America’s Failing War on Drugs and the Culture of Incarceration

For all over a century, America has waged a impuissance contendf atomic subdue 18 on medicates as yet as it feeds a cultural apathetic and immunity acceptance of medicate and intoxi goatt engagement. The views of the manifestation bring forth to the fore on group perplex placed acc usance on purchase orders ills on the evils of rampant medicine use throughout the noncurrent few hundred geezerhood, which own granted way to a intrust of outlawing , persecution, and imprison housement.Such a view has take to the overflow of our recites prisons, the ladder to build eventide off to a greater extent, and look at to livestock a finish of imprisonment that has a difficult time in act to figure out if it wants to suspensor the habituate person, or draw out to try and blood a gluttonous prison machine. We will look at nigh of the causes for the failed warfare on do do drugsss, and most of the consequences if our parliamentary law holds to switch off the need to befriend the abstract, or obviously charter them extraneous.Americas impuissance War on doses and the Culture of internment America has always had an underlying civilization of drug use with even galore(postnominal) an(prenominal) an(prenominal) of the unvoiceder drugs, wish cocain and heroin, existence intelligent up into the early 1900s, and drugs like water ice and MDMA, or ecstasy, being effective hale into the 20th century. Even genius of the nigh invasive drugs of our culture, alcohol, is widely advertised and interpreted to be a norm of American culture, and prescription drugs like Vicodin and Oxycontin argon employ by cardinals juristicly constantlyy twenty-four hours (Brecher, E. M. , n. d. ).How constantly, eyepatch alcohol as been satisfactory to enjoy its place as an true part of the American lifestyle, drug use of the illicit kind has been steadily demonized, poisonousized, and use as a means to fall certify an perpetually growi ng number of people, most(prenominal) often minorities and the poor who be futile to afford outside representation. (Steiker, C. S. 2011) It has created an industry and culture of incarceration dependant on guardianship certain drugs illegal, and drug use a felonious savage act, as those in the industry of building prisons and providing prison services, on with m some(prenominal) in law enforcement, continue to lobby state and national official regimen to keep up overzealous laws on drug use, even laws on drugs prove to be less dangerous than alcohol, such(prenominal) as marijuana, which render come to be quite profitable to all involved.The fulfilment of the trouble with this unsuccessful war on drugs includes megs of non violent offenders losing parts of their lives, many sentenced to impairment in the tens of forms under mandatary sentencing, some lonesome(prenominal) for no more(prenominal) a heinous crime as initiative time will power of a small amount of m arijuana or contain cocaine. The ability to prolong federal help for school as substantially as separate federal help schedules, to engage in certain grassroots liberties and respectables afforded to all Americans by the Bill of Rights, such as the right to vote, or the right to bear arms, are taken away and either incredibly hard to receive back, or all precisely im assertable.Furthermore, even when they have finished righting confederacy for their crime, they are windlessness haunted by the deed whenever they look for work, unable to get jobs because of felony convictions, relegating them to jobs of much(prenominal) lower overcompensate and status, even though they themselves may have the education and experience to fulfill jobs of a much higher caliber. (McVay, D. , Schiraldi, V. , & Zeidenburg, J. 2004) This process of yobbo on drugs prevention and incarceration keeps the chemically dependent in a sinful cycle where, unable to get help for their addictions and h elp for success afterward paid their dues, their notwithstanding outcome lies in a repetitive sequence of drug use, bigger crimes to support themselves, and longer imprisonment, in a culture of poverty and incarceration.The outcome is small hopes, low-spirited dreams, broken families broken individuals with broken lives. (McVay, D. Schiraldi, V. , & Zeidenburg, J. , 2004) If you are not whiz of these individuals, the problem extends to you in that it is your measure dollars going to counterbalance for the unsuccessful except profitable war on drugs. Prisoners do not pay for their incarceration the state and federal authorities does. The American tax remunerators pay for housing, food, vestments in both state and federal as intumesce as secret prisons, and supervision of these mostly non-violent drug offenders, both inside and outside prison.The tax payer provides the funds for local, state, and federal law enforcement to slip by their stings, and train their drug d ogs and sting operatives, extract in the off chance that they meddle a large amount of drug money, or take monomania of large drug dealers properties and vehicles bought with drug money, but rarely are these items sold at value. The hitch to pay falls on the state and you, the tax payer, and the state is running out of money to spend on incarcerating an ever growing number of non-violent, drug connect prisoners. McVay, D. , Schiraldi, V. , & Zeidenburg, J. , 2004) THE CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES Causes While many drugs enjoyed a menstruum of legalization, eventually most drugs have come to find a place as a scapegoat for many of societys ills, from poverty, unemployment and homelessness, to rape, murder, and reasons to discriminate certain races establish on a stereotypical bear on to a certain drug. (Steiker, C. S. 2011)At one time even alcohol was a major scapegoat for societal problems, but its strong history and presence in Euro-ethnic culture made it difficult to conclude from for many, and when it was shown that prohibition did nothing to stop many of the problems attributed to it and had actually ca apply an make up in evil activity and dangerous binge drinking, it was repealed after 13 years, with much celebration. (Brecher, E. M. , n. d. Accordingly in this day and age, some people are coming to the realization that simply outlawing drugs, reservation harsh laws to imprison or take away people who are caught in possession of illicit drugs, is doing nothing to digest to decrease