...suspected that drugs have been part of our culture for decades. Researchers have found nomadic drug paraphernalia dating back to as far as 100BC, where it was believed that cavemen were using hallucinogens in hopes for a glimpse of their deity or god. Fast-forward to present day, drugs are more ingrained in our culture than ever. Except rather being used for spiritual purposes, drugs have become a coping mechanism or our ever chaotic society. Dating back to 1973 when the United States officially waged the “War on Drugs”, the federal government alone has spent 1.3 trillion dollars. In comparison, that would be about year’s salary for about 18 million teachers, or able to sustain about 19.2 american families. Not only have we...
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...War on Drugs and Prison Overcrowding Thomas K Anderson University of Memphis Prison overcrowding has been a social phenomenon that has led to a variety of reforms. One of the major causes for overcrowding in the prison systems today began back in the early 1970’s, when President Nixon declared War on Drugs. There were dramatic increases in the prison population in the 1980’s and 1990’s. These increases were projected due to trends of harsh punishments. Political leaders were influential in these trends as they created mandatory sentencing guidelines. Currently 50.1% of all offenders that are incarcerated in the Federal Prison System are due to drug offenses. That total accounts for 98,554 individuals, many of whom are serving time for a nonviolent offense or first time offenses. The second largest cause for overcrowding in the prison are immigration related crimes, which still only accounts for 10.6% or 20,862 of the individuals. In June of 1971, President Nixon declared a war on drugs, which did not go over too well because he and everyone else had differing views on how to handle the problems being created due to the increase of drug use. Because of the increasing of the prison population, a reform was created to offer treatment for drug abuse; of course this did not take place since it was a contradiction of current drug policies. Unfortunately, the end result of Nixon’s plan did not stop the problem of drugs, but only caused...
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...Anthony Peebles HIST 1302 Jared Ingram Never Ending War The United States has been involved in several wars and have declared itself the winner in most. There has been civil wars and world wars that have taken troops around the globe to defend democracy and freedom. America has stood up for those whose human and civil rights were threatened, we have supplied small armies with the funds, equipment, and intelligence needed to defeat the enemy. America has a great track record at defeating its enemy and making sure they don’t show their heads anymore, but since being declared an enemy publicly in 1971 this enemy continues to deliver major blows to America and its citizens. This enemy is not a nation of communist, an insane dictator, or a group of extremist, this enemy is drugs. The war on drugs has been the biggest and longest war in my lifetime. Although Richard Nixon is known for launching what we consider the modern day war on drugs, this war was started several years prior to Nixon becoming President of the United States. Some local laws against drugs where established as early as 1860. The first national law was the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914. This act was to provide registration to all that dealt in the services of opium and coca leaves. Coca leaves once extracted provides the bases for cocaine. In this time cocaine was not illegal and was often prescribed by doctors to patients for ailments such as common headaches or colds. Unknowingly those patients became addicted...
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...Vietnam & Nixon 1968 - 1974 President Nixon - war Henry Kissinger Assistant for National Security, Sec. of State Goal - Better relations with Soviet Union and Red China 1969 Bloodiest fighting of the war Vietnamization - build up of ARVN and turning actual fighting over to them as US ground troops are pulled out. 1969 - 480,000 1970 - 235,000 1971 - 160,000 1972 - 24,000 reduced American casualties make up for loss of ground troops by increasing the air war Anti war protest continued My Lai Massacre - Lt. William Calley ordered killing of over 200 unarmed SV civilians Media discovered in November 1969 Shocked the American public, increased demands to end the war NV insisted the US troops would have to be withdrawn before peace talks could begin 1970 Kissinger began secret talks in Paris with Le Duc Tho of NV Cambodian Invasion Kent State University May 4, 1970 National Guardsmen killed 4 protesters and wounded 9 others during anti war demonstration. Dec. 1970 Tonkin Gulf Resolution repealed by Congress -Prepared to cut funding for the war US soldier in Vietnam Came from poor working class with minimal education ‘Grunt’ Average age 19 Morale low, drug abuse common, mutiny common in platoons 1971 Pentagon Papers - Daniel Ellsberg confirm government dishonesty about the war 1971 ⅔ of Americans want US out of the war Nixon renewed massive bombing of North Vietnam (Johnson had stopped in 1969) Madman Theory NV became more determined...
