May 7, 2016 nvm this was junior year. i know i did something else in like 10th grade but anyways: Spoiler The Infinite War on Drugs Narsimha Chintaluri Mr. Hynes US History 1 April 27, 2011 The war on drugs that has stemmed from intrusive and invasive drug control is of great concern in this modern, progressive society. For many reasons, the policies surrounding drug use and trafficking have once again been put underneath the spotlight; with all the imperfections of drug control magnified tenfold. After so many years of intolerance and control, “the United States' war on drugs has cost $1 trillion and hundreds of thousands of lives” (Mendoza 1): this effort to regulate drug use has not yielded sufficient positive results. Marijuana criminalization, for example, has been deemed extremely unnecessary, with many people’s livelihood being jeopardized simply because they use a drug that has been scientifically proven in many cases to be significantly less harmful then alcohol and tobacco.“The criminalization of marijuana did not prevent marijuana from becoming the most widely used illegal substance in the United States and many other countries. But it did result in extensive costs and negative consequences” (Soros 1). Critics of eradicating drug control believe that it will lead to a rapid increase in addiction and decrease the repute of society (Costa 1). However, drug use has been prominent for hundreds of years and has only become a national problem when put in the spotlight. Although serious drug control was first implemented in our everyday lives as a safety measure, it has since grown to an inexplicable level; unconstitutionally restricting the freedom of choice of many Americans through its harsh and unreasonable policies. The focus on this area of life has remained ineffective ever since Nixon first implemented the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act, and "…‘Forty years later, the concern about drugs and drug problems is, if anything, magnified’" (Mendoza 1).It is safe to conclude that drug control has cost America more in lives and money than it’s worth. For example, yearly the government spends approximately “$33 billion in marketing "Just Say No"-style messages to America's youth and other prevention programs” (Mendoza 1), in order to reduce adolescent drug use, when “High school students report the same rates of illegal drug use as they did in 1970, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says drug overdoses have "risen steadily" since the early 1970s to more than 20,000” (Mendoza 1) in 2009. The inability of drug control to dominate the social norms is seen all throughout out the world, and not just the United States, with “countries such as Iran and China that routinely use the death penalty for drug offenses still hav[ing] serious drug problems” (Tree 1). Aside from the war on drug’s campaign unsuccessful to prevent drug use, the excesses money that is continuously being wasted on this failed endeavor is unfathomable. Drug control in the present day costs over $200 billion per year (Mendoza 1): “Nixon’s “first drug-fighting budget was $100 million. Now it's $15.1 billion, 31 times Nixon's amount even when adjusted for inflation” (Mendoza 1), with no change in sight. Even President Obama’s budget for the drug war is “…‘essentially the same as Bush's, with roughly twice as much money going to the criminal justice system as to treatment and prevention’” (Mendoza 1). Instead of money being spent in the treatment of the few who suffer from addiction from legal drugs such as medication, alcohol and cigarettes, more money is being used to withhold less harmful substances such as marijuana. In actuality, “Legalization offers the opportunity to deal with addiction properly” (“How To Stop the Drug War” 1), rather than believe that it can be prevented through harsh laws. In fact, it has been found that “there is no correlation between the harshness of drug laws and the incidence of drug-taking: citizens living under tough regimes (notably America but also Britain) take more drugs, not fewer” (“How To Stop the Drug War” 1). For example, Marijuana is put into the same category as heroin, cocaine, acid, and ecstasy, when in reality it has been proven to be less harmful then alcohol and tobacco with prolonged use. A lot of the rationale that is used in regards to the harsh laws on various drugs, marijuana specifically is ironically not very rational. If it were not for “religious movements” (Mendoza 1) and racial discriminations over a hundred years ago, “the crusade against drugs” (Mendoza 1) would never have evolved into such a hyperbolic situation. “When California and other U.S. states first decided (between 1915 and 1933) to criminalize marijuana, the principal motivations were not grounded in science or public health but rather in prejudice and discrimination against immigrants from Mexico who reputedly smoked the "killer weed’” (Soros 1). Political propaganda