Mitch
Poen
English
2010
Ashley
Argyle
12
March, 2013
Report on the Consequences of the U.S.
War on Drugs
The U.S. War on Drugs creates a very
complicated set of problems. In an attempt to eradicate drug addiction, our
government has waged war on the issue. For years, the War on Drugs has been a
zealous and dangerous battle, however many are saying it has had too many
unintended consequences, and that it has been statistically ineffective in
achieving its sole purpose. People opposing the U.S. government’s approach to drug
policy argue that it results in a lack of civil liberties for the people. Any
anthropologist would agree that the use of drugs or psychoactive substances is
a deeply engrained facet of human culture, and has been for thousands of years.
The relationship between humans and psychoactive substances is very complex and
must be considered very carefully when attempting to create legislation
regarding their production and distribution. It’s a fact that people will use
drugs anywhere, regardless of the illegality. If there’s a demand for
something, there will be a supplier.
The drug war has statistically been ineffective in lowering addiction
rates and is overcrowding prisons, increasing death and violence, and is
costing an enormous portion of tax revenue to operate. (“Drug War Statistics”)
Many
believe that our laws do not reflect a good understanding of the principles of
harm reduction and public health and safety. One scholar, Philippe Bourgois, a
Professor of Anthropology and Family and Community Medicine at the University
of Pennsylvania, observes that political zeal tends to blind our country’s leaders
when it comes to drug enforcement. In order to prove their patriotism, he
believes, American politicians are prone to waging war instead of carefully
exploring different and more effective ways to achieve things in the interest
of public health. Bourgois explains that, “Despite repeated documentation of
the much lower risks associated with the consumption of marijuana consumption
compared to alcohol use, U.S. federal law enforcement agencies in the 2000s
have been spending over $4 billion a year arresting almost three quarters of a
million people on marijuana charges—usually merely on charges of possession.” (Bourgois
581)
Another example of negligence mentioned
by Dr. Bourgois is the fact that needle exchange programs still aren’t
nationally legal in the U.S. out of fear that they “condone the use of drugs”.
Needle exchange programs are an example of a harm reduction initiative. They’re
designed to give drug addicts clean needles to use in order to prevent the
spread of infectious diseases like HIV. Methadone clinics are also proven to be
great programs to help heroin addicts get clean by weaning them off of opiates.
Still though, treatment of this sort is often criticized by legislators (Bourgois
582).
 |
| Figure 1 (Singer) |
Anti-prohibition groups argue that rehabilitation
isn’t an option for many poor Americans who struggle with drug addiction. The
stance for this argument is that poor Americans that get arrested on drug
charges don’t have the financial means to get a fair trial. Drug addicts with
low incomes will often get arrested and incarcerated with no legal support. For
many, there just isn’t ever an opportunity to break their cycle of addiction
and there are not enough government programs to help those at rock bottom. If any
given celebrity gets caught doing drugs, they generally pay for a really good
lawyer and go to rehab, for instance, the actress Lindsay Lohan’s scandal about
cocaine use.
 |
| Figure 2 ("World Prison Populations") |
According to a report published by the Cato Institute in
Washington D.C. titled, “The Budgetary Impact of Ending Drug Prohibition”, it’s estimated that the U.S. would
save $41.3 billion dollars a year in government expenditures on prohibition.
Also estimated in this report was that drug legalization would yield tax
revenue of $46.7 billion dollars annually (Miron and Waldock). Other sources
painted a very similar picture, if these are indeed good estimations, a
reevaluation of our drug laws might be more than necessary at a time where our
national debt exceeds $16.6 trillion dollars. In an online factsheet from the
informational website of the Drug Policy Alliance, it says “The number of
incarcerated individuals in federal, state or local prisons in jails is
2,266,800 or 1 in every 99.1 adults, the highest incarceration rate in the
world (“Drug War Statistics”)”
In an attempt to find official government data about
incarceration statistics I went to the BJS (Bureau of Justice Statistics)
website, and I hit a brick wall. I wanted to find an annual account of those
incarcerated for drug crimes versus other offenses published by the government
itself and returned empty handed. I was seeking data that showed the percentage
of non-violent drug offenders in the prison population, and instead came to
this:
 |
| Figure 3 ("Drugs and Crime") |
There are only two publications on drug
crimes and facts that are available to the general public on the BJS website,
and they’re from 1989 and 1988. One can see in Figure 2 that the button that
says ‘Publications’ is in blue, designating it as an active link, which links to
the PDF file below it. Notice that the other two buttons for data tables and
press releases are grayed, giving the researcher no options and literally no
data for the past 24 years. When I went to look at statistics of violent crime
at bjs.gov it was a different story. For statistics on violent crime, I was
able to find data up to 2010.
