The War On Drugs In The United States

I. Introduction- Drugs are considered to be a modern day issue. However, if we look to the archeological records, we would find that our ancestors used drugs such as, alcohol, opium, cocoa, magic mushrooms among others for both medical and spiritual purposes. Throughout the years many policies have been created in order to minimize the use of drugs. For example, the first anti-opium laws were directed at the Chinese immigrants in the 1870's. In the 1900’s, an anti-cocaine laws were directed in the South at the black men. But it wasn’t until the 60’s where drugs became a big problem to society. Some Presidents have tried to propose and implement what they believed would be beneficial for our nation. Some of those implementations have succeeded
Body of Paper- When we talk about incarceration rates we may have to go back in time in order to have a better understanding. (Moore, 2008)
a. Presidents and the War on drugs
i. Drugs became a symbol of youthful rebellion, social disturbance, and political disagreement in the 1960s.
• President Nixon saw a problem that needed to be eradicated. In 1968, he declared a War on Drugs. (Moore, 2008) ii. President Ronald Regan and the drug hysteria sky rocked incarceration rates.
• During the presidency of Ronald Regan, the rates of incarceration increased. High number of people were behind bars for nonviolent drug law offenses. (Moore, 2008)
• It went from 50,000 in 1980 to 400,000 by 1997. iii. During his presidential campaign, President Bill Clinton advocated for treatment instead of incarceration. However, after a few months as a president he regressed to (War on Drug) strategies. iv. Rejected a recommendation from the US Sentencing Commission to eliminate or reduce the crack and powder cocaine sentences.
b. Why are our prisons overcrowded due to different changes on drug reforms?
i. Over the years, “Reforms” have been created, limiting the discretion of judges and members of parole boards. For example, sentencing, guidelines, length and determinate sentencing. (Gottschalk,
Conclusion – It is important to highlight that some of those actions taken by previous presidents have had an impact in the incarceration rates in the United States. For example, the sentences for powder cocaine and crack cocaine are from 5 to 20 years- mandatory. This law had produced sentences for approximately 3,000 Federal crack offenders each year. Our law makers should here by create new policies in order to decrease incarceration rates. When it comes to drug offenses, law makers should implement programs that can prevent unemployment, homelessness among other as well as helping ex-convicts reenter