USA - My Essay on the War on Drugs

[infekt]

War on Drugs

The USA has fought many wars, and even waged a few of their own. Some of them just, some of them not. However, the most unjust war has been lurking around since 1971 and to this day is still ruining numerous lives every day. The most hysterical element about it is that it is destroying the lives our nation’s own citizens. Whilst we “spread” democracy to so-called uncivilized societies around the world, there is an unconstitutional, laughably ineffective war against personal freedom and the American people raging on right here at home. This is none other than what President Richard M. Nixon declared as the “War on Drugs”.

The 1960's was a turbulent but simultaneously promising period of time for America. Two Kennedy’s, one King, and several US servicemen were caught in the grip of death while the whole world was watching. Many in America were mourning and they weren’t going to resist the inevitable change in their collective consciousness. Thus, there was the birth of the most radical counter-culture the world may have ever seen, and one of their main elements was widespread experimentation with psychoactive drugs. Marijuana, LSD, and Amphetamines (otherwise known as Speed) became the corner stones of the Hippie Era, along with war protest, commune life, rock music and the ideology of peace, love and understanding. This break in the tradition of American youth, radically different from the comfortable conservative ‘50's, caused fear in many who wanted to relive the past. Including the US government.

However, drugs were not solely prevalent to middle class white suburban youth. A much uglier, less promising side of the 1960's also produced a widespread experimentation with psychoactive substances, which resulted in much more devastating effects. The culprits in this case were the US servicemen serving overseas in the Vietnam War. The wretched atmosphere of guerrilla warfare drove many soldiers to self medicate with Heroin, and many came back to the US as addicts.
Both movements towards drug experimentation were the response to the US governments own actions. And the US government was not going let the madness grow any bigger. In 1971, President Nixon declared a War on Drugs. The war mainly consists of a series of acts, most importantly the Controlled Substances Act, a vast increase of funding for law enforcement to arrest manufacturers, traffickers, distributers, and most of all, recreational drug users.
In 2002 alone, the federal government spent over 18 billion dollars; 6 billion went to treatment, prevention, and education but the rest went towards supply reduction (law enforcement). And every year the amount of tax payer money gets higher. The amount of arrests for drug violations has been continuing to sky rocket as well: In 1980, a little over half a million Americans were arrested for drug violations; In 2006, that number has increased to 2 million. And more than 70 percent of those arrests are for drug possession, as opposed to manufacturing and distributing.

One would hope with so many arrests of non-violent drug offenders and billions of dollars of tax payer money that drugs are no longer as big of a problem, or that America is at least more peaceful now. The sad irony of the War on Drugs is that it is extremely ineffective, and in many ways very detrimental to American society. The cost of wholesale and retail Heroin and Cocaine has actually gotten cheaper since the war was waged. Not only are they cheaper, but now they are more pure and unadulterated than ever. In fact, not only are drugs cheaper and more pure, but homicide rates have increased in exact correlation with the war’s efforts. In the 1970's, homicide in America spiked drastically and has stayed high since; the last time homicide was anywhere near the levels we have now was during another period of prohibition: the Alcohol Prohibition from 1919-1933.

It is plain to see that prohibition of recreational drugs is not the answer. Nor is constitutional. The federal War on Drugs violates the 1st, 9th, and10th amendment in the US Constitution. The 10th amendment 10th amendment, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively or to the people,” is most clearly in opposition. The federal government cannot prohibit drugs because it is not a power delegated to them, rather, it is the State’s decision. This is why Alcohol Prohibition had to be amended in 1919, as the 18th amendment. In order for the federal government to prohibit other recreational drugs, the Constitution has to be amended, which has not happened.

The 1st amendment, which protects our freedom of religion, is also at odds with the War on Drugs due to the fact that drugs have been a major element of several faiths since ancient times. Even today, there are religions that use drugs for such things as divination, including the Bwitists of Africa, the Mazatecs of Mexico, and the Ayahuasqueros of the Amazon. However, the US federal government does not recognize religious drug use for the majority of it’s population. There is an exception, the Native American Church, which uses Peyote as their sacrament. If their drug use is able to be protected by the 1st amendment, how come no one else is.

The 9th amendment opposes the War on Drugs more abstractly, but perhaps in a more profound way. The 9th amendment, today, is used vigorously to protect the rights of privacy in the battle for a women’s right to choose. This protection theoretically could be used for people who take recreational drugs privately.

