Activity 8: Our War on Drugs

Prior to the 1900s in this country, policies and laws concerning drug use were established by state and local levels, which were aimed to target specific groups. With the influx of immigrants into the country, the attitudes towards these new people were reflected in the laws created by those who were here “first”. The Irish, for example, were commonly negatively depicted as monkeys who were completely consumed with the use of alcohol, and who had no self-control to act properly and respectively.

By the 20^th century, a greater federal response towards drug use and policies came about, specifically with the 1906 Food and Drug Act. This act focused on patent medicines and established the Food and Drug Administration, which called for companies to be required to put the ingredients in their product on the label for customers to see. At the time of the 1920s, following this new federal response, societal attitudes towards drugs, those addicted to drugs, and use patterns, began to change. The view of an addict now was that he or she was a criminal, and the connotation that comes along with a “criminal” is that they should be punished. Nixon and his administration followed suit with his declaration for a war on drugs, and the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 was created that still heavily influences drug policy today. This piece of legislation stated that drugs were now under federal jurisdiction, created 5 schedules of substances, established the Drug Enforcement Administration, and allowed for the government to control drugs directly, rather than through taxes. This propelled the anti-drug movement that developed in our country and helped maintain the approach we have today, in which drug use and addiction is looked at as the government’s responsibility to not only handle, but also enforce the laws established around them.

The whole goal behind waging the war on drugs was to eliminate, or at least lessen, drug use by punishing those who are illegally using drugs. I honestly feel like we have lost on this war on drugs with the approach our government has taken towards this issue. Instead of trying to rehabilitate those who are addicted to drugs, our government takes on the notion of arrest and put in prison, which does nothing to help the individual overcome the addiction that put them in that position in the first place. One cost, as already sort of mentioned, is the fact that individuals who are being sent to prison for a drug problem are not getting the rehabilitation they need, and therefore the system is not working to help better them by trying to overcome their addiction. A second cost is the fact that our prisons are becoming overpopulated with individuals who have drug offenses, and instead of using these already limited spaces in our prisons for those who commit offenses like robbery or rape, a person who is in possession of marijuana with a first time offense is found behind a cell.  The third and probably most obvious cost of losing this drug war is the financial loss, and how much money our government puts into officials to enforce these drug laws, which do not always seem to fairly coincide with the specific drug involved.

As with anything in life, there is always room for improvement and I believe to effectively “win” or at least provide a worthy fight in this war on drugs, the approach our government is taking to tackle the issue now, has to change.