and not a sound concern for the safety of others is what originally caused “drugs [to] become synonymous with evil” (Mendoza 1). According to London School of Economics professor, Fernanda Mena, “until 100 years ago, drugs were simply a commodity. Then Western cultural shifts made them immoral and deviant” (Mendoza 1). Legalizing drugs such as marijuana, which have proven to be useful and virtually harmless, and in turn relaxing the restraints put in place by drug control, can also be profitable. “Regulating and taxing marijuana would simultaneously save taxpayers billions of dollars in enforcement and incarceration costs, while providing many billions of dollars in revenue annually. It also would reduce the crime, violence and corruption associated with drug markets, and the violations of civil liberties and human rights that occur when large numbers of otherwise law-abiding citizens are subject to arrest. Police could focus on serious crime instead” (Soros 1). “Seventy-two percent” (Nadelmann 1) of US citizens state “that for simple marijuana possession, people should not be incarcerated but fined: the generally accepted definition of "decriminalization"” (Nadelmann 1), because drug cartels are the ones who benefit the most from keeping marijuana illegal (Soros 1). “The roughly 750,000 arrests they make each year for possession of small amounts of marijuana represent more than 40% of all drug arrests” (Soros 1); keeping marijuana illegal is just one of many ways that the war on drugs, and drug control in general, is depriving many Americans of their right to choice, which is extremely prevalent in this situation because marijuana is most harmful, if at all, to one’s self and not to others. “Although some illegal drugs are extremely dangerous to some people, most are not especially harmful. (Tobacco is more addictive than virtually all of them.) Most consumers of illegal drugs, including cocaine and even heroin, take them only occasionally. They do so because they derive enjoyment from them (as they do from whisky or a Marlboro Light). It is not the state’s job to stop them from doing so” (“How To Stop the Drug Wars” 1). Supporters of drug control and regulation argue that legalization of any illegal drugs will lead to an increase in addiction, and have many negative effects on society. Since serious drug control has been implemented, opium supplies have been drastically reduced, and use of such drugs has supposedly decreased. However, as Costa and other critics themselves have stated, “Tobacco causes 5 million deaths per year and alcohol 2 million, against the 200,000 killed by illicit drugs” (Costa 1), and the control on illicit drugs has been fruitless. Countries “continue to spend the B*** of their drug budgets on law enforcement rather than treatment and prevention” (Mendoza 1). Harsher laws have actually led to an increase in the productivity of these illegal sales. Despite increasingly harsh laws to prohibit such drug trade and use, “the Office of National Drug Control Policy says about 330 tons of cocaine, 20 tons of heroin and 110 tons of methamphetamine are sold in the United States every year—almost all of it brought in across the borders. Even more marijuana is sold, but it's hard to know how much of that is grown domestically, including vast fields run by Mexican drug cartels in U.S. national parks” (Mendoza 1). Many lives have been lost due to violence against drug cartels; lives which could have potentially been saved if the illicit drugs being sold were legalized (Mendoza 1). Serious drug control was first implemented in our everyday lives as a safety measure and it has since grown to an inexplicable level; unconstitutionally restricting the freedom of choice of many Americans through its harsh and unreasonable policies. Since it has been forced into our everyday lives, drug control has only continued to grow in expensive, greatly feeding the growing deficit, cost lives as well as money, and turn drugs into a taboo luxury which has increased their cultivation and use. In order to deal with the problems surrounding addiction and drug abuse, the true problems regarding drug use, drug control needs to be lessened and more focus needs to be given to treatment rather than prevention. “Prevention”, in reality, is truly a form of suppression; therefore, money would be better justly spent educating and treating. However, for that to occur, political agendas need to be disregarded, the true well being and rights of Americans need to be taken into consideration, and the hypocrisy surrounding this controversial issue needs to be examined. In this day and age, drugs can no longer be “synonymous with evil” (Mendoza 1). Work Cited Costa, Antonio Maria. "Legalise Drugs and a Worldwide Epidemic of Addiction Will Follow." The Observer. 05 Sep 2010: 27. SIRS Researcher. Web. 31 Mar 2011. "How to Stop the Drug Wars." Economist (London, England) Vol. 390, No. 8621. 07 Mar 2009: p. 15. SIRS Researcher. Web. 31 Mar 2011. Mendoza, Martha. "US Drug War Has Met None of Its Goals." El Paso Times (El Paso, TX). 14 May 2010: n.p. SIRS Researcher. Web. 31 Mar 2011. Nadelmann, Ethan A. "An End to Marijuana Prohibition." National Review. 12 Jul 2004: 28+. SIRS Researcher. Web. 31 Mar 2011. Soros, George. "Why I Support Legal Marijuana." Wall Street Journal. 26 Oct 2010: A.17. SIRS Researcher. Web. 31 Mar 2011. Tree, Sanho. "The War at Home." Sojourners. May/June 2003: 20+. SIRS Researcher. Web. 31 Mar 2011. i miss the days of bs'ing school assignments
