Narcotic Criminalization

The world of narcotics and addiction is an ever-growing expanse of war and death. With the Vietnam war starting a wide spread shock wave of addiction. The most commonly used drugs during this time were morphine, heroin, and marijuana. Danielle Allen, a journalist for the Washington Post, recalls how the United States dealt with tobacco,”By 1971, cigarette ads had been banned from radio and television, the surgeon general had called for regulation of tobacco, and cigarette smoking had begun its long decline.” It was an attempt that could have been applied to other harder drugs, but instead the United States took a different path. In 1973 the Rockefeller Drug Laws were passed by New York legislature starting a snowball effect of narcotic criminalization(We
This is just a start to a greater problem in other states. Bennett and Walters, journalists for the Boston Globe, state, “Heroin and other drugs in New Hampshire now kill more people than traffic accidents.” To solve this problem we have to look at both sides of the situation. On one hand using medication to help small groups of people is less effective than treating the source of the problem, yet on the other side giving addicts a safe and nurturing way towards a sober life could equate to a happier populous. Now with the unofficial end of the war on drugs here are the numbers. Allen states that, “the daily use of marijuana by 12th-graders was at 6 percent in 1975; In 2014, it was 5.8 percent(We already know how to win the war on drugs).” The numbers for heroin have shown the same trend with 1 percent of high school seniors using it in the year of 1975 that number then rose to 1.5 in 2000(We already know how to win the war on drugs). Allen then tells that, “In 2014 it was down to 0.6 percent, but it may be climbing again(We already know how to win the war on
This is where the decriminalization and harm reduction come into play. In Switzerland drugs ran rampant and street crime as well as the HIV virus prospered(Nebehay). But the Swiss took a different approach instead of putting addicts behind bars they gave them a safe haven(Nebehay). To slash the HIV rates the safe areas gave out the purest form of the drug an addict was addicted to also giving them clean needles. Doing this along with giving out paths to jobs and normal successful lives to the addicts caused drug related crimes to plummet along with the HIV death rates. The problem is that many countries such as the US and Russia are very reluctant to change their policies. With Stephanie Nebehay, a writer for reuters.com, quoting ”Dr. Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria...[tells]’Russia is totally closed to the idea, it is impossible to open a