Transcript Document

WAR ON DRUGS
THIS SEMINAR WILL DISCUSS
 THE 30 YEAR WAR ON DRUGS IN THE U.S.
 WE WILL EXPLORE PAST AN CURRENT
LEGISLATION INTENDED TO STEM THE FLOW
OF ILLEGAL DRUGS
 WE WILL ADDRESS ISSUES INVOLVING
MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCES,THREE
STRIKE LAWS, AND A RISING PRISON
POPULATION OF DRUG OFFENDERS.
JUST THE FACTS
DID YOU KNOW?
 Estimates of the total overall costs of substance
abuse in the United States—including healthand crime-related costs as well as losses in
productivity—exceed half a trillion dollars
annually. This includes approximately $181 billion
for illicit drugs, $168 billion for tobacco, and $185
billion for alcohol. Deleterious public
health..implications include family
disintegration, loss of employment, failure in
school, domestic violence, child abuse, and other
crimes(NIDA)
AND
 HIV/AIDS: Approximately one-third of AIDS
cases reported in 2000 (11,635) and most
cases of hepatitis C (approximately 25,000 in
2001) in the United States are associated with
injection drug use.
 Approximately half of pediatric AIDS cases
(4,700 reported through 2002) result from
injection drug use or sex with injection drug
users by the child's mother.
AND AS WE ALREADY SAID!
 Among 17 nations surveyed by the World
Health Organization, the United States
ranks first in lifetime use of three
substances—cocaine, cannabis, and
tobacco—and is in sixth place for alcohol
use. The five highest rates of use in each
drug category appear in red. Rates are
reported as percentages.
WHERE IT ALL STARTED
 THE EARLIEST WAR
AGAINST DRUGS WAS IN
RESPONSE TO OPIUM, AN
ANALGESIC PAIN
RELIEVER AND CENTRAL
NERVOUS SYSTEM
DEPRESSANT.
DOCTORS IN THE 187O’S
 COMMONLY
PRESCRIBED
MORPHINE FOR ANY
COMPLAINT FROM A
TOOTHACHE TO
CONSUMPTION.
 UNTIL THIS TIME THE
CONCEPT OF
ADDICTION WAS NOT
WIDELY KNOWN OR
UNDERSTOOD.
BELIEVE IT OR NOT
 AT A TIME WHEN THE
PRACTICE OF MEDICINE
WAS QUITE PRIMITIVE,
OPIUM BECAME THE
ESSENTIAL INGREDIENT
IN INNUMERABLE
REMEDIES DISPENSED IN
EUROPE AND THE
UNITED STATES.
IN 19TH CENTURY U.S.
 THE TYPICAL
AMERICAN OPIATE
ADDICT WAS A MIDDLE
AGED WHITE WOMAN
OF THE MIDDLE OR
UPPER CLASS.
 THIS ADDICT DID NOT
SMOKE OPIUM BUT
RATHER INGESTED IT
AS A MEDICINE.
AS OPPOSED TO TODAY
 WHILE OPIUM USE MAY HAVE BEEN FROWNED UPON BY SOME
AS IMMORAL
 EMPLOYEES WERE NOT FIRED FOR ADDICTION.
 CHILDREN WERE NOT TAKEN FROM THEIR HOMES AND LODGED
IN FOSTER HOMES OR INSTITUTIONS, BECAUSE ONE OR BOTH
PARENTS WERE ADDICTED.
 THE 19TH CENTURY AVOIDED ONE OF THE MOST DISASTEROUS
EFFECTS OF CURRENT NARCOTIC LAWS AND ATTITUDES-THE
RISE OF A DEVIANT ADDICT SUBCULTURE, CUT OFF FROM
RESPECTABLE SOCIETY AND WITHOUT A ROAD BACK.
THE HARRISON ACT(1914)
 PERSONS IN THE BUSINESS OF DEALING IN
DRUGS(INCLUDES OPIUM DERIVATIVES AND
COCAINE) WERE REQUIRED TO REGISTER
YEARLY AND TO PAY A SPECIAL ANNUAL TAX
OF $1.
 THE STATUTE MADE IT ILLEGAL TO SELL OR
GIVE AWAY OPIUM OR ITS DERIVATIVES
WITHOUT A WRITTEN ORDER ON A FORM
ISSUED THE COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL
REVENUE.
DEALING WITH DRUG ABUSE?
 CONCERN OVER FEDERALISM-
CONSTITUTIONAL LIMITATIONS ON THE
POLICE POWERS OF THE CENTRAL
GOVERNMENT
 LED CONGRESS TO USE THE TAXING
AUTHORITY RATHER THAN THE POLICE
AUTHORITY OF THE FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT TO RESPOND TO THE
PROBLEM OF DRUG CONTROL
COCAINE IN THE U.S.
 FROM THE 1930’S TO
THE 1960’S COCAINE
THERE WAS LIMITED
DEMAND FOR
COCAINE, AND
ACCORDINGLY
LIMITED SUPPLY.
 COCAINE USE WAS
ASSOCIATED WITH
DEVIANTS.
AND THEN
 DURING THE LATE 1960’S
AND EARLY 1970’S
ATTITUDES TOWARDS
DRUG USE BECAME
MORE RELAXED
 MANY PEOPLE WERE
TAUGHT TO PERCEIVE
COCAINE AS
CHIC,EXCLUSIVE,
DARING, AND NONADDICTING.
SOCIETAL ATTITUDES??
 COCAINE BECAME
ASSOCIATED WITH A
PRIVILEGED ELITE.
 THE NEW DEMAND
WAS SUFFICIENT TO
GENERATE NEW
SOURCES,REFINING,
AND MARKETING
NETWORKS.
MARIJUANA
 THE BIGGEST INFLUENCE ON
MARIJUANA LEGISLATION HAS
BEEN RACISM.
 BY 1930 SIXTEEN STATES WITH
RELATIVELY LARGE MEXICAN
POPULATIONS HAD ENACTED
ANTI-MARIJUANA
LEGISLATION.
 DESPITE BEING OUTLAWED,
MARIJUANA WAS NEVER AN
IMPORTANT ISSUE IN THE
UNITED STATES UNTIL THE
1960S
A TURBULENT TIME WITH RAPID CHANGE!!
SO IN 1970
 THE COMPREHENSIVE DRUG ABUSE PREVENTION AND
CONTROL ACT IS PASSED BY CONGRESS, BASED ON FEDERