Title: "War on Drugs" sociology paper Example | Graduateway
Headings: “War on Drugs” sociology paper
“War on Drugs” sociology paper
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“War on Drugs” sociology paper
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Content: In June 1971, President Nixon declared “war on drugs,” who called drug abuse “public enemy number one” in a 1971 speech. He later dramatically increased the size of federal drug control agencies, and pushed through measures such as mandatory sentencing. Within just a few years proposals to decriminalize marijuana were forgotten as parents became increasingly concerned about high rates of teen marijuana use. The Ronald Reagan presidency marked the start of a long period of skyrocketing rates of incarceration, “the number of people behind bars for nonviolent drug law offenses increased from 50,000 in 1997 to over 400,000 by 1980,” as stated by the Drug Policy Alliance. In 1981, Reagan’s wife, Nancy Reagan, began a anti-drug campaign, coining the slogan “Just Say No.” This set the stage for the zero tolerance policies in the 1980’s. Following the 1980’s the 1990’s has created more awareness campaigns and formed treaties with our neighboring countries to unite against the threats of drug trafficking and transnational crime. In the recent 2000’s the United States has provided aid to Colombia as shown on Wikipedia, “As part of its Plan Colombia program, the United States government currently provides hundreds of millions of dollars per year of military aid, training, and equipment to Colombia, to fight left-wing guerrillas such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP), which has been accused of being involved in drug trafficking.” The U.S. has also provided Mexico with $1.4 billion to the Mexican government for military and law enforcement training and equipment, as well as technical advice and training to strengthen their national justice systems. Many Americans believe that the War on Drugs has been costly and ineffective primairly because there has not been a high emphasis placed on treatment.