The War On Drugs

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Americans fought many wars, because of enemies that threaten the safety of our nation and have provided aid and resources to our partnering countries in their time of despair. But today American’s fight a different kind of war; it is a war without a clear enemy or end. Today, America fights a War on Drugs. The War on Drugs started during the Nixon administration to address the drug problem in America, since then many policies have been implemented to promote education, increase drug enforcement and convictions, and decrease illegal drug trafficking into the United States. Although the United States has invested time and money in the last four decades to reduce the amount of drugs and drug abuse there is little evidence to determine the effectiveness …show more content…
The War on Drugs started during the Nixon administration, where he declared the drug war in response to the time period of social upheaval and political dissent. For all intents and purposes, the War on Drugs is the campaign of prohibition of military intervention, military aid, and drugs with the stated aim being to define and reduce illegal drug trade. Initially, policies were implemented such as a great presence of drug control agencies, and mandatory sentencing and no-knock warrants. Later as Reagan took office, the hysteria of drugs grew due to the propaganda in the media, leading to harsher punishment and incarceration. Which leads us to the modern day war on drugs, the author of the book “The New Jim Crow”, Michelle Alexander suggests that the War on Drugs is a multipart network with many interconnecting and interlocking factors design to work in the favor of the government and law enforcement. (Alexander, 2013). She positions the drug war as part of a “racial caste system” that has imprisoned millions of African American men and disenfranchised even more (Alexander, 2013). Jim Crow was very effectively replaced with the stigmatization of black people, particularly males, through a “War on Drugs” fought almost entirely in ghettos inhabited by mainly black people (Alexander, …show more content…
She shows that this “war” is carried out in the context of a highly ghettoized society, where whites and even middle-class blacks have almost no contact with people of color. She realizes how isolated middle and upper class individuals are from the horrors of the lives of poor people living in the inner city. The drug raids are carried out in places that no one notices and no one will complain. Stop, frisk and search has become so prevalent in ghetto communities that young black men would stop themselves, put their hands up and spread their legs in order to be searched and frisked. I believe this policy was unsuccessful because, the fundamental problem with the practice of stop and frisk is that the policies empower law enforcements to search and violate individuals with little to no evidence. Because of the concealed racial biases and prejudices control the decision to stop, frisk and search a person, and more often, these decisions are not legally reviewable. Practices similar to stop and frisk “maximize- not minimize- the amount of racial discrimination,” (Alexander, 2013). The author also states her belief that if the same program like the stop and frisk were attempted in neighborhoods where people of middle and upper class people reside, there would be a huge commotion and law enforcements know that, using it to their advantage. She clearly illustrates
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