Week 5, Entry 3: The War on Drugs-a losing battle?

With the spreading use of medical marijuana and incidents of drug trafficking from Mexico making the news, most Americans are aware of the War on Drugs-and its lack of effectiveness. But many may not really know WHY it isn’t effective, and how it may inadvertently contribute to the disproportionate numbers of racial minorities in the prison system. This “war” has been going on for 37 years, since President Nixon created the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in 1973. Since then many laws have been passed and many arrests made, but drug use and dealing is still rampant.

As long as profits can be made from dealing in illegal drugs, it will be impossible to stop it entirely and no reasonable person would expect the government to be able to stop drug use. However, considering the considerable amount of time and money the government has spent, one would expect drug use to at least to have declined. Unfortunately, according to the government’s own data that hasn’t happened-in fact the percentage of Americans of all ages who have ever used illicit drugs has increased by 10 percent between 1979 and 2001. Yet, we spend billions every year prosecuting this “war” which disproportionately impacts the poor and minorities.

It is known that those who are lacking in opportunities, such as minorities in poor urban areas are more prone to be drawn into criminal activity. Crack cocaine has devastated many such areas, including Washington DC. Many have been drawn into the use of and dealing in this deadly drug and have been sentenced to lengthy prison sentences for doing so. However, little has been done to cut off the supply of this drug and prosecute the source of the drug-the kingpins. Rather, most of those in prison are small time dealers and users-who might be better served by rehabilitation than incarceration. But because crimes involving crack often carry harsher penalties than other drugs, minorities are disproportionately affected by the prosecution of this “war.”

Some believe the answer to the drug problem is to make all drugs legal and have the government regulate them, but I don’t believe that this is the answer. Rather, if we truly want to achieve results, we must allocate resources and realign the laws to rehabilitate small time dealers and users of illicit drugs. Perhaps some drugs, such as marijuana could be made legal and regulated, but for those drugs that are illegal the penalties should be consistent. Making drug offenses related to certain illegal drugs more severe than others only invites injustice and usually it’s minorities that get the short end of the stick. There’s no doubt that the billions spent every year on the war on drugs in this country could be better spent and justice could be better served. If we fail to overhaul this “war” we can only expect the injustices related to it to increase.