Learn more about the real agenda behind the War on Drugs and watch the recently released documentary "The House I Live In".
War on Drugs
After 40 years, we have to ask
ourselves if the War on Drugs has worked.
The
House I Live In is a film by Eugene Jarecki. It documents the inception of
the drug war, the history and problems we face today. The film boldly stands on
the evidence the War on Drugs has been an epic failure.
“The war on drugs has
been a failure practically, morally, and economically. The results of this law
enforcement approach are stark: today, there are more than 500,000 people
incarcerated for drug offenses; billions of dollars are spent annually on
narcotics enforcement; treatment is still out of reach for millions of people;
and drugs are more available and cheaper than ever before.”
Why
People Use Drugs
Regardless of legality, people are
going to do drugs. Just because its legal doesn’t mean everyone will run down
to the corner market to get their dope. The War on Drugs has created a monster.
We’re worse off by paying higher taxes for the incarcerated drug users and
dealers and over the course of 40 years drugs are cheaper, more easily
available and an epic catastrophe.
The range of reasons a person uses
drugs are vast. Most people want to escape reality because their life situation
sucks. To get a moment of nirvana or heaven to escape the hell they are living.
They get bored and depressed. Many addicts suppress early childhood memories of
abuse and neglect. If one wants to get high, they will find a way. Nothing will
deter a drug abuser.
Stop
the Prohibition on Drugs to Cure the Sickness
Did the ban of alcohol, Prohibition,
work for America? This national ban on the sale, manufacture, and
transportation of alcohol, was in place from 1920 to 1933. It only
increased the level of crime, murder, jailing and bootleggers.
People need to take responsibly for
their own actions, but throwing people in jail doesn’t make the situation
better. Making something illegal makes it seem more desirable so they want what
they can’t have.
Legal
Drugs the Rising Problem of Drug Abuse in America
The White House publicly claims that
prescription drug abuse is the Nations fastest growing drug problem. The
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has classified prescription drug
abuse as an epidemic. Many pain medications contain low
doses of heroine or morphine. Pharmaceutical drugs are legal, and extremely
addictive. Many believe they are safer. “Pharming” parties are popular among
our youth. They bring pills to place in a bowl to divvy up not knowing which
drug they’ve taken as long as they get high.
The
War on Drugs is a Profitable Business
We should question the motive behind
corporations profiting from the prison industry when private prisons for profit
benefit on the stock market. The United States has the highest rate of
incarceration in the world. The War on Drugs has nothing to do with making
society safer, but everything to do with making money. Is there a conspiracy to
make a profitable business and lock up the bottom half of society?
We need prisons to keep society safe
from criminals who harm others. One should not be locked up in prison unless
they are a threat to harm others, committing person to person crimes. We can
give that individual tools to not use drugs, but if one chooses to harm
themselves that is a decision they make. We can attempt to heal the emotional
wounds that cause the drug abuse.
Should we really lock up people for
smoking pot or even growing it for their personal use? How is pot any different
from prescription drugs? How is alcohol any less of a threat than marijuana?
Many people die of liver failure and drunk driving, because of alcohol. It’s a
mix message when heroine laced prescription drugs are legal when prescribed by
a doctor and easily sold on the street.
Class
Warfare on Society
We put more money and resources into
prisons than in schools. That is a crisis. We’ve been fed fear that drugs are
the reason for the collapse of society. In reality, the problem is class
warfare. It basically comes down to whether we want to build more prisons, keep
people from working since an ex-con must check the dreaded checkbox on a job
application that must be answered, but keeps them locked into a cycle where
they become unemployable in a poor job market. With the lack of skills,
resources, and education the system perpetuates the destruction of the human
race which is class based and happening under the guise of a drug war.
The police and correction officers are
not purposely inflicting harm. They are doing their job based on their
instructions and the lack of resources provided. Kids grow up with drug addicts
and gang members as role models. Drug crime is the only functional economy in
their communities. The poor and uneducated see the materialism and want nice
clothes and even food for their families so they sell drugs.
Open
the Dialogue to Find a New Solution
Each side of this paradigm is
frustrated, blaming each other for the flaws and heartache. Children grow up
with parents in prison. The children of police officers also grow up without
their parents if killed in the line of fire. Law enforcement verses the
community is a mentality that is detrimental to growth. It creates a divide and
conquer organism. Feeding only a parasitical monster that doesn’t offer real
solutions. It’s not an easy task to deal with angry citizens or distressed law
enforcement as they deal with secondary-post-traumatic stress. It’s a bad
situation all around. Now is the time to reexamine drug policy and make changes
where the system is obviously broken. It will take a community action as most
politicians only care about getting re-elected and not willing to stick their
neck out for real change.
Drug War Statistics
• Over the past 40 years, the War on Drugs has cost more than
$1 trillion and accounted for more than 45 million arrests.
• In 2009 nearly 1.7 million people were arrested in the U.S. for nonviolent drug charges – more than half of those arrests were for marijuana possession alone. Less than 20% was for the sale or manufacture of a drug.
• Even though White and Black people use drugs at approximately equal rates, Black people are 10.1 times more likely to be sent to prison for drug offenses. Today, Black Americans represent 56% of those incarcerated for drug crimes, even though they comprise only 13% of the U.S. population.
• In a 2010 survey, 8.9% of Americans over the age of 12 had used illicit drugs in the past month.
• Today, there are more people behind bars for nonviolent drug offenses than were incarcerated for all crimes, violent or otherwise, in 1970. To return to the nation’s incarceration rates of 1970, America would have to release 4 out of every 5 currently held prisoners.
• Between 1973 and 2009, the nation’s prison population grew by 705 percent, resulting in more than 1 in 100 adults behind bars today. In 1980, the total U.S. prison and jail population was about 500,000 – today, it is more than 2.3 million.
• The U.S. incarcerates more people than any country in the world – both per capita and in terms of total people behind bars. The U.S. has less than 5 percent of the world’s population, yet it has almost 25 percent of the world’s incarcerated population.
• 1 in every 8 state employees works for a corrections agency.
• It costs an average of $78.95 per day to keep an inmate locked up, more than 20 times the cost of a day on probation.
• In 2009 nearly 1.7 million people were arrested in the U.S. for nonviolent drug charges – more than half of those arrests were for marijuana possession alone. Less than 20% was for the sale or manufacture of a drug.
• Even though White and Black people use drugs at approximately equal rates, Black people are 10.1 times more likely to be sent to prison for drug offenses. Today, Black Americans represent 56% of those incarcerated for drug crimes, even though they comprise only 13% of the U.S. population.
• In a 2010 survey, 8.9% of Americans over the age of 12 had used illicit drugs in the past month.
• Today, there are more people behind bars for nonviolent drug offenses than were incarcerated for all crimes, violent or otherwise, in 1970. To return to the nation’s incarceration rates of 1970, America would have to release 4 out of every 5 currently held prisoners.
• Between 1973 and 2009, the nation’s prison population grew by 705 percent, resulting in more than 1 in 100 adults behind bars today. In 1980, the total U.S. prison and jail population was about 500,000 – today, it is more than 2.3 million.
• The U.S. incarcerates more people than any country in the world – both per capita and in terms of total people behind bars. The U.S. has less than 5 percent of the world’s population, yet it has almost 25 percent of the world’s incarcerated population.
• 1 in every 8 state employees works for a corrections agency.
• It costs an average of $78.95 per day to keep an inmate locked up, more than 20 times the cost of a day on probation.