Assignment 8

            The “War on Drugs” that was declared in 1971 by Richard Nixon has been hailed as both a success and chastised as a failure by different people.  The War on Drugs stated that drugs were “Public Enemy Number One,” and that the fate of society and future generations relied on the elimination of drugs, which were said to destroy minds and bodies.  So, the war on drugs dedicated itself to eradicating drug use from society, and led to numerous pieces of national anti-drug groups and legislation.  I personally think that the War on Drugs was lost.  Some costs of losing the war include leaving lasting racial disparities, uprooting the check and balances in different parts of the legal system, and distrust in the government.

            First of all, losing the drug war would lead to lasting racial disparities that the war created.  The war on drugs has created a lot of racial tensions throughout the years in that it tended to target black people over white people.  90% of drug arrests were made on black people and under 1% were made on whites, even though whites were responsible for 77% of drug use and blacks were only responsible for 15%.  There were also disparities in sentence time.  Minorities are more related to the possession of crack cocaine, and whites are more related to the sale of powder cocaine.  One can receive a minimum of five years in prison for possessing 5.01 grams of crack cocaine, but will not receive a five year prison sentence for possession of powdered cocaine until this possession reaches 500 grams.  These differences in sentencing times, when examining the demographics of the people caught with the drugs, easily shows that whites are favored in this system and points to the trends that more blacks are in jail for drug charges than whites.  Even after losing the war on drugs, the bitter taste of this discrimination will remain, causing conflict for future generations.  It truly shows that there are definitely power differences between the different cultures in America, and these proofs will live on even after the War on Drugs is lost.

            Secondly, losing the war on drugs will help uproot some of the set checks and balances that exist in the criminal justice system.  The police with the discretion to arrest offenders who will have longer sentences begin to override judges’ jobs to sentence people in the War Against Drugs.  Thus, the power will become more unequal between the two parties, as the police begin to make more and more decisions themselves.  Unfortunately, even after the loss of the War on Drugs, police will get used to this power in the court system.  They will begin to expect to make these types of sentencing decisions over the judges of the courts, and this power difference could cause a lot of tension between those in power in the criminal justice system.  So, losing the war on drugs could lead to tensions in power in the criminal justice system.

            Finally, losing the War on Drugs would lead to public distrust in the government.  The government has spent millions upon millions of dollars on this war, and if it doesn’t even succeed then all of this money will have gone to waste. Countless peoples’ lives would have been destroyed from prosecution, and racial tensions and tensions within the criminal justice system would be as high as ever.  Furthermore, because the drug policies changed from president to president in the War on Drugs, a feeling of instability might surround the government.  Propaganda and misleading information released by the government in the war also makes people wary.  Overall, all of these tensions combined could leave the citizens not trusting the US government, which could even last for years after the loss of the War on Drugs.

            In conclusion, I think that we have lost the War on Drugs.  I think that this loss will lead to racial disparities, inconsistencies in power in the criminal justice system, and distrust in the government.  While drug use is definitely a problem in the United States, I don’t think that a “War on Drugs” is the appropriate way to handle the problem, and I think that another method should be used instead.  Losing the War on Drugs runs the risk of certain social turmoil, which is certainly not the desired result when trying to tackle a societal issue.