Political Science Research Paper War on Drugs
From the beginning of time, the war on drugs has sparked an upraise of control version issues throughout its course of existence. Of course, there has been many poll ices that have been placed upon this issue; however, as a result there still seems to be no resolve once to this subject matter. The war on drugs has sparked tremendously as the United States had relied on Mexico to be their main suppliers of Marijuana. In the late sass’s the United States deem ands for marijuana was slowly increasing as the American population began to smoke marijuana regularly.
Years later, the use of marijuana grew enormously by a majority of the military as w ell as hippies. President Nixon began to realize that the use of drugs was becoming out of c intro as the, “workingman’s white soldiers who were disobeying authority, the hippies, and t he antiwar activists… All of these problems, they believed, were regularly high on marijuana an watt 37). The rates continued to rise within these combative units because of the use of ma Arizona. In order to help fix the chaos of drug abuse in the US, President Nixon placed a program me called “Operation Intercept. The idea of this operation was to completely prohibit a NY drug operations to occur along the Mexican/ CSS border (Watt 37). However, as a result, the policy had only angered the Mexicans which did not agree, until the President of Mexico, Ditz Order, was informed. The result of this policy was, “quite disastrous, particularly for licit Mexican trade, which can endure an embargo much less easily than the United States” (Watt 37). Mexico agreed with the policy placed by the US however, they were conveying that it would b e more difficult to ban such a wide scale operation in Mexico as opposed to ban something in the e United States.
In the United States, law enforcement has arrested thousands of individuals who have been involved in drug trafficking with the possession of marijuana. In 2009 “o officers nationwide made an estimated 13,687,241 arrests… Of these, 1,663,582 were for drug viol actions, over half of which were for marijuana possessions” (Recognize 46). Over the course of seven oral years from the beginning of policy restrictions against drug trafficking the war on drugs is a c instant battle between the government and civilians.
The majority Of drug traffickers of the united States population comes to a grand total of, “25 percent of world’s prisoners” (Rezone eek 46). A very large majority of the prison population is serving time because possession of narcotics and drug raffling. In 1973 President Nixon declared war on drugs, his action towards the war on drugs caused in a result of a tremendous amount of money spent on the anti drug war campaign. President Nixon was very determined to stop, the begrime drug smugglers (M Erin 18). As years progressed from the early offs, millions of dollars have increased to 12. Billion n dollars in just over 30 years (Nanas 18). President Onion’s efforts to alleviate the war on drug gas, have not made an effective impact. In the early ass’s the use of drugs increased; every year the ere are, “1 O,OHO… Myers 2 new heroin users” (Nanas 18). A very large amount of the US population have been arrested for the possession of drugs. Out of almost 2 million people who were arrested of r possessing narcotics; it is said that nearly 700,000 of those individuals were arrested for t he possession of marijuana.
Since a majority of America’s population is abusing drugs, the gave raiment has made many efforts to prohibit the use of drugs. However, America has spent over bi Lions Of dollars, that even critics of the government are disputing that the CSS should fund drug g treatment programs, instead of spending billions of dollars, “attacking the supply of drug s by trying to eradicate Latin America coca fields, halting illegal drug shipments and lock up users like Myers” (Nanas 18). The war on drugs has been a controversial issue however the government ha s made many efforts of the issue of the war on drugs.
The government such as, the Bush ad ministration have been conversing to the drug administration (ANODIC) about their efforts Of the e large spike of drug utilization in America. The administration planned that within the America an population “drug use would be reduced among young people by 25 percent over five yea RSI” (Nanas 20). Within the five years of this designated plan by the Bush administration; it has made an effective outcome as only 19 percent of the American population has been able to such usefully be lowered in the time span of 4 years.
In 1993 The Bush administration spent from 10 6 9 million dollars in efforts to establish drug courts in order to keep those of crime for drug POS session out of jail. Many drug offenders during this time would take drug tests periodically, and were treated. Those who passed the drug tests were dropped from their charges, however, those who didn’t pass were sentenced to longer jail time. Over thousands of drug courts were established throughout the US which has handled, “70,000 defendants a year” (Nanas 22).
The drug courts SE t by the Myers 3 administration, discovered that 54 percent were charged illegal drug trafficking g whereas, 43 percent were charged for possession with an intent of illegal distribution (Nas so 23). In the year of 1986, The US has created a series of alliances and agreements with Mexico, in hopes to alleviate the amount of drug trafficking in the United Stats sees. However, with the substantial amount of drug trafficking cases in the US, the policies have o lay caused repercussions towards the US.
