Assignment 16 Shalom Saldana

        Since the beginning we have known them as drugs but after June 18, 1971 they took on a new identity. Public enemy number one. President Richard Nixon had a press conference with Congress on Drug abuse prevention and control. He had plans for the prevention on new addicts and the rehabilitation of current addicts. His plans included the prohibition of drugs and the intervention of military with the goal to reduce illegal drug trade. This became commonly referred to as the war on drugs. 40 years later we now see the repercussions of the war on drugs and why it a failure. This war may have had small or local success but as a whole it has harmed us more than helped. The war drugs has led to an increase in violence, systematic discrimination, and mass incarceration. Instead of fighting drugs we need to aim our focus on helping users who can't help themselves.
        The main goal of the war on drugs was to eliminate the drug trade in the United States. Drugs were seen as the cause of all problems. If we get rid of drugs we won't have any problems. So how do we get rid of drugs? We attack the supplier. If the government were a company than the supplier is their corporate opponent. The governments aim was to reduce the amount of drugs on the street to cause an inflation in price and as a result people will buy less drugs and slowly kill of the drug market by making it less profitable. What the government didn't realize was that the drug market is different, it’s much more complex. People don’t buy drugs because they want them, they buy drugs because they need them. Their lives revolve around drugs. Despite the price of the drug a drug user will find a way to collect the money necessary to purchase a drug no matter what kind of trouble they have to go through. If they can’t buy the drug and they will start producing it. They can’t produce it then they’ll sell it to support their own habit. The government is busy locking up dealers and traffickers left and right the drug cartels are cracking codes realizing that the production of drugs does not fluctuate the price. So what does that mean? Meanwhile the government is chasing people who have little to no sort of power, no influence on the drug market the suppliers are amping up production. Quantity is now their top priority and with more drugs need more drug mules. The combination of increase production increased traffickers lead to a skyrocket in availability. This is very often compared to what is known as the balloon effect. When you take the air inside of a balloon and squeeze it out the air doesn’t disappear just go somewhere else. Even if the government busts 10 vital supply routes and  large scale producers The drug consumers still have the same quantity of product to buy from. The Drug Enforcement Agency uses $30 billion a year to fight drugs and as a result They helped production. The US seized a total of $477 million worth of drugs in 2005 but the drugs sold in the US had a total value of $64 billion. That’s an efficiency rate of less than 1%. This isn’t the first time the attempted restriction of a drug has led to an increase in potency. During the Prohibition acts crime and alcohol for correlated but the prohibition actually caused an increase in Underground, organized crime as well an increase in production and consumption of stronger, hard liquor. Liquor is easier to store and is more profitable than its weaker counterparts.
        Much like during the prohibition, today people correlate drugs with violence but the war has proved otherwise. Fighting drugs causes violence. The ballon effect can help us understand why. When the government interferes with drug production and trafficking it causes a chain reaction in the drug market. They eradicate supply in one area. As a result that creates a hole in the drug market and causes a temporary inflation. So either a different supplier takes over that area or the suppliers that were “eradicated” move somewhere else, usually to a place with less government interference, to produce drugs in a safer and less risky environment which as a result encourages the increase in production. This is very common in Latin American countries because many of their governments are facing more important problems such as civil military relations. Because drug organizations are constantly impeding on each other's territories there is a constant repetition of drug and gang related crime. The drug market is also mostly made up of criminals. In most places around the world criminals are social outcast, discriminated against, and have no political voice. But they do have weapons and other criminals. Violence is there only voice. According to the Independent Institute homicide rates in the United States would decrease by 25 to 75 percent by eliminating drug prohibition. Latin America has a similar problem. Statistics collected by PBS put into perspective the reality of drug violence in North America. Between the years of 2007 and 2014 more people died in Mexico due to drug related homicides than in the combat zones of Iraq and Afghanistan in the same seven year period combined. Our best option is to rehabilitate criminals instead of neglecting them.
        Criminals and drug users aren't the only people who are directly affected by drugs. Many young teens and adults rely on drugs to support themselves or their loved ones. Minority teens are involved in drugs because they have to be, not because they want to be. They are a result of systematic discrimination. In the documentary “ The House I Live In” Jonathan Kaufman from Wall Street Journal says the youth we label as inner-city kids are making rational decisions by supporting themselves the way they do. They live life with no economic opportunity other than selling drugs. Their schools are underfunded So they don’t pressure students to attend. You have 13 and 14-year-olds who aren’t receiving an education and are selling drugs solely to survive because that’s the only chance they have at escaping there impoverished lives. They have to provide for themselves because one parent is in prison, most likely for a nonviolent drug offense, and the other parent can’t find a job. Drugs is the only company that they have in their town so that is the only opportunity they have for work. Instead of spending anymore money on fighting drugs we should be spending money on rebuilding the social infrastructure of underprivileged towns and cities.
        The youth who support themselves because they have a parent behind bars are victims of the biggest impediment the war on drugs has put on the US. The war on drugs is better titled the war on American citizens. This war has made the US the country with the highest incarceration rate among any country. The US has one-twentieth of the worlds population but holds one-fourth of the worlds prison population. Minorities are specifically targeted by the incarceration. White youth are more likely to abuse drugs cause African-America. Publishing’s by the American Journal of Public health show Caucasian youth are 30 times as likely to use cocaine then in African-American youth. Despite this research the US government continues to incarcerate blacks disproportionately. In African-American youth is 10 times as likely to get arrested for drug related charges as a Caucasian youth. The war on drugs has led to more than 45 million arrests in the United States. In the year 2015 alone roughly 1.5 million arrest were made for drug violations. 84% of those arrests were for possession only. Roughly 1.3 million people in 2015 have been jailed solely for having drugs on their person. Not for selling, producing, manufacturing, or any drug related violence. Even after locking up 45 million people to where they can't supply drugs the prevalence of drugs in the US has remained the same. The government has wasted money by targeting these criminals and continues to use taxpayer money to maintain the prisoners.
        To stop the war on drugs we simply change our perspective and our goals. Reducing the drug supply is impossible and drug abusers should receive help to get their lives back on track. In many cases the user is a person who is let their addiction spiral out of control. Other countries have already changed your method of combating drugs and have had compelling results. Switzerland launched a four pillars approach in response to their heroin epidemic. The steps of prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and repression resulted in a 60% drop in felony crimes by patients, and 82% drop in patient selling heroin, and a decrease in the spread of hepatitis and HIV. Not only that but not a single patient has died from a heroin overdose in Switzerland since the start of the program because of their inspections on the potency and purity of the drug. Maintenance centers where drug users go to receive the dosage help drug users reduce dependence but also help them in the long run. Social workers Visit patients to help them find structure in their life again by helping his jobs, housing, and other personal relations. Not only does harm reduction treatment work but it also costs much less than $30 billion annually.        
        For four decades the United States has been fueling the fire that is drug related violence, maintaining systematic discrimination, and jailing people like there's no tomorrow. We have been fighting a war with ourselves and haven't realized it. Drug abuse treatment needs reconstruction socially and economically. We need to spend more money for treatment on legitimate rehabilitation, not jailing. We need to help drug users instead of labeling them as criminals. Perhaps drug maintenance centers aren't the only solution. In an interview with Harvard Economist Jeffrey Miron he preaches how the legalization of drugs will reduce violence and solve other problems associated with the war on drugs. The only way the government could mess up the legalization of drugs is by applying a hefty tax because that will encourage the formation of a black markets again. The combination of maintenance centers and drug legalization could be the solution we've ignoring all this time.