War On Drugs Warzone

The War on Drugs’ Warzone

On September 14, 1986 Ronald and Nancy Regan addressed the Nation to report on the “war on drugs”, America’s latest epidemic. Bragging of a drug law enforcement budget that was scheduled to triple in comparison 1981, of 10,000 drug criminals locked away, and $250 million of their assets seized at the time of his speech, what Regan had done, was share information about the spoils of their drug war. The President told of his plans for a series of new proposals that would toughen laws against drug criminals, encourage more research and treatment, and ensure that illegal drugs will not be tolerated in schools or in workplaces . Unlike a war against a country, calling one on drugs, an inanimate object, shouldn’t give America

Under the Rockefeller Laws, a person convicted of a single sale of two ounces of cocaine faces the same mandatory prison term as a murderer, fifteen years to life, despite the fact most offenders are nonviolent drug dealers or buyers. Of those arrested for drug offenses, many never took a formal trial. About 98 percent of all drug convicts would instead appear in front of a prosecutor, accepting a minimum they could not get lowered. If they were found guilty in trial, they would receive a higher sentence, many never took the risk. In jail, blacks convicted of drug offenses would serve their prison sentences alongside murderers, and rapists, serving virtually the same amount of time. Once behind bars, drug offenders are put into the system that they can’t escape even when they leave the

Jobs applications, Financial Aid, Public Housing, and food stamps applications often ask for citizen’s criminal records, stigmatizing those who came out of the system, robbing them of opportunities. It’s very hard to find employment, convicts are all treated the same regardless of crime. In The New Jim Crow, the author talks about how young blacks are more likely to go to jail than college due to the system of incarceration. In fact, she cites a source that explains that in 2001, there were more blacks in the Illinois state prison, then there were in the state’s public universities, on drug charges alone. So forty years after the drug war was first declared, it still goes on, normalized by the commentary in media, and stereotypes assigned to those who serve time in correctional facilities. Though the argument here isn’t whether or not drug offenses should be punish, but if long prison sentencing for small amounts of drugs is the correct way to fight this war. Clearly, even after all these years, our society is a long shot from the drug free America Regan envisioned, but the disparities proves that the drug laws punish based on class and status. It would seem that the correct way to fight would be mass rehabilitation, rather than incarceration. Rather than spending trillions to round up drug offenders, and punish them alongside criminals convicted for more violent crimes,