The War On Drugs And Its Effects On The United States

In 2014 1,297,348 people were arrested for non-violent drug charges (drug policy, 2015). These people’s lives are now forever changed because of a mistake they made. This mistake is continually made every single day and Americans are being punished in extreme ways for a non violent crime. The United States needs to decimalize all drugs because the drug war is costly, causes high incarceration rates, and isn’t effective as European drug solutions. In the 20th century, the United States would begin a disastrous campaign called the War on Drugs, this started the US on a spiral that would harm us all. Since the war on drugs would be created under President Richard Nixon, the federal drug budget has been raised from millions in the 1970’s to†¦show more content†¦The money raised from taxing the drugs could be used to help train these new agents in their new fields. The United States has the world’s largest incarceration rate 2,224,400 (1 per 111 adults ) which is the largest in the world (drug policy, 2015). In 2013 over 50% of the federal prison population and 16% of the state prison population were imprisoned for trafficking, possession, or other drug crimes (drugwarfacts, 2016). Many of these people in prison should not be there due to many of their charges being non-violent. Harm principal. While these adults are in prison their families are suffering and are turning towards crime do to having no adult guidance. 71% of high school dropouts come from fatherless homes (thefatherlessgeneration, 2010). Without an education, crime will soon follow these teenagers. Portugal is the perfect example of why the drug war should end, in 2001 Portugal was a country with a drug problem in Europe with over 1% of its population having a heroin addiction (Zeeshan, 2015) and the president decided to take action by decriminalizing all drugs. How Portugal handles its citizens with drug problems is very interesting and thought out. If you are caug ht with a small supply of drugs you are sent to a commission for the Dissuasion of Drug addiction. Here social workers, lawyers, and medical professionals will help you with treatment rather than jail time. Before taking action Portugal had over 40 HIV