This suggests that there are four active drug sellers for every one person incarcerated. (Caulkins and Chandler, 2006, 619)
This has also had tragic impacts upon the health of injection drug users. This includes the disruption of the provision of health care to injection drug users (IDU) and increasing risk behaviors associated with infectious disease transmission and overdose (Kerr, Small, and Wood 210)
The impact of increased drug incarceration has only been a small (1 -- 3%) reduction in violent and property crime, almost statistically nil. Estimates suggest that it is unlikely that the dramatic increase in drug imprisonment was cost-effective (Kuziemko & Levitt, 2004, 2043)
The war on drugs removes a person from their family and children lose contact with parents and caregivers. The community also loses vital members who otherwise would be contributing to it (Moore, and Elkavich 782)
Just by eliminating nonviolent offenders from the prison population could total prison costs of 16.9 billion dollars as of 2010 (Schmitt, Warner, and Gupta 13)
Criminal Justice War on Drugs In the article Is the War on Drugs Racially Biased? (Mitchell 2009), the explored the idea on how the war on drugs popularized the violent law enforcement tactics and disciplinary sanctions aimed at low level drug offenders
Racial profiling, street sweeps, buy and bust processes and other police actions have embattled people in street level retail drug dealings in low-income neighborhoods of color. Blacks and Latinos are wronged by unjust action by police; by racially distorted accusing and plea bargaining results by prosecutors; by biased sentencing practices and by the breakdown of judges, designated bureaucrats and other criminal justice policy makers to restore the injustices that have come to pervade the structure (Race, the War on Drugs and the United States Criminal Justice System, 2011)
In New York, over ninety four percent of prisoners locked up for drug crimes are Black or Latino. In at least fifteen states, Black men are sentenced to prison for drug crimes at rates that are from twenty to fifty seven times greater than for White men (Small, 2001)
In the last few decades the regulation of certain substances has resulted in an all-out "war" on drugs. Today in the United States, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 55% of federal prisoners and 21% of state-level prisoners are incarcerated on the basis of drug-related offenses which represents an incarcerated population greater than the population of Wyoming; the federal government is spending over twenty-two billion dollars alone on a so-called war that 76% of the population view as a failure (Head)
Instead of actually understanding the factors that led people to drugs, the government's leadership has been quick to criminalize drugs and incarcerate individuals associated with the drug trade. In fact, your average American is far more likely to spend a weekend in Paris, Moscow or even Beijing than two days or nights in one of America's slums (Mosle)
The crime-infested intersection of West Fayette and Monroe Streets is well-known -- and cautiously avoided -- by most of Baltimore. But this notorious corner's 24-hour open-air drug market provides the economic fuel for a dying neighborhood (Simon and Burns)
All illicit drug use, direct and indirect is responsible for 17,000 deaths, however, marijuana is responsible for zero deaths (Annual pp). In March 2005, people from various backgrounds, from attorneys to outreach workers to recovering drug users, gathered at Seattle City Hall to discuss the war on drugs and concluded that, "as waged today, it is at best ineffective and at worst expensive and unfair" (Castro pp)
the efficacy of mandatory prison terms for drug offenders is being questioned." (Price, 2006) Presently, the United States "has the highest incarceration rate in the western world
It is four times that of the United Kingdom and France on a per capita basis."(Painter, 2006) in fact, "the number of people in prison, jail or on probation in the U
This could be made possible in different ways and most of this economic resources from drug trafficking are registered in the country's balance of payment. This is because of the fact that laundering illegal dollars can, by manmade inflictions, either deflate or inflate the earnings of legal transactions outside Colombia (Bergquist & Sanchez, p
Different drug traffickers have also gone to the extents of intimidating their governments such as the Medellin Cartel did by paying guerillas to counter government powers. The group went beyond boundaries when they held hostage justices of the Supreme Court of Colombia and destroyed evidence that was to be used in extradition trials (Chepesiuk, p
The citizens, who expect to be protected from drug smuggling, live in fear that the rebellious countries could attack them any time through terror related attacks. The production, marketing and distribution of drugs continue to be a night mare for citizens, because the government with all its machinery including policy makers and law reinforces can hardly better the situation (Lazare, p
, the United States took bold steps of issuing policies that constituted fresh warnings to those who wanted to begin 'narcoterrorism'. This happened just after the blasts on September 11 (Sharpe & Spencer, p
One of the New York Times magazines in 1997 had the story confirming that the CIA approved shipment of a ton of cocaine which was pure, to the Miami International Airport with intentions of gathering information concerning Columbian drug cartels. After the investigative processes, it was later reported in the wall Street Journal that a famous smuggler, General Guillen, had done the business for long, and had smuggled drugs amounting to over twenty two tons (Villar & Cottle, p
Despite the death and destruction, many argue that he War on Drugs is not working, and that it is too expensive to fund a program that does not work. Recently, the European Commission has echoed this sentiment by finding that the War on Drugs has not reduced "the production, trafficking, availability, or use of drugs" (O'Keeffe, 2009, para