Drugs are a very large issue and have been for decades. Even though most illicit drugs are illegal, that does not prevent people from getting a hold of them. There are many sides to this complicated debate on drugs, which is far too vast to get into much detail. The US government has acted many times to fight this plague of drugs, but overall these attempts are unsuccessful, which brings up the question: what are some of the problems with the federal prohibition on certain drugs?
A commonly known fact is that no matter how much information is brought out there on the terrible side effects of these illicit drugs, that does not stop people from getting intrigued by them or getting their hands on these drugs. No matter how much is done by the people or state it does not stop the use of drugs. The Federal Prohibition on illicit drugs began in 1971 under President Nixon. Some of the issues that the Federal Prohibition on drugs faced included the heavy use of limited resources such as police officers. Because police officers now had to focus on catching drug offenders, there was less of a focus on other crimes such as crimes against private property, which sometimes led to a rise in those crimes. This focus on drug offenders in the police force did not solve the underlying problem.
Prisons began to fill up with drug addicts instead of actual real criminals such as murderers, thieves, assaulters, or people who sold drugs. This led to an increase in taxpayer money being spent, because not surprisingly enough, drug addicts require medical attention. Not as mentioned, an ugly truth of this situation is, because drug addicts could go to jail for abusing drugs, people resist seeking medical attention or calling 911 when someone in their circle is overdosing. This increases drug related deaths. Overall the federal prohibition on certain drugs has not been successful in decreasing the number of deaths from drugs, the overall problem, and most importantly making it more difficult for people to find drugs.
The debate on drugs is probably one of the more controversial topics today, with many ins and outs for arguments. Regardless, one must note the truth that the Federal Prohibition on drugs in the US has not improved the situation, and instead in many ways made it worse. Thus these are some of the problems with the Federal Prohibition on certain drugs.
The Dreamer 