Growing up in the United States, it is very unlikely that by the time we are ready to go to college we have not encountered some kind of drug. This is especially true when accepting the reality that alcohol is also a drug, even though most do not consider it to be in the same category as other substances. Even if you have not personally come into contact with any substances, you will have been taught about them in some sense during high school, as well as heard about the war on drugs on the news. For those of you who do not know, the war on drugs was declared in 1971 by then-president Richard Nixon. He declared that drug abuse was the number one threat to the United States and that we must wage a full-on offensive against it.
The way that this idea was put into effect was, and remains to this day, wrong. Drug abuse has been handled since then as a criminal issue rather than a public health issue. Throughout the entirety of the crack epidemic, the justice system continued throwing people in prison rather than rehabilitation facilities. Only recently has this mindset changed at all, and only in terms of the opioid epidemic being declared a national health issue. All other drugs remain purely criminal matters. This is arguably because the people being affected by the opioid crisis are predominantly white while the majority of those imprisoned during the crack epidemic were black, but I digress.
The fact of the matter is that jailing someone for drug abuse does not help anyone involved. It does not allow the user a chance to break their addiction and turn their life around, and by taking away the opportunity for rehabilitation, the justice system is also taking away any hope of the user supporting their family in any way. The war on drugs has resulted in countless families being torn apart and the United States having the highest number of incarcerated civilians. Over 50 percent being imprisoned due to nonviolent drug-related crimes with just under 40 percent of these “criminals” being black. If this statistic does not outrage you from a moral and ethical perspective, maybe the economics will. As of 2017, states spent $55 billion on corrections programs, including prisons, juvenile facilities, and parole. If we did not send nonviolent drug users to prison, this number would be halved. This would leave $22.5 billion to be put towards more effective methods of combatting drug abuse, such as rehabilitation centers and comprehensive drug education.
Regardless of your personal views about substances, the statistics show that the war on drugs has been ineffective. It has destroyed the black community and resulted in a racist and corrupt criminal justice system. Thus, my call to everyone is to stop viewing drug abusers as criminals and begin viewing them as people who lost their way and need help. On a political level, begin pushing for reform within the criminal justice system; push for an end to the war on drugs, and demand policies supporting rehabilitation and reintegration instead.
