Case For or Against the War on Drugs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Case For or Against the War on Drugs - Essay ExampleThis article will assess the gains and losings that this contend has do with an aim of determining the relevance of this contend. Case for the War on Drugs Despite many apparent setbacks, the war on drugs has made awesome gains in its efforts geared towards making the world a safer place. There have been concerted efforts aimed at ending the rampant consider in drugs. These efforts have been made by all stake holders in the United States over the past 40 years since then serving President Richard Nixon launched the U.S Governments war on drugs.1 Several progressive steps have been made targeted at countering the flourishing use and sale of drugs in the U.S. One such stride has been the advocacy for a paradigm shift in the war against drugs. As was expressed by President Obama in a digital town hall meeting, in 2011, there is a need to move from the old approach of the war on drugs to a new one. One way of accomplishing this ha s been looking at practical ways of shrinking the demand for drugs among the users.2 This represents a shift from looking at this war as a primarily, criminal justness problem3. When looking at the war on drugs as a criminal justice problem, the emphasis of tackling it involves arrest, incarceration and interdiction4. While this has had good results, it has had the unfortunate disadvantage of unintentionally giving some of the offenders an chance to slip through the cracks. Currently there is a move towards looking at the war on drugs as a public health problem.5 This means that the government has acted as a guardian of the publics interests6. This thus means that the government has managed to win the hearts of the people who advocate for social justice in the country. Another gain in the war on drugs was the Reagans administrations efforts to take away the drugs from the consumers through efforts made to cut cumulation the crop abroad. This effort can be seen in countries like Bolivia. In this country, the efforts to reduce the drug production saw the seizure of twenty seven tones of cocaine in 1986. This was an improvement from just one tone netted in 1981.7 On the whole, the war on drugs has gained a number of notable wins over the trade and production of drugs. There has been a decline in the production, trafficking, distribution and consumption of drugs all over the world. This has been driven largely by an increasingly tight spheric prohibition on drugs. This is a sign that nations have seen the need to unite together in order to fight this menace.8 There are other gains in the pursuit of the war on drugs. One of these gains has been among the youth. Institution of education and certifiedness campaigns has been initiated for the benefit of these youth. These awareness campaigns are meant to ensure that the youth are well aware of the risks of drugs, as well as driving them towards alternative methods of recreation thus hold backing them out of ha rms way.9 At learning institutions and even in society, the youth are kept away from drugs through the imposition of very stiff penalties if found to be in possession of drugs. This is aimed at ensuring that the youth keep away from drugs. Any involvement on their pair, in the using of even the smallest quantities of drugs, can easily push them into the use of drugs. In the prisons, there are intercession centres for the prisoners who are recovering from both drug use and abuse10. As seen above, there have been efforts to deal with the drug trade