May 7, 2016 Can u imagine being @Narsh and having access to an essay u wrote five yrs ago -- at a moments notice -- on a Saturday night Like holy s--- ur lonely
May 7, 2016 narsh who the f--- was letting you write 400-word paragraphs? i would have held you back a year tbh
May 7, 2016 "Legalizing weed won’t eliminate the black market, but it will lend it camouflage to continue to sell drugs to any buyer." Lol
May 7, 2016 you can see where my bad habits originated my write ups for my actual english classes were much better. this was for a us history class that was mainly for remedial students..i got placed it in when i moved from NY to NJ in the middle of high school. NY does 1 year of US, 2 years of World history and NJ is the opposite. i would sleep through every one of this guys classes and turn in rambling messes like that essay but he didn't mind because he knew i shouldn't have been in that class
May 7, 2016 was initially disappointed to see this was removed before i got to read it then i saw what everyone who read it said, and the little excerpt on page 1 and i'm glad i didn't. that's plenty stupid and frustrating without having to read the whole thing
May 7, 2016 I don't quite understand the point of your essay Are you avocading for the legalization of all drugs?
May 7, 2016 Spoiler: spoiler Most arguments in favour of legalization range from cliché to laughable, and the idea of legalizing cannabis runs contrary to their other beliefs. But before that point, I want to indulge myself in the more common arguments thrown out by the masses every time I state my opposition to the sacred cow that is legal weed. “The war on drugs isn’t working,” cries the self-righteous stoner as he puts his bong down, ready to lecture me on the dollars spent trying to keep harmful drugs illegal. I reply saying the reason the war on drugs hasn’t worked is because of him and millions like him. When the war on drugs began in the 1970s, drug use was low compared to now. However, the demand for drugs increases as they became more culturally acceptable. Essentially, I believe the war on drugs has failed because of those who champion legalization. If there were still a stigma against marijuana use, the number of users would be drastically lower. The next clichéd remark that never ceases to arise is the classic “It’s my body and I can do what I want.” Well I see your moral relativism argument and I’ll raise you a consequentialist one. The act of buying illegal drugs is funding the drug trade. Sure, most users who get high and lay on the couch aren’t violent criminals, but the actual drug trade is very different. More so in the United States than in Canada, but when illegal drugs are purchased, it’s likely that the purchase is funding violence somewhere along the line. Then comes the most backwards argument in the pack: “if we legalize it and tax it, the government can make a large profit.” This is always a weird one to hear, because it’s shrouded in shortsightedness. We can tax it if we legalize it, but that fundamentally goes against why it’s illegal in the first place: we simply don’t want it. I remember when the Left argued legalization was the only answer even though they didn’t “want” marijuana. Regardless, it is funny that supporters of legalization all of a sudden care about paying taxes. If you actually cared about state revenue, you wouldn’t buy illegal drugs in the first place. And when the idea of fining drug users instead of throwing them in prison is brought up, it’s frowned upon. That would generate state profit too. Furthermore, just like with cigarettes, as the taxes go up the black market grows. Legalizing weed won’t eliminate the black market, but it will lend it camouflage to continue to sell drugs to any buyer. Pot smokers have it pretty good in Canada. Most cops don’t care if you smoke, so what’s the problem? https://thecord.ca/the-case-against-pot/ for anyone that missed it
May 7, 2016 No surprise @Narsh was a remedial student And yet cherished his output there so much he blessed us with his verbiage on this fine night lmao
May 7, 2016 yeah i think so but nah it was more about the direct failures of the drug war, not saying all drugs should be legal i also wouldnt try to make sense of it, its a bad paper that i knew id get a 100 on regardless of what i turned in. which brings me back to the point of it still being better than what perry had in the OP