Aside from the debate over the morality and
legality of drug use, a component that is often discussed is the limitations
presented by marijuana laws alone. According to federal law, marijuana is a
Schedule I substance. Schedule I substances are defined as ‘drugs with no
currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Schedule I drugs
are the most dangerous drugs of all the drug schedules with potentially severe
psychological or physical dependence (“Drug Scheduling”).’ Heroin is Schedule I as well as marijuana, even though opiates
(drugs from the poppy seed origin, heroin included), are commonly used in pain
management prescriptions. Marijuana is an herb with hundreds of potential medicinal
uses. Cocaine is a Schedule II substance, meaning it has a high rate of
addiction but some medicinal use and is commonly used in surgery as a local
anesthetic. Amphetamines are also Schedule II and they happen to be in the same
chemical family as the notoriously addictive drug known as methamphetamine or
meth. Nowadays, “hard drugs” such as heroin, cocaine, and meth are regarded as
some of the most addictive illicit substances out there. It is a scientific
fact that marijuana’s risks are minimal in comparison to heroin, cocaine and
meth. Nevertheless, marijuana is regarded by the government to be one of the
most dangerous drugs and is still, despite of the findings of public health
research, of the most heavily prosecuted and enforced and also the most widely
used and distributed illegal drug in the U.S. (“Drug War Statistics”)
Cancer patients, survivors,
and researchers may find it bewildering how marijuana, a very useful medicinal
resource is considered by the federal government to have no medicinal use
whatsoever. Patients going through intensive cancer treatment such as
chemotherapy and radiation therapy are subject to a wide array of extremely
unpleasant side affects such as chronic nausea and loss of appetite, among many
others. Chemotherapy is essentially a treatment that slowly poisons a patient’s
body in order to kill cancer cells, by halting cell reproduction or mitosis,
our body’s natural way of maintaining itself. Patients have reported marijuana time
and time again as the most effective way to alleviate symptoms of nausea and
vomiting while increasing appetite. Other antiemetics (anti nausea and vomiting
medications), have been reported to be significantly less effective than
marijuana among patients. An online report from cancer.gov that discusses the
benefits of cannabis for cancer patients states, “Among all 1,366 patients
included in the review, cannabinoids were found to be more effective than the
conventional antiemetics, prochlorperazine, metoclopramide, chlorpromazine, thiethylperazine, haloperidol, domperidone, and alizapride.” (“Cannabis and Cannabinoids”)
Fortunately, national
attitudes are slowly changing on marijuana. Several states are now dispensing
medical marijuana prescriptions and Washington and Colorado have even legalized
its recreational use. Though some state laws may be lax on marijuana, it’s
still federally illegal. In Colorado and Washington, marijuana is currently
legal and illegal at the same time, and the DEA continues to violently raid
dispensaries.
In conclusion, it is increasingly evident that
legislators must be educated as much as the general public about what drugs
mean socially and culturally to truly understand the morality of drug use. Many
westerners, generally the youth, experiment with and consume marijuana and
psychedelic drugs out of social and cultural tradition. The social dynamic of
drug use is very complex and is tragically ignored. An individual’s choice to
do drugs is a personal decision that affects none other than the individual (in
most cases). We have the freedom to choose what we eat, how much we eat, what
we drink, and however much alcohol we wish to consume. These choices fall under
personal behavior, something that, many scholars believe, our government should
have no jurisdiction over. The War on Drugs creates a vacuum in which new ideas
that will benefit our national well-being are unable to surface publicly, due
to the laws that say they’re wrong. It is of the utmost importance to
reevaluate and examine, that which limits what this nation is truly capable of
and what is causing the most pain and grief among Americans.
Works
Cited
Bourgois, Philippe. "The Mystery Of
Marijuana: Science And The U.S. War On Drugs." Substance Use &
Misuse 43.3/4 (2008): 581-583. Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 Mar.
2013.
"Cannabis and Cannabinoids." National Cancer Institute. National
Institutes of Health. Web. 11 Apr 2013.
<http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/cam/cannabis/healthprofessional/page5>.
"Drugs and Crime." bjs.gov. Bureau of Justice Statistics, 22 Aug 2012. Web.
9 Mar 2013.
"Drug Scheduling." justice.gov. The Drug Enforcement Administration. Web. 9 Mar
2013.
"Drug War Statistics." Drug Policy Alliance. Drug Policy
Alliance. Web. 11 Apr 2013. <www.drugpolicy.org/drug-war-statistics>.
Miron, Jeffrey A., and Katherine Waldock.
"The Budgetary Impact of Ending Drug Prohibition."Budgetary Impact of Ending Drug Prohibition.
(2010): n. page. Print.
Singer, Andy. No Exit. Cartoon.
andysinger.com, N.d. Web. 1 Mar 2013.
"World Prison
Populations." BBC
News, British
Broadcasting Company. Web. 9 Mar 2013.
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