The Operation Alliance, was much of a more SST erne policy placed by the government upon Mexico. The policy however, had no significance as d rug trafficking has continuously increased from 1986 (Bagley 423). The war on drugs has con tenuously been brought to mind by the government, however this issue is constantly rising be cause, “drug trafficking was treated as a minor but contentious one… ” (Walker Ill 424). Drug g trafficking is increasing in the US however, the policies set by the government has not brow get a positive end result for the United States.
The restrictions and agreements between Mexico , are only creating economic issues upon the US as they have very little effectiveness, “since 198 8, economic conditions in the United States have steadily worsened” (Bagley 424). With the amounts of agreements and policy restrictions placed upon Mexico, there still seems to b e no admonishment of the war on drugs. The United States has made attempts to regulate the ill gal drug trafficking, yet, “it has been estimated that between 50 percent to 80 percent of the cocoa en entering the United States is smuggled across the Southwest border with Mexico” (Bagley 25).
The contain souse attempts of the policies and restrictions constructed by the govern moment, have been slightly ineffective; as Mexico still carries a high number of statistics of the am mount of drugs that get smuggled in the United States. Myers 4 For a while the percentage of the American population of drug users dropped d in 2002 from George Bush’s efforts to reverse the drug use in America. Throughout the sees years Of constant drug policies, and the prohibition of drugs, the drug war has constant TTYL grown and caused the military law enforcement to become involved with this issues.
Each h year, there are ever 50,000 SWAT deployments per year in America… Primarily used to serve drug warrants. America began relying on police implementation very heavily as the war on drug s issue increased. In Ronald Reggae’s presidency, he allowed for “elite military units to train with narcotics police, and then again with the exploding use Of paramilitary SWAT teams in America ” (Nanas 56). During this time, the war on drugs rate of percentage kept increasing, enabling g the SWAT teams to deploy “a few hundred times per year (Nanas 56).
In the United States today y, the use of SWAT teams dramatically increased; as of now 50,000 SWAT teams are deploy d to serve drug warrants (Nanas 56). In late sass’s congress utilized the Pentagons stockpile o f military equipment for police departments to utilize in the drug war of America. The d plowmen of SWAT teams was the first initial step by the government in order to later auto arise “guns tanks, armored personnel vehicles, helicopters, grenade launchers. .. To be used on A American streets, against American citizens” (Nanas 56).
The constant battle of the war on drugs, the policies and efforts to reverse HTH controversial issue, as well as the Bush’s Administration to reverse and reduce e the the amount of rug use in America; caused many disputes among the citizens of America ca using violence and destruction among the people. One incident that occurred on the street of En w York was the death of Veda Vasquez. Veda the young and innocent lady was walking around d the streets not knowing she would later be killer because of a drug war dispute between two gangs.
Veda was Myers 5 caught in between a crossfire where she was shot in the head and was later c infirmed dead who didn’t awake from a coma. The gangs were were then caught by authorities as they were placed in the New York City Prison. The incident of Veda Vasquez death caused the citizens of New York to gather at a rally where they displayed “stop the violence” placards. The e people were very unsettled of this Incident which caused them to blame the war on drugs as a result of Veda Vasquez death.
The efforts Of the Bush administration to prohibit drug have failed to effectively be lowered as it has caused a large spike in America’s crime rate. D ring the prohibition of the arrests and incarcerations haven’t stopped, the us e and abuse of drugs, or the drug trade” (Nanas 88). From 19762005, “at least 82 percent of hi h school seniors said they found marijuana “fairly easy’ or “very easy’ to obtain” (Nanas 89). The roughly these years, the efforts of drug prohibition has had little effectiveness, as drugs are still easily obtained by teenagers in highlights.
Drug cartels have been spiking crime rates in the United States. Los Zetas a dry GU cartel, have had a wide operation in the US. In 2008, Log Zetas was causing a huge a mount of violence in Alabama. Five men were found with their throats slit open; they were torture De and were discovered to be victims of the Log Zetas drug cartel. These individuals that did d were part of the drug operation of the Los Zetas Cartel, and were killed because they over $40 0,000 to the Gulf Cartel.
The IIS law enforcement, and the FBI were planned a raid where they r aided “against the Gulf Cartel in September 2008… Where twelve of its operatives were arrested I n Atlanta” (Villainy 34). The authorities discovered that over $4 million dollars was found d within the Gulf Cartel’s headquarters in Atlanta. Not only, was the Gulf Cartel’s operations SP specifically located in Atlanta, however they were also located in Houston, Texas. In Houston, the authorities also Myers 6 covered that a little under 52 million dollars was found in cash as well with n the Gulf Cartel’s operations. Villainy 34). Another cartel found and discovered by the authorities was the Signals Cartel. A little after the Gulf Cartel was discovered in August of 20 08, the Signals Cartel had a huge operation Of 750 men who were captured and arrested for drug possession. The Signals Cartel was found with “$460 million cash… Along with tenderfoot thou sand pounds of cocaine and ;levelheaded pounds of methamphetamine” (Villainy 35). In 1 991 , there were more prisoners in California convicted for drug offenses, t Han there ere convicted all the crimes combine in 1980.
