Is the War on Drugs a Good Idea to Help Keep Drugs Off the Streets?
Question by Disastrous Brant Napier: Is the war on drugs a good idea to help keep drugs off the streets?
Prohibition Statistics
• Prison Population (BBC 2006)
-United States: 2,193,798 (overall population 313,900,000)
-China: 1,548,498 (overall population 1,344,130,000)
-Russia: 874,161
-Brazil: 371,482
• Alcohol Prohibition (MSNBC)
A) Arrests for drunkenness and disorderly conduct up 41%
B) Homicides, Assaults, and batteries up 13%
C) Number of Federal convicts up 561%
D) Federal Prison Population up 366%
E) Total spending on penal institutions up 1,000%
Host “We have the same exact kind of enormous jumps in incarceration, crime, and prison expenditure under this current pot prohibition.”
• Each year the United States spends 350 billion dollars on the war on drugs.
• On any given day in the United States 1 in 9 African American males between the ages of 20 and 34 is incarcerated.
• Mexico declares war on drug cartels in December of 2006 (BBC)
A) 2006: 270 drug related deaths
B) 2009: 16,337 drug related deaths
This is where the Mexican Government has stopped releasing these figures.
• Judge Jim Gray (Reason TV)
– Stated In 1990 we were only half as successful in prosecuting homicides as we were in 1980 due to the Reagan administration ratcheting up the drug war. This due to prosecutorial resources being devoted to drug related “offenses”.
– In Holland marijuana use is legal for everyone 16 and older. Coffee shops include marijuana. The minister of health recently held a press conference in which he stated that marijuana use within his country was half that of the United States both for adults and teenagers. He claimed that they had succeeded in making pot “boring”.
• Drug offenders in prisons and jails have increased 1,100% since 1980. Nearly 6 in 10 persons in prison for a drug offense have no history of violence or high-level drug selling activity (November Coalition)
• According to the UN, drug prohibition has seen increases in the use of opiates, cocaine and marijuana to the effect of
-Opiates 34%
-Cocaine 27%
-Marijuana 8.5% (Worldwide presumably. CNN)
• According to DEA: (Google Tech Talks)
– 4 million drug users in 1965 (2% of overall population)
-112 million drug users in 2003 (46% of overall population)
• Wholesale cocaine costs 60% less / Heroin costs 70% less (Google Tech Talks)
• Heroin overdose rate: (Google Tech Talks)
– 1979 = 28 deaths per 100,000 users
– 2003 = 141 deaths per 100,000 users
• Approximately $ 30,000 per year per inmate
• 39 Million drug arrests under drug prohibition
• 1914 = 1.3% addicted to drugs/ 2002 = 1.3% addicted to drugs (Google Tech Talks)
• % of crimes resolved by arrest or other means (Google tech talks)
– 1965: Murders 91%
– 2006: Murders 60.7%, Forcible rape 40.9%, Robbery 25.2%, Aggravated Assault 54.0%, Burglary 12.6%, Larceny-theft 17.4%, Motor vehicle theft 12.6%
• Decriminalized Drugs
1. Netherlands 1976
2. Portugal 2001
3. Mexico 2009
4. Argentina 2009
• Marijuana use by tenth graders in Netherlands: 28% / Marijuana use by tenth graders in the United States 41% (Google Tech Talks)
• Marijuana use: U.S. lifetime prevalence = 37% / Netherlands = 17% (Google Tech Talks)
• Heroin Use: U.S. lifetime prevalence = 1.4% / Netherlands = 0.4% (Google Tech Talks)
• After decriminalization, Portugal drug use by ages 13-15 decreased by 25%/ 16-19 decreased by 22%
– Heroin overdose deaths decreased by 52%
– HIV infections reported by drug users decreased by 71% (Google Tech Talks)
• Netherlands homicide rate per 100,00 population: 1.5/ U.S. homicide rate per 100,00 population 5.6 (Google Tech Talks)
• United States imprisons more of its’ own population than any country in the history of the world. (TV Show “QI”)
Cited video titles are listed as follows:
1. End the Failed War on Drugs — Cenk on MSNBC
2. Did You Know — War on Drugs Edition
3. Portugal Legalizes Drugs. Crime Usage Falls.
4. Mexico’s War on Drugs: War on Drugs Edition
5. United States of Prison
6. CNN: Time to End the War on Drugs?
7. Drug War Failure in Mexico
8. What Happened When Portugal Decriminalized Drugs?
9. The War on Drugs has Failed
10. Stephen Fry on American Prison Facts
11. Jim Gray on The Six Groups Who Benefit From Drug Prohibition
BBC Prison Statistics: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/uk/06/prisons/html/nn2page1.stm
Drug Prohibition Statistic Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL970FD94A018B8275
“The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law for nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase in crime in this country is closely connected with this.”
