War on drugs

From ArticleWorld

The most common reason given for banning drug use is that it is unhealthy, with possible effects ranging from lowered intelligence to insanity to death by overdose. The "War on Drugs" has caused a massive surge in cost for illicit mind-altering substances, in turn raising the market value of the trade in highly targeted drugs such as Cocaine and Heroin to over a trillion dollars. The subsequent actions taken by the American government included dumping surplus corn and grain into the Colombian market below market prices, depressing domestic production. The following decade showed a substantial rise in the profile of Cocaine use in American pop culture.The most widespread recreationally used drug throughout human history has been alcohol. Beer and wine were produced in India and Persia and in the Mediterranean before recorded history. Recreational use of opium (extracted from the immature seed pods of a species of poppy) was once common in Asia, and from there spread to the West. Its use peaked in the nineteenth century, when the British Empire and other Western powers used military power to force China to legalize its importation from India and other British colonies.Many other substances were once commonly used as recreational drugs, but fell from favor for various reasons. Islam forbids the consumption of alcoholic beverages, and many religions discourage the recreational use of drugs. In the 20th century some Western countries, notably the United States, have criminalized the use of many recreational drugs, and used diplomatic, economic and military pressure on other countries to do the same. Thus, for example, the Japanese hemp plant — once widely grown as a source of textile fiber — was wiped out during the American occupation after World War II, and today only survives in a handful of strictly controlled bio-conservation plots.

The War on Drugs

is an initiative undertaken by the United States to carry out an "all-out offensive" (as President Nixon described it) against the prohibited use of certain legally controlled drugs. The Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress noted in a 1989 report that the nation's war on drugs could be considered to have started in public policy dating to November 1880, when the U.S. and China completed an agreement which prohibited the shipment of opium between the two countries. By February 1887, the 49th Congress enacted legislation making it a misdemeanor for anyone on American soil to be found guilty of violating this ban. Nixon's modern-day "War on Drugs" began in 1971. He characterized the abuse of illicit substances as "America's public enemy number one." This coincided with Colombia's destroyed domestic market, providing a fertile ground for the exploitation of the American hunger for narcotics. Thus began the rise of a culture that is still romanticized in popular media; Drug Cartel groups and families including Pablo Escobar's reign over Medellin became the norm in areas where drug production was an important part of the local economy. The political implications of the "War on Drugs" are extensive and the impact of the program has been severe. Many studies have been conducted concerning the connection between drug addiction and property crime. One such study, conducted by Douglas Anglin and John Ball, shows that the most addicted commit large number of crimes. "Crime rates seem to increase when their heroin use increases and to fall when it declines.In many cases, the possession and use of common recreational drugs violates the law. This attitude is less prevalent in western Europe—see "Drug policy of the Netherlands"—and more recently in Canada, where enforcement of extant legal penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana and other so-called "soft drugs" such as hallucinogenic mushrooms is increasingly ignored or given a low priority by law enforcement officials.This attitude stands in marked contrast to the official policy of the United States government, which declared a "War on Drugs" under President Richard Nixon in 1972 which later intensified under Ronald Reagan, but saw its greatest increases (in budget, and in the number of arrests and prosecutions) under President Bill Clinton. The United States is far more stringent about enforcing penalties for "soft drug" use. The Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA, is primarily responsible for illegal drug interdiction at the federal level.A few societies have abandoned what they feel are unsuccessful attempts to prohibit recreational drugs, and instead turned to a policy of harm reduction by informing users of ways to reduce common risks associated with popular drugs, and providing medical assistance for drug users who wish to stop using drugs. Harm reduction is the official policy of the Netherlands, Brazil, and some areas of Canada such as Vancouver, which have stopped actively prosecuting end users of recreational drugs. Instead, law enforcement efforts focus on capturing illegal dealers of "hard drugs" such as heroin and cocaine, passing out clean needles to intravenous (IV) drug users, and providing medical assistance for addicted users who wish to stop taking drugs.

In jurisdictions

where legislation restricts or prohibits the sale of certain popular drugs, it is common for an illegal drugs trade to develop. For example, the United States Congress has identified a number of controlled substances which each have corresponding illegal drug trades.Because of physical dependence, the high cost of illegal addictive drugs is one of the major causes of crime. Some estimates placed the value of the global trade in illegal drugs at around four hundred billion U.S. dollars in the year 2000. Major consumer countries include the United States and European nations, although consumption is world-wide. The great wave of anti-drug legislation began in the late 19th century, and continues to the present day. The United States has been the driving force in the present-day "War on Drugs." Drug control strategy Present drug control efforts utilize several techniques to achieve their goals of eliminating recreational drug use: •Disrupting the market for drugs •Prevention efforts that rely on community activism, public information campaigns to educate the public on the potential dangers of drug use •Law-enforcement efforts against current users, through medical screenings, workplace testing and Drug Courts •Law-enforcement efforts against elements of the supply chain, through surveillance and undercover work •Providing effective and targeted substance abuse treatment to dependent users In the U.S., the penalty for illegal drug possession and sale can vary from 1 year to a life sentence. Most non-violent first time offenders guilty of drug possession get a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years with no parole, or 10 years with no parole if he has a large quantity of drugs. This prison time is doubled (10 or 20 years) if has been imprisoned for drug possession before. Selling drugs, carrying a gun during a drug transaction, and other factors add more prison time. Maximum sentences can be up to a life sentence.

There is a movement in Australia

to make some narcotics decriminalized, particularly cannabis, making the possession of such a non-convictable offence in most states (however, the definition of what constitutes possession can differ between states). Heroin trials have been tried in various states with mixed results. Australian citizens known as "the Bali Nine" were caught smuggling heroin, and each face the death penalty. In the Netherlands, cannabis and other "soft" drugs are fully decriminalized in small quantities. Indonesia carries a maximum penalty of death for drug dealing, and a maximum of 15 years prison for drug use.

There has been much controversy

around the War on Drugs, most notably with reference to the corruption involved in the policing of the drug trade. Many major players of the Reagan administration were aiding the Nicaraguan contras in shipping cocaine into America's cities. The funding for this practice was gained through the illegal sale of weaponry to Iran. When this practice was discovered and condemned in the media, it was referred to as the Iran-Contra affair.The War on Drugs has stimulated the creation of international law enforcement agencies (such as Interpol), mostly in Western countries. This has occurred because a large volume of illicit drugs come from Third-World countries. The United States has also initiated a number of military actions as part of its "War on Drugs", such as the 1989 invasion of Panama codenamed Operation Just Cause involving 25,000 United States troops.