A New America

The United States has been undergoing a pointless, waste of time, and money war for more than forty years. And no, this particular war doesn’t involve another country nor does it involve fighting against a human like object. Instead, the war is based off of “Eliminating” drugs off the streets of America. Pioneer of the war, ex-president Richard M. Nixon, declared war on June of 1971 and since then low income communities experience an abundance of drugs thus, placing low income individuals incarcerated with little or no resources to help aid or eliminate their addiction.

Left: Crack Right: typical coke

The purpose of the war against drugs was to eliminate the drug flow from entering the United States and from landing in the hands of an American citizen. Instead what it has been doing for the past 40 year is labeling individuals socially, placing them in jails with outrageous sentences, and atrocious drug related  laws. Over the years drug laws have been changing. The most recent and crucial change has been towards coke rock vs. the powdery substance. To sum it all up, if an individual gets detained while having crack cocaine present, the sentences is five years longer compared to the powdery substance. So to be clear, if you get caught with a 4 gram of crack cocaine, your sentence is typically 6 years in prison. Now if you get caught with a 4 gram pure cocaine, the sentence is 2 to 3 years. Both substances are the same with the exception of one of them baking soda is added. Overall what the wars has done is create unequal outcomes across racial groups and drug war misery suffered by communities of color. O, and quick historical side note, the creators of the horrible drug substance, crack cocaine, were the CIA. Coincidence? But this is only a small portion of the plotted drug war.

Most of these drugs are located in low-income colored communities. Which correlates with the inmate ratio all over America. Unfortunately people of color are most abundant in jails, mostly due to drug related charges. Instead of treating the inmate with rehab, programs to help him or her to get back on his feet such as job training, we punish them and label them with a number that only benefits prison owners. The more inmates, the more revenue. Recent studies reveal that a lot of prisons have eliminated beneficial programs such as rehab and in work related experience in jail.

Jail

Most people believe punishing inmates on drug related cases is the solution to the war against drugs. But what most people don’t take to account is treating the individual instead of thinking the war is eliminating the root cause. A leading example is the drug policies in Sweden. There motto is based on a zero tolerance, thus focusing on prevention, treatment, and control. Hoping to reduce both  supply and demand for illegal substance. And so far there policies has decreased inmate rates. What the United States should do is adapt Sweden's drug policies and treat the problem and individuals instead of punishing them.