The New Jim Crow Essay example

As the variables above are added up it, quickly becomes apparent that the “war on drugs,” during the mid 1980s-early 2000s had a negative impact on American life. With all the money spent and lives ruined, the United States came no closer to solving drug issues it had faced in the years prior. Citizens took the biggest brunt of this “war” with the fact that not only did they have to forcibly financially support the “war on drugs,” but in some cases, they had their civil liberties encroached upon or even completely violated. It could be argued that retrospectively looking at the “war on drugs” makes criticizing our country and the officials in charge easy, but when you actually look at the statistics and events surrounding this time period criticism

More than 45 years ago President Richard Nixon announced and declared the nation is at war, that war was the "War on Drugs". Nancy Reagan campaigned heavily in the fight against drug use as well; her fight was that of teaching young children the slogan of “Just Say No”. The goals of the criminal justice system in the war on drugs have been a never ending fight against the sale of illicit drugs and that of combating drug abuse. We will discuss the increased resources spent on law enforcement and rehabilitation while making an attempt in understanding

The book “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” (“The New Jim Crow”) hits on many significant points concerning the criminal justice system and the systemically racial elements that have been perpetuated through various laws. As argued in the book, the “War on Drugs” has been used to perpetuate racial discrimination against African Americans since the 1980s and the Reagan Administration.

Where has our war on drugs gotten us thus far? Currently, nearly 500,000 Americans are incarcerated for drug law violations, a ten-fold increase in two decades. The overall inmate population has quadrupled to nearly 2 million arrests for drug law violations and continues to rise. The vast majority of these arrests are for simple possession. (Crime in The United States, Uniform Crime Reports, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1999.) Personally, three convicted drug-users have shared their battle with addiction with me; the results of these conversations were far from optimistic. Of the two who have become reformed drug-users, a constant battle is being waged, it can only be said that jail terms served irrelevant in

America is the land of the free; it’s ironic that America also by far has more incarcerated citizens than any other country in the world. America is at war. We have been fighting drug abuse for almost a century. In 1972 president Nixon declared a war on drugs. Unfortunately, we are not winning this war. Drug users are still filling up our jails and prisons, now more than ever. The drug war causes violent crime and criminal activity due to prohibition, not the drugs themselves. Children in all of this are left neglected or without parents. The only beneficiaries of this war are organized crime members and drug dealers. The United States has focused its efforts on the criminalization of drug use. The government has spent billions of dollars in efforts to rid the supply of drugs. Even with all this money and effort of law enforcement it has not decreased the demand or supply of illegal drugs. Not only being highly costly, drug law enforcement has been counterproductive. Current drug laws need to be reviewed and changed. The United States needs to shift spending from law enforcement and penalization to education, treatment, and prevention. The war on drugs has caused many problems in the United States, family problems, financial problems and has increased crime, after forty years in this war it’s time for a change.

President Richard Nixon first used the term “The War on Drugs” in 1971. Since then little to nothing has been accomplished to stop drug use, trade and distribution. The Drug business is a multi-billion dollar enterprise that continues to thrive. A federal study conducted by “Monitoring the Future” reports that 85% of high school students found marijuana "easy to obtain." (Williams,2011). Many believe it is nonsensical to spend billions of dollars on arrest of small time offenders who commit non-violent crimes, when in over 45 years nothing has improved. Initially, Federal law mandates five years in prison without possibility of parole for possession of 5 grams of crack or 3.5 ounces of heroin.

The government of United States spends nearly 15 billion annually on the “War on Drugs”. This translates to spending about five hundred dollars per second to combat the menace of drugs. According to group Law Enforcement against Prohibition, about 82% of the drug arrests are only for possession of banned substances. The War on Drugs has forced our law enforcement agencies to focus on nonviolent drug offenders instead of expending their energies and resources in capturing violent criminals. Our correctional facilities are overflowing with “small time drug offenders” which has created a number of social and economic problems for the country.

Many feel today we are loosing the war on drugs. People consider legalization unnecessary. They feel that it will increase the amount of drug use throughout the world. They state that

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness, by Michelle Alexander. The New Press, 2010. 290 pages. Reviewed by Ashlei G Cameron.

We have been fighting the War on Drugs since 1971 when President Richard Nixon declared drug abuse as “public enemy number one” after receiving a report from two Congressmen that an astonishing number of Vietnam veterans were addicted to heroin. The height of the Drug War was in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. (Nixon and the Generation Gap). The War on Drugs caused a significant increase to the United State prison population from the 1980s to the 1990s. U.S. prisons were filled with about 5.5% of non-violent drug offenders in 1980 to about 7.6% in the 1990s (Benson, Escalating the War on Drugs Causes and Unintended Consequences, p296).

Thanks to the antiquated war on drugs, it has remained demonized, criminalized, and largely misunderstood. While more and more people are fighting to disprove these misunderstandings, it remains a huge issue today.

The war on drugs has led to the increase of mass incarceration of people of color and minorities, which is a problem in the United States. The United States is known for holding more children and adults in jails, and

The first war on drugs was fought by U.S Treasury in which brought forward the Narcotics act of 1914 a decade after, putting cocaine and opiates under federal control for the first time. The second war was focused around the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 when Harry Anslinger, The Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics told the congress that the act was highly important to stop the “Marijuana Menace” shown by teenage gangs who became murderous and violent after smoking Marijuana. The third War on Drugs was declared by President Nixon when he made a message to congress saying drug abuse is a “National Emergency” marking it down as “Public enemy number one”. Since the drug war has started, it has caused prejudice, confusion, and ignorance within the Supreme Court of the United States and the United States court of appeals. Instead of deciding drug law issues based on the true effects of drugs

The war on drugs was officially declared on June 1971 by President Nixon, when he dramatically increased the presence of federal drug control agencies, and pushed through measures such as mandatory sentencing and no-knock warrants. Many believe it is the number one issue in the United States today. The cost of this war has been lives, money, and the respect for law enforcement. The war on drugs has had little to no positive effects, while the decriminalization of drugs has many benefits. Citizens should inform themselves of everything our country could benefit from by simply decriminalizing what has been the cause of close to most incarcerations in federal and state prisons. There is no doubt that the war on drugs has a severe impact on the economy of our country. Drug criminalization is a multi-edged sword; the monetary costs, the loss of those who are lawfully employed in the labor market, and the deterioration of the relationships between the community and law enforcement.

While the war on drugs has consumed both time and resources and proven to be arguably among the longest running and most expensive policy initiatives that have ever been pursued by the US government, it has equally been among the most successful. The policy has only resulted in mass destruction of lives, families, flooded prisons and jails and ruined lives of youths more so those from minority communities. The war on drugs