war-on-drugs-racist-minorities.

“Marijuana | Definition of marijuana in English by Oxford Dictionaries.” Oxford Dictionaries | English, Oxford Dictionaries, en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/marijuana.

“Marijuana Legalization and Regulation.” Drug Policy Alliance, www.drugpolicy.org/issues/marijuana-legalization-and-regulation.