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...Drug Wars" is a documentary examining the 30-year history of efforts to control the flow of illegal drugs into the United States and onto the streets of many of its cities. These wars began with President Richard Nixon and they have continued to the present day. Indeed, six presidential administrations have fought this war at considerable cost. Yet a growing number of critics question its effectiveness. All who have analyzed the issue of controlling illegal drugs consider it a complicated task because it involves so many factors: human, financial, and diplomatic. The drug wars started shortly after Nixon's victory in the 1968 presidential election. He ran on a platform that included strong "law and order" planks. One of the first directives he gave to his staff was to find ways to reduce crime in Washington, D.C. which was considered the crime capital of America. Between 1965 and 1968, robberies had increased by 330 percent and murders were up by 93 percent. Research at the time revealed that there was a strong connection between drug addiction and criminal activity. In fact, in August of 1969, it was shown that 44 percent of those in jail tested positive for heroin. Around the same time, a pilot drug rehabilitation program involving the use of the synthetic substitute for heroin, called methadone, was shown to be effective in curbing the desire for heroin and the criminal acts associated with it. All of that was magnified by the general tenor of the times. It was...
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...The War on Drugs I believe is an example of crime control policy. The war on Drugs started with President Richard Nixon, during his campaign he was persistent about his view and policy on drug. As soon as he was elected he started the War on Drugs campaign, where he claimed that drugs were public enemy number one. It was also stated that this 'War' was to fought with policy changes and government interventions that had not existed previously. With that being said with crime control policy it is believed that protecting the welfare of a group or the majority of citizens is more important that the rights or liberties of one single individual. I believe that that was one of the sole reasons Nixon developed the War on Drugs to protect the majority of the nation who were not participating in drug intake or abdication. You see this when the Drug Enforcement Agency was introduced in 1970 along with the comprehensive drug abuse prevention act, showing that Nixon wanted more of the crime control policy by trying to suppress this drug crime in society. The War on Drugs has its pros and cons, it was a tough and desivse move but it had a lot of after affects that hit our nation. One of which is the invention of cheaper and stronger drugs. In the book it says you have to learn from prohibition in order to understand our drug problem now. When alcohol was outlawed in came an new form called white lighting or moonshine. It was an stronger alcohol for the people to choose from. Same with...
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...terrible decisions made by the United States government. This small offense they have committed is only drug possession. Yes they were breaking the law, but does the punishment really fit the crime. No it does not! Especially when others are not getting as harsh of punishments when they are caught with a different type of drug. Something is not adding up here, and it is pretty clear what it is. Someone wanted to get rid of the African Americans to help him win a presidential...
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...mass incarceration and “The War on drugs” in 1971; soon afterwards, mass...
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...Civil War. Morphine was used as a “wonder drug”, taking away the pain of soldier’s injuries as well as avoiding health hazards such as diarrhea. These soldiers ended up going home addicted, taking morphine even though they no longer needed it, and had to fuel their addictions just to keep their sanity. Present day United States is not free from substance abuse either, and it has started to escalate at an even bigger scale. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, over 570,000 die annually due to drug abuse (NIH, 2014). Due to an excess amount of people dying due to drug abuse,...
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...1971, President Nixon was the first to declared a "War on Drugs" due to the youthful rebellion that took place in the 1960s and began to decriminalized marijuana. This is the longest "war" in America history, and is a very important topic especially with dealing with minorities. The war on drug has many elements in the form of laws aimed at limiting, regulating and prohibiting the use of specific substances by certain minorities. This is war has cause major racial disparities within the prisons populations and also force incarcerations rates to rise. This war also keep the economy flowing and have created more job's for police and...
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...The American war on drugs has been around ever since June 1971, and today 44 years later it’s still alive and well. However, it’s a shame the majority of us don’t know why the nation is still wasting its time fighting this unjust war on narcotics. Many currently illegal drugs, such as opium, coca, marijuana, and various psychedelics (Mescaline, Ayahuasca) have been used for thousands of years for legitimate medical and spiritual purposes. So why is it that so recently our nation has declared these drugs as sinister? Why are some drugs legal and some others illegal today? The sad truth is that it's not based on any valid scientific assessment of the relative risks of these drugs, but instead historically it has had everything to do with who was associated with these drugs. The facts are that the first anti opium laws in the 1870s were pointed at Chinese immigrants. The principal anti cannabis laws, in the Midwest and the Southwest in the 1910s-20s, were directed at Mexican migrants. The first anti cocaine laws, in the South in the early 1900s, were directed at African American men. Even today Hispanic and especially African American communities are still subject to outrageously disproportionate drug enforcement and sentencing practices....