From 1 9851998 1. 8 million oft he prison population expanded from 744,000 prisoner, the majority of the prison pull action is convicted of drug possession, or drug trafficking (Skims 29). From 19791994 the impact of law enforcement has made efforts to reduce the amount Of the American popular ion who use drugs. In 1 ass’s for decades, New Work’s crime rates risen as the years progressed. H forever, they took it upon themselves to increase their “police department by 30 adding 8,000 officers” (Skims 50).
New York became less tolerant, as they arrested all drug related tuitions, gang related activities and increased by 50%. As a result of New York increasing the IR law enforcement; ‘their number of homicides in 1998 was less than a number of murders in 1964″ (Skims 50). Out of 8 years; New Works efforts of increasing their law enforce meet as a result, their crime rates and amount of homicides was alleviated by 70%. The DEAD ha s also been creating programs to reduce the use of narcotics in America.
The METS for ex ample, is the “Mobile Enforcement Team” who offers help to law enforcement. Whenever t he law enforcement is experiencing crimes of drug related problems. As a result, the members who participated in the MET program have seen a “12% reduction in homicides” (S smirk). The Myers 7 community of New York, as well as the DEAD has took it upon their own hands to make reduce the amount of drug use in America. New York, was also able to reduce the crib me rates and increase their law enforcement by becoming less tolerant of the crimes occur ring around them.
The DEAD on the other hand, was also able to create programs in order to red CE the use of drugs, by sending in members of a team to help local law enforcement with the issue sees of drug related robbers. Drug abuse and the violence of crime were able to be prevented, b cause of the involvement as well as the strictness of the policies set by themselves upon the e individuals who were utilizing drugs and narcotics. In 1 914 congress created the Harrison Act, which was established to prohibit drugs such as cocaine, and heroin. N 1 920 six years later, anyone who possessed drugs with the intent to sell it for a profit would be classified as a criminal. These delinquents, would be SE intended for a harsh punishment, and extended year sentences in prison. However, after W WI the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FEN) “joined with congress to press even stiffer criminal penalties against those who sold cocaine, heroin, and marijuana” (Bertram 4). In order for the U united States government to help minimize the drug war in 1969, they created as series of programs in order to contribute to the drug efforts.
The goal of these programs was to “provide car e for people who are drug dependent, and to dissuade potential users through education AIBO t the harmful effects of drugs. However these policies had only “reaped failure and a range of the r social harms” (Bertram 4). Over the years of efforts to minimize the drug war, there has bee n no halting of the supply of drugs coming into America. A member of senate Senator Dennis De Coning says, “we need to mobile every resource available to the country and spend whatever it takes, until we choke off the supply and reduce consumption” (Bertram 10).
In response to s mentor Dennis Myers 8 Coning, America has made an effort to spend a great amount of money tow reds the federal drug budget. In the 197(Yes 1995 the government has spent from $68 billion in doom cities and foreign drug enforcement” (Bertram 10). In 1 9811996 the rise of crime rate risen to over 400,000 people in prison for s ailing drugs, as compared to the year in 1981 where only 31 ,OHO criminals were con evicted of drug possession. Wilting a time period of a decade, the yearly amount of money the e “government spends is about $1 8 billion annually on drug control” (Macon 24).
Within the sees years of spending billions of dollars annually, there has been a “5. 5 percent to 9. 9 peer .NET of total arrests” from 19801996. 1 were arrested for the drug use of medical marijuana a. The possession of drugs and narcotics from the early ass’s began increasing as years passed. 1 994 “felony drug possession convictions and prison commitments were also rising” (Mac noun 25). In 1996 the individuals who were caught in possession of marijuana had no “criminal penalties because they were first time offenders.
A grand total of an overall of 547,000 people w ere arrested for marijuana possession. (Macon 25). In conclusion, throughout the years of the early ass’s to the late ass’s drug pro habitation and the rise of crime rates due to drug possession had risen a tremendous ammo NT. From Onion’s declaration of the war on drugs, the government such as the Bush administrated ion has placed many policies in order to alleviate the rise of drug possession of marijuana as well as other drugs and narcotics.
