War On Drugs: The War On Drugs

The modern war on drugs has been going on the America since the 1970s with the stated goal of creating a drug-free America. However in the span of 40 plus years dedicated to fighting a war of drug prohibition with $1.5 trillion dollars estimated to have been spent in the process the results are less than satisfactory. Regardless of the multiplying millions of dollars allocated to drug enforcement each year addiction rates in America have not fallen at all since the start of the modern drug war by President Richard Nixon in 1970. According to the Department of Health and Human Services regardless of the war on drugs addiction rates have steadily hovered at 1.3% from 1970 until today.So while addiction rates have not fallen statistics that
Therefore it is critical to address the prevalent yet flawed notion that controlling the supply of drugs actually lowers drug use at home. Although in a regular market economy according to the principle of supply and demand if one curbs the supply of a product the price will be forced to increase and thus the demand for said product will fall. However due to either their addictive or otherwise perception changing properties the drug trade unlike the regular market economy is not price sensitive. This means that since people either by choice or through the compulsion of addiction will buy drugs no matter the price. So consequently by attempting to limit the supply of drugs coming in from cartels current drug laws are actually contributing to increasing the worth of drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine, as well as increasing the frequency with which the cartels work to recruit new members in an ever more bloody battle to supply the addicts of
Proposition 47 passed in 2014 reduces a number of non-violent offenses from felonies to misdemeanors--meaning that California will be spending less money on its prison system. According to Congresswoman Bass’s website “In order to ensure that people released from prison succeed when they get home, Karen worked with state officials to get $5 million in the 2014 state budget for re-entry services to help people released from prisons find housing and jobs.”("Karen Bass for Congress"). While the “success act” would allow people with drug convictions who have served their time to apply for federal financial aid furthering drug reform in America at large. Although I personally support an approach of decriminalization and government regulation/treatment similar to that of portugal I recognize that in order for such legislation to be passed the public must learn the truth about the war on drugs.” Therefore I want to create a teen social media presence on Facebook to educate the public about the unfortunate realities of the current War on Drugs.I will do this by creating a facebook page called “Teens For Drug Policy Reform”. My social media campaign will attempt to educate the public about the many advantages to approaching drug reform through decriminalization, regulation, education, and