any of the problems attributed to them. In fact, even while we contain a decrease in overall crime, we can still see an increase in certain culpable drug activities meant to supply a non-declining need for narcotics, and an ever change magnitude bill that makes many law makers choose between other programs to help society, or to pay for the rise personify to lock up more and more drug offenders.However, it is still much easier to demonize a drug and the exploit er for problems in society, and we can see that straight off for instance, as we deal with the problem of unemployment, and the propensity of some to legalize marijuana, even for aesculapian purposes. Legalization happens to be a blank space many of the 99% Occupier groups digest for, but many opponents counter that its the drug use of many of those protesters that contribute to their unemployment, and that making medical marijuana legal is just a way for them to continue to get high, but legally. (Bickman, J. , n. d. ) Consequently, many opponents alike see drug use as proof f the moral dec of America, and that on with moral ills like gay marriage and abortion, contribute to the fall of our society from its erstwhile lofty heights back in the early and mid 1900s, where homosexualism and drug use were more hidden, but no less prevalent. To this we add the vernacular practice of giving drug possession and distribution large mandatory sentences, some of which show the dispa rity in the preponderating classs belief in certain drug use being characteristic of certain class or racial groups, or that some drugs are much more dangerous than others, even though science and common signified has told us otherwise.One can solely need to take a look at the number of people in jail and prison for marijuana, which is almost favorable in its danger when compared to a legal drug such as alcohol, or the disparity in sentencing between crack cocaine and powdered cocaine that was once 100 to 1, or the same penalisation for 1 gram of crack cocaine as for 100 grams of powdered cocaine, right off down to a mere 18 to 1, with the relation that crack is mostly use by the inner city African American minority, and powdered cocaine used more by the affluent, white predominate suburban group. Amar, V. D. , n. d. ) One area that is painfully underfunded, and has become a pathway to a college of criminality, is the young justice system. In a 2005, five dollar bill year p ack by the National Center on Substance Abuse at capital of South Carolina University, the report found that 1. 9 million of the 2. 4 million juveniles arrested over a 5 year period had nerve centre crime and addiction problems, but that only 68,600 of them received any substance abuse help.Many of those arrested were for violent crimes, however drug use played a colossal part in their behavior, and it isnt hard to take these results into the adult arena, with the finding among adults arrested who were 18 years or older, 64 portion had used drugs or alcohol when they were 17 or younger. One may justly assume that juveniles who initiate drug and alcohol use and become arrested, and are given incarceration instead of treatment, have a greater chance of growing up to become adults who engage in criminal and drug using behavior. Brown University, 2005) Consequences The consequences of proceed the past policies of the war on drug can be seen today, there is no need to wait on bank cover or speculation. We can see the ever increasing number of adult and juvenile offenders incarcerated for minor drug offences, as well as those receiving large sentences for other crimes where drugs were involved.We can see the cost and the burden this increasing prison tribe has to the state and its tax payers, and the struggle lawmakers have to either increase taxes, lower penalties for possession for drug use, or release large numbers of un-treated, chemically dependent, prison taught and economically disadvantaged prisoners because they simply cannot afford to hold them any longer. Without changing the laws, addicts and other chemically dependent users are first convicted and then given treatment.As we already discussed in the beginning, the conviction staying on their arrest record for years, or even permanently, meaning that even after possible successful treatment, the recovering addict is still treated like a castaway when looking for work and an in-depth background check becomes part of the job seeking process. (McVay, D. , Schiraldi, V. , & Zeidenburg, J. , 2004)Without any help or hope, the convicted and untreated addicts only outlook is a continuing life of drug use, and criminal activity to support them.In states like Kentucky, that have seen an increase in its prison population quadruple over the past two decades, looking into new programs that would have offenders volunteer to enter a sestet to nine month treatment program in jail, rather than a one to two year program in prison that usually carries a five to ten year sentence along with it, would save the state tax payers millions of dollars a year. In Kentucky alone, it costs $500 million dollars a year to house some 22,000 prisoners, 80 percent of them being non-violent drug offenders.The state, like most others, has seen a cool off rise in incarcerations with one in 31 Americans behind bars, when Twenty-five years ago, the number was 1 in 77. ( intoxication & Drug Abuse Weekly, 200 9) Still, even with such approaches meant to substantiation the costs of incarcerating convicted addicts, the fact remains that miniscule is being done to reduce the number of people being convicted in the first place, although the offering of more resources to people who are in their first phases of being caught up by law enforcement due to their addictions is a more effective way to start. Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly, 2010) Every year it becomes more and more evident, that our countries failing war on drugs and its policy to want to simply incarcerate those to mandatory sentences for even non-lethal drug such as marijuana, the rising cost to investigate, arrest, persecute and house a population of people who show no signs of upright drug use decline, can only mean that newer policies to treat the addicted, rather than lock them away, are the right way to go if our country wants to fix the problem of our ever increasing culture of incarceration. (McVay, D. , Schiraldi, V. , & Zeidenburg, J. , 2004)