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...The war on drugs in America was an expensive effort to curb illegal drug use that ultimately failed. It is a term used to refer to a military based, government run campaign to prevent drug use, persecute those trafficking illegal and controlled substances, and to prevent drug flow across borders. The war officially began in 1971, where President Richard Nixon declared drugs to be the greatest threat to the American people. Drug use was rapidly spreading across the country, and thousands spilled across U.S borders. In 1973, Nixon created the Drug Enforcement Administration to aid in the war on drugs. The DEA was a federal law enforcement agency specially tasked and trained to track and arrest those using and distributing narcotics in the United...
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...The War on Drugs 1-29-10 War on Drugs Richard Nixon started the war on drugs in 1971; he declared the drug problem to be a national emergency. One of the initial problems with drugs started when the soldiers came home from the Vietnam War addicted to Heroin. In an attempt to control the problem, Nixon went hard to work in an attempt control the “problem”. In 1973 Richard Nixon created the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to form a group with a single goal to combat the drug problem. At the time the budget was less than $75 million and has increased dramatically today. The War on Drugs is costing us a substantial amount of money every year and are we even winning? My opinion is that we are not winning. Of course I don’t think severely harmful drugs, like Meth, should be legalized but there are many things being done that are not in the best interest of everyone. We are spending extensive amounts that could be used to better schools and other organizations in need. Over sixty percent of the people in prison are there for victimless, non-violent crimes and do you honestly think they are not finding ways to obtain drugs and other substances while in prison? Yes, the government says they are winning the war on drugs especially in the cocaine industry but really there is so many users I don’t see how the government can really say they are winning. The next issue is the fact that marijuana is illegal; there has been no scientific evidence that marijuana is harmful...
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...The social problem of economic, class and racial inequality has been a great issue of concern for many in the United States because inequality goes against America’s cores values of upward mobility economic wise and in social class (Korgan, 2012). These social problems of inequality have been linked to disparities in quality of life and psychological and social well-being. The problem of social inequality has been found to be linked with other social problems such as crime and victimization. The problem of social inequality can even be seen in the criminal justice system in how it treats people of various races, ethnic groups and socioeconomic classes who are processed through the system (Wheelock, 2006). In essence, there exists a disparity amongst race, ethnicity, socioeconomic class in criminal victimization and how people are processed through the criminal justice system that exacerbates the social problem of inequality in numerous social institutions and complicates many individual’s efforts to escape from poverty and achieve upward mobility (Wheelock, 2006). The disparity in criminal punishment is due to various factors such as laws that were implemented to reduce crime, race, and low economic status (Wheelock, 2006). The factors that have a tremendous impact on victimization are demography and socioeconomic status (Raphael, 2006). While violent crimes are not exclusive to poor metropolitan areas, consistent patterns have been observed which reveal lower rates of crime...
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...Say No To Drugs! Few people deny the dangers of drug use, while many teens are curious about drugs. They should stay away from drugs because drugs affect our health, lead to academic failure, and jeopardizes safety. Drugs are used from a long period of time in many countries. The concentration of drugs has increased from late 1960’s and 1970’s. Drugs can quickly takeover our... [tags: Drugs] 423 words (1.2 pages) Unrated Essays [preview] Effects of Drugs - Controversies over drugs and the effects they have physically, mentally, and emotionally have been around for centuries. Some argue the fact that smoking marijuana has no health effects on the body. Some also say that other drugs have no long term mental consequences to suffer. Now, thanks to technology and hours of studies, answers have came to show the true long term hea... [tags: Drugs] :: 5 Works Cited 1157 words (3.3 pages) Better Essays [preview] The War On Drugs - The “War on Drugs” is the name given to the battle of prohibition that the United States has been fighting for over forty years. And it has been America’s longest war. The “war” was officially declared by President Richard Nixon in the 1970’s due to the abuse of illegitimate drugs. Nixon claimed it as “public enemy number one” and enacted laws to fight the importation of narco... [tags: Drugs] 576 words (1.6 pages) Better Essays [preview] Drugs and Music - Throughout the evolution of popular music in American culture, many factors have been...
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