-Albert Einstein
“Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very [most basic] principles upon which our government was founded.”
– Abraham Lincoln
For information as to why drugs are illegal see my answer here: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20140105024131AA1kW4Z
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQit8wnYpiU (All videos combined into one)
Best answer:
Answer by Harry
the more laws made the more will be broken
Answer by Hiking
Your question seems to answer itself… though a beautiful take on drugs. I believe you cannot force an individual into a healthy life , it must be one's own decision. Imposing ban , prohibition, etc. are ways to divert public attention from the government's "real" duties . See I've known successful people who've taken drugs and still do , marijuana is very common, then comes hash, lsd ,cocaine, heroine, etc. They use it for recreational purpose . And mind you are not addicts. But I've also seen some who lose it, get all crazy and shit, well i wouldn't mind if such guys are detained till they sober up, i.e. if they create a ruckus… and not jailed with criminal charges. Criminal charges are for the antisocial trouble makers, who cause physical, emotional , economic damage… someone having a lil "high" time shouldn't be persecuted… and if drugs aren't seen as a taboo anymore, the gang wars of drug cartels would be fewer or maybe nill. I don't see a war in gangs for tobacco/alcohol
Wow, you have cited some impressive statistics. Aside from the fact that most are irrelevant, it would be hard to dispute them, It is more than obvious that you favor the legaliation of “drugs”. So, there is little point in believing that you would pay any attention to the irrelevance of some of your statistics, nor to the fact that your logic is faulty. You use the term “war on Drugs” which is a dead give away for someone who is at least on papaer, an activist for the legalization of drugs of abuse. I have been in law enforcement for over 40 years, and we DO NOT use that term, or especially embrace that concept. You might be surprised to know that I am 100% in favor of medical marihauna dispensed ONLY with a doctor’s prescription (no medical marihauna card).
Perhaps if we lived in a Utopian society, where drug abuse and its deleterious effcets were unlikely, I could even agree with you. While I don’t feel like taking the time to verify the Lincoln quote that you added, you might be interested to know that most of our “drug” laws were not enacted until around the turn of the century, when drug abuse was creating major social problems in the country. The “temeprance” movement had quite the same aim, as alcoholism and alcohol related crime was rampant.
One of the lesser know fact about the Volstead act was that it did not ban the consumption or possession of alcohol. The three distinct purposes of the Act were: to prohibit intoxicating beverages, to regulate the manufacture, sale, or transport of intoxicating liquor (but not consumption), and to ensure an ample supply of alcohol and promote its use in scientific research and in the development of fuel, dye and other lawful industries and practices, such as religious rituals.
And, don’t forget, it is possible to imbibe alocoholioc beverages with recahing alcohol levels that cause intoxication (even mildly). The puritans, who were about the most sober people in the world, drank beeer instead of water, because beer was safe, water was not. And, I am not an apologist for alcohol, by any means. Alcohol costs about $ 224 BIllion in medical costs annually in this country. Now, I acknowledge that alcohol may have some more problematic side effects, but it also has a benign use as a beverage. However, marihauna (other than medical) and a whole world of other inoxicating drugs are only used to get “high” or to alter one’s perception of reality. You can drink one beer and not have any physiological effects. But, the ONLY reason to smoke a joint or snort one line is to alter your perception of reality. That is a pretty sad commentary on a society that feels that people need to escape that badly. If alcohol already costs $ 224 Billiona year, do we really need any another legal intoxicants?
And, yes, I do believe that marihauna is a “threshold drug”, but I know that view is not popular. But, I also belivee that alcohol is a threshold drug, and if you worked in a poverty ridden neighborhood, you could see how alcohol and marihuana grab children as young as 6 or 7 and starts to ruin their lives. You would see the effects of drug abuse in the health and social fiber of a community.
We are on a slippery slope to ruin in this country. I only feel sorry for my grand kids. We are making more and more of what is wrong, or deviant acceptable as the ‘norm’. I think that was the start of Rome’s decline too. I am no prude, and I enjoy a good whiksey or cold beer. But encouraging voluntary intoxication is a very dangerous path.
If only education, or treatment could be an effective substitute for the “war on drugs”, most of us would welcome it. But, we know it doesn’t work. I have spent more than 40 years watching what susbtance abuse dpes to society (and the individulas involved).
Please don’t be so naive as to think that LEGAL drugs will not cause psychological and health problems, nor that they will not cause addiction, nor that addicts will stop stealing to buy drugs (legal or black market). Anyone who proposes “legalization: ias aviable alternative does not address the reality of the situation. If you can come up with a better alternative, bring it on, please.