A summary of the War on Drugs
For any of those who aren’t in the know, drugs are paraphernalia that cause altered states on the user. Depending on the drug they can cause the person to hallucinate or feel a body high or any mental or physical phenomenon. There are many drugs, and there are many side effects.
As there are many drugs and many side effects, there are also many drug users. Some people can use drugs recreationally and be fine, others develop dependencies, and it affects the way they live their lives. It’s this important distinction that defines our preface to talking about the war on drugs. People don’t take drugs to do bad things, but sometimes people do bad things because they need drugs. When you are waging war on drugs, you are waging war on people who are not acting on behalf of their true intentions.
Where it comes from – For the most part, America has been founded on open ideals though most of the people who first settled here had puritanical principles. While your personal judgments on the faith are your own, it is important to note that this has had a huge psychological effect on the country as much believe that we were founded on these principles as opposed to simply developing these principles alongside it.
The intention behind it – With these ideals behind them, it is easy to find polarities in things. There is a good and bad. There is a right and a wrong. This basic way of viewing drugs causes a fundamental misunderstanding of the culture surrounding it. With this in mind, many people will quote the Regan administration for the war on drugs and the intent of ridding our country of ‘bad.’
The Backfire – However, it has resulted in one of the biggest backfires in national history. Ultimately, the war on drugs has caused much more harm to its citizens than good, and this has everything to do with the stigma that comes with drug use.
Incarcerating Millions – Millions of people have been sent to prison for drug use. But as we have stated before, this is far too simplistic of a view to following through on. You aren’t a bad person for enjoying drugs, but drugs can sometimes make you a bad person. If you’ve done something wrong because of a chemical dependency, the best place for you to go is to get help, not to a place where there are innately bad people, to begin with, and treated like you are a genuinely bad person.
Treatment should be Increased – Numerous studies have come out as well as areas in the world like Portugal and Amsterdam, where legalizing drugs have decreased crime entirely in the area. By advocating for treatment and understanding, many drug users have been able to come back from their drug addiction and form into normal lives.
Empowering Illegal Activities – The biggest backfire is giving rise to the cartel and other drug running communities. By making drugs illegal and it a crime to use drugs, all this was has done has made the situation worse for people who are prone to being dependent.
Jeffrey Sessions is the sitting Attorney General, and he wants to push for a new war on drugs, specifically Marijuana. How out of touch does a person have to be to see that not only did the war fail, but that Marijuana is more popular than ever before?
People are understanding and upset at the tremendous waste of lives, taxpaying money, and time that went into the war on drugs. Now this attorney general wants to send us back to one of the darkest times in American history.
IF you would like to voice your concerns on Jeffrey Sessions and his war on drugs, we encourage you to follow this link and voice your opinion.
https://www.bustle.com/articles/195956-how-to-protest-jeff-sessions-being-attorney-general-right-now
