The prolonged War on Drugs has affected so many Americans over the years. Everyone knows someone who has struggled with addiction, and the stigma behind drugs created by the government has made it difficult for many to get effective treatment. When the war on drugs began, the government was aiming to eliminate all drugs because they were viewed as a vice. They thought they could control the population and their desires but that is an unreasonable thing to do for a free society. People also are more inclined to do things that are illegal or risky because of human nature so the drive of breaking the rules encouraged some to use drugs.
After studying the historical progression of this country, it has become clear that America has a tendency to repeat its prior actions when it shouldn’t. America learned from the Prohibition Era that banning vices like alcohol or drugs is not effective. It creates black markets for the goods that cannot be regulated by governmental organizations like the FDA to make sure the products are safe for consumption. The war on drugs leads to the same black markets being formed, leading to more overdose deaths because the drugs are not regulated by the government. Organized crime is also a large factor in prohibiting drugs or alcohol. Today, gangs in urban areas are usually the ones who control the drug market. Gang violence can arise from territorial issues and lead to premature deaths of those involved.
As we saw in Just Mercy, the justice system in our country has been a large part of the war on drugs. The article also said that about half of the incarcerations in America at any given time are due to drug-related incidents. Possession, distribution, and other charges are heavily criminalized in many states and have put thousands of Americans behind bars due to small drug charges that do nothing to help the problem of addiction that is said to be at the core of the war on drugs. The courts are also not convicting all Americans the same. Minorities like Blacks and Latinos are far more likely to serve time for drug charges than whites. Lawyers like Bryan in Just Mercy are trying to fix the unjust court system and advocate for minorities facing unreasonable sentences for drug charges. America needs to reform its court system and end the war on drugs to keep minorities and youths out of prison and allow them to work to overcome addiction, not use drugs to cope with traumatic events due to the War on Drugs like going to prison or seeing violence.
The United States government used racist propaganda to create the stigma against drugs which was an abuse of its power. In an ideal political world, the government would never use their power and influence to twist its public’s opinion on an issue. By appealing to the general racism found in America society, the government was able to purposefully create laws that discriminated against minority groups. It is a grave injustice that the actions taken in the War on Drugs have not been entirely undone as the consequences are extremely clear.
I like how you mentioned that “America has a tendency to repeat its prior actions when it shouldn’t.” The war on drugs was definitely a repeat of Prohibition in the sense that it did not only do nothing to stop the use of drugs, but also created black markets, aka even more crime than what they started with.
I think you’re right about America’s inability to correct its past mistakes. What I find interesting about the war on drugs, however, is that it was actually worse than prohibition. Indeed, the racist sentiment of the CSA and other drug enforcement policies of the 20th century intentionally targeted minority and lower class populations. This means that the war on drugs was more malicious than prohibition and still failed to work.
I totally agree that the stigma created around drugs has made it very difficult for people to get the treatment they need. I also agree that since the government was pushing against it, it made people more inclined to do it and express their “freedom”. Lastly, I like how you say that America cannot correct the mistakes it has made and compared this to prohibition.