America's War on Drugs

America's War on Drugs

Today, our nation is fighting two wars: one abroad and one at home. While the war in Iraq is in the headlines, the other war is still being fought on our own streets. Its casualties are the wasted lives of our own citizens.

I am speaking of the war on drugs.

Walter Cronkite

When American combat troops were deployed into Iraq many people wondered what we were doing there and how long the war would likely last and how costly it would be on the American Taxpayer. When troops invaded Bagdad and eventually captured Saddam Hussein, the end of the war seemed to be in sight. Today, troop reduction and the formation of a new Iraqi government have put the end to this war in sight. In comparison, after more than four decades since the then President Richard Nixon declared a "War on Drugs", low level users/addicts arrests have increased, prison populations have soared, enforcement budgets have swelled to unimaginable numbers of dollars and yet there is no end in sight. The War on Drugs and what it was suppose to accomplish has seriously distorted our Government leader's ability to effectively gauge the success to cost ratio. The War on Drugs has failed and complete reevaluation is needed to end the multi-billion dollar industry that is the War on Drugs.

During the past 40+ years the expected results of a declared "War" has been largely unrealized. The drug use rates have remained consistent and in 2009 actually saw an increase. According to The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), substance abuse among people age 12 and older, showed an increase shows that drug use in the United States increased in 2009. Statistics now show an estimated 21.8 million Americans (8.7%) aged 12 or older were current (past month) users of illicit drugs in 2009, meaning they used an illicit drug within the month before taking the survey. This is an increase of 9% from 20.1 million in 2008 (8.0%). (SAMHSA, 2010) Meanwhile the arrest percentage of drug arrests compared to other crimes has also risen. In 1980, 5% of the total arrests were for drug related offenses. (UCR, 2010) In 1990, it had risen to 7%; 2000 jumped to 11% and in 2009 it rose once again to 12%. In the meantime the Drug Enforcement budgets at the federal as well as the state levels have continued to increase.

In conjunction with the War on Drugs were mandatory minimum sentencing laws increased the penalties for anyone caught possessing or selling illegal drugs. Mandatory minimum sentencing laws are popular crime-fighting measure during the past few years. These laws require that a judge impose a sentence of a minimum length of time if certain criterion is met. For example, a person convicted by a federal court of possessing half a kilogram or more of cocaine powder must be sentenced to at least five years in prison. Proponents of mandatory minimums, day the certainty and severity help ensure that goal of lengthy incarceration to deter future crimes is met. The intent is to deter would be future drug dealers as well. Critics, however, believe that mandatory