Changes in the War on Drugs Policies

Efforts to understand the history of drug abuse and addiction are traced back to the 18^th century. Research studies show that drug abuse was a reflection of popular opinion drawn from the legislators in the United States against ethnicity, race, and color. Due to immigration, people of color, especially Asians, were regarded as the propagators of drugs into the U.S. However, over the years, the government has been on the frontline in fighting drug abuse and addiction in the United States by promoting national prohibition laws to curb drug abuse. Despite numerous policies, drug abuse continues to be a significant issue in the U.S. and globally (Miniño, 2021). One can compare the fight against drug abuse to the spread of deadly diseases. Despite the efforts that health care systems try to prevent the disease, it keeps on spreading, killing people, and causing economic constraints to the people.

While drug policies keep failing, it has been proven that after 50 years of the war on drugs, the abuse and supply of drugs have continued to be on the rise (Echeverry & Gómez, 2017). It has created illegal markets that amplify conflict and violence and breed corrupt institutions worldwide. The criminalization of people who use drugs has been designed to escape the fundamental issue of drug supply and abuse. Drug abuse has continued to be a menace not only during historical times but even in the modern day. It affects the livelihood of people within communities, contributes to the crime rate, and increases the number of people incarcerated in prisons.

Due to the constant failure of the war on drugs policies, the government should initiate policies that regulate supply and consumption within the market (Echeverry & Gómez, 2017). Another option would be to decriminalize the use of drugs. The withdrawal of criminal penalties for drug law violations would probably change the attitude and opinion of the people. Most people using drugs have reported doing so as a rebellion against the law. Withdrawing criminal laws would change the world’s perception that the rules are out there to criminalize people from minority communities. They deal with people’s attitude and channels their behaviors and perception about an issue. It is time that the world governments sat down and reformed the war on drugs policies.

References

Echeverry, J. C., & Gómez, M. P. (2017). The failure of decentralization in the War on Drugs. Anti-Drug Policies in Colombia, 264–281. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv167556h.19

Miniño., A. (2021). Drug poisoning mortality, by state and race and ethnicity: United States, 2019. https://doi.org/10.15620/cdc:103967

Changes in the War on Drugs Policies

Paper details

Please This is Social Work Master’s Degree Class. Please do the best and relate to the attached. Please read the attached chapter two powerpoint.

Choose a related article and send the link to me. I will also need to study it.

The goal of the weekly article assignments is for you to make connections between the content of the course and real-world ethical issues, and to integrate what you learn every week into the way you are thinking about an article of your choice. Through this reflection, you will come up with new insights or understandings that you wouldn\’t have had before studying this material.

This weekly assignment consists of two parts. For Part 1, you will submit a written review of an article of your choice that you will analyze from the point of view of the topic of the week. You will use the content from class for the week to provide new insights or understandings into the way you interpret the article and what conclusions can be drawn from it.

Instructions

Carefully read the following instructions for every component of this assignment. Remember there are two parts to this assignment.

• • Part 1 – Individual Assignment – Due February 10, 2023 by 11:59 p.m.
    • Find a recent news article (2017 or newer) that relates to the content discussed in that week\’s class. You have broad discretion in choosing this article. The important part is that the article is, in some way, related to the week\’s content.
    • In a few sentences, provide a brief summary of the article (the key points, particularly those that you find relevant to the week\’s content).
    • Describe how the article is related to the week\’s content.
    • Describe what new conclusions, insights, or understanding you have about the article after considering it within the context of what we learned this week. This is the most important part of the assignment – the goal here is to integrate what you learned this week into the way you are thinking about this article to come up with new insights or understanding that you wouldn\’t have had before understanding this material.
    • Students are required to include article on initial posting