The obvious conclusion is that the War on Drugs has been more than a failure, but a detriment to American society. It not only is ruining the lives of many in America, but it is also stripping the American of his or her freedom. The symbolism of the war on personal freedom is perhaps more disturbing than the physical effects of the blunder. America was founded to be the nation of the free, for the people and by the people. Unfortunately, the War on Drugs is an indicator of what this country has turned into; a nation of people ruled by persons, with no regard to human rights or the founding fathers intentions.


Works Cited:

Bureau of Justice Statistics Drugs and Crime Facts: Drug law violations and enforcement
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/dcf/enforce.htm

The Drug War and The Constitution. Hager, Paul.
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/DEBATE/dwarcon1.htm

The Success of the Drug War - Dear Science. Golob, Jonathan.
http://dearscience.org/2008/07/01/th...-war-on-drugs/

Basic Facts About the War on Drugs. Schiffer, Clifford A.
http://www.druglibrary.org/Schaffer/...Y/basicfax.htm

Timeline: America’s War on Drugs. NPR.
http://www.npr.org/template/story/st...toryid=9252490

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Nicely done.
	Fucking awesome work dude.
	Top notch post,wonderfully written

[dyingtomorrow]

I think it is awesome that you took the time to write this. A lot of us here potshot with our ideas against the war on drugs, but it really takes an admirable amount of concentration and thought to put together an essay like you did.

I thought I'd just give you a couple little bits of info, particularly concerning the Constitution, pertaining to what you wrote if you are interested:

The 9th and 10th Amendments are effectively dead letter. Neither can be used by American citizens to assert any kind of affirmative right, and have been historically ignored by the Supreme Court when attempted to be used as such. Their generic nature means that basically every political ideal can attempt to build a foundation upon them, which in turn makes them useless to all. Supreme Court decisions following the earliest cases involving the interpretation of the amendments (and their subsequent "mothballing") regarded the more pertinent aspects of the specific legal relationship between the federal government and states, and made the language of the 9th and 10th Amendments almost universally superseded except in very narrow and rare cases.

Next, the basis for the "right to privacy," which is a legally tenuous and unresolved theoretical construct of interpretation, comes from the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This is where the "right to abortion" comes from in Roe v. Wade, and other privacy related cases. This "right" has found its way into conventional jurisprudence relatively recently, and would most likely be quickly overturned were a conservative majority to take hold in the Supreme Court. It is a an excellent philosophical basis for the right to do drugs, along with many other affirmative rights that citizens used to have, and should once more. I believe that although the right to privacy is a fictional legal construct, it returns us to the original intent of the Founding Fathers which we have strayed far from ever since Federalism died, and the Commerce Clause was disingenuously interpreted to give Congress nearly unlimited power. This power to regulate practically everything was never the intent for the legislative framework of this country, and was a nearly unConstitutional usurpation of power by Congress; only made possible during the crisis of the Great Depression (as most power grabs historically are, and similar to the circumstances of the Patriot Act following 9/11).

Finally, the number one casualty of the War on Drugs, more than any other Amendment, has been the Fourth Amendment - the protection against search and seizure without a warrant. In the 1960s this was a very powerful protection. Unfortunately the War on Drugs is directly and primarily responsible for its demise. The Supreme Court dealt with a string of cases where a person would have otherwise gone free for drug possession due to improper police procedure. Instead of taking the honorable and legal course, the Supreme Court, out of detachment (due to age, upbringing and social culture) from society and fear resulting from their ignorance of drugs and the propaganda surrounding them, chose to continually chip away at the Fourth Amendment with disingenuous interpretations, until there was almost nothing left by the 1980s. An example of this is the idea that the police can stop you, detain you for hours, and then have drug sniffing dogs sniff your entire person and rummage through all of your possessions, and this is not considered a "search." This detainment and obvious "search" is just common sense within the scope of the Fourth Amendment, and the Founding Fathers could not have comprehended the danger of such a dishonest interpretation and undermining of the protections they created.

But instead of staying true to our most precious Bill of Rights and American ideals, the Supreme Court sacrificed the Fourth Amendment to "play ball" with Congress, and trample the Constitution in the mud because they felt that the "danger" and "necessity" of the War on Drugs was more important than honoring the Constitution - and worse still, they felt they were entitled to make this decision, as though they were endowed with a power above the Constitution, and the ability to override it where it is not convenient for them. This degradation of the Fourth Amendment and the people, reasoning, and unConstitutional actions behind it is the most odious and un-American activity we have seen in our history. And sickeningly, all for a transitory catch-phrase policy designed to boost some politicians' clout.

Disgusting and, quite literally, treasonable.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Great addition.
	Perfectly put. Well done.

[rokman nash]

These two posts should be read by everyone. Props to the both of you, my friend has never heard better arguments. Thanks for the information.

Good Thoughts