DRUG WAR ARE WE WINNING OR LOSING
THE DRUG WAR, ARE WE WINNING OR LOSING? According to Gary Johnson, Governor of New Mexico, “America has lost a 3 decade war on drug’s”. Drug offenders make up 55. ... Gray says “ Anyone who talks about it (the drug war) with me in the elevator or in the judges’ lunchroom agrees that what we’re doing is not working. ... (ii) Prison overcrowding, crime and corruption, tax dollars being spent ineffectively and disease control seem to be the major issues at hand when taking a look at the war on drugs. ... In 1970 the number of drug offenders accounted for 3,384 drug offenders (16. ... The state of New Mexico has determined that there are a lot of indirect financial costs associated with incarcerating drug offenders. ... The results of the current drug war are to put non-violent criminals into a criminal prison system that was designed for violent criminals. It cost nearly $9 billion per year to keep drug law violators behind bars.(iv) On top of this the average length of imprisonment of federal penitentiaries for drug trafficking is 82. ... Considering the fact that 24 Million Americans used illegal drugs in the past year, it is hard to see how increases in incarceration has done anything to stop drug use in America. ... ” (vi) Directing large amounts of law enforcement, courts and correctional resources at drug offender’s means that fewer of those resources are going to violent criminal activity. (ii) Drug offenders should not be taking up the majority of police resources to fight and should not be put into jail with violent criminals. ... Marijuana seems to be a major target of drug offenses. ... (viii) Many police budgets are based upon how much drug money they seize. ... They both said that the War on Drugs isn’t working, but the problem is even worse than I thought because most federal agencies get extra money to fight the War on Drugs. ... They are addicted to drug war funding. ... Governments are putting more and more tax dollars, police resources and time into fighting “a war” against simple possession of marijuana, not a drug that is considered to be a “hard drug” in other countries like Amsterdam which has a legal system for drugs. ... Is it a drug that should be legal? ... A separate study done by President Nixon’s National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse (the Nixon Shafer report) concluded, “Rather than inducing violent or aggressive behavior. ... (xii) This equates to roughly $30 billion dollars being spent on incarcerating individuals who had a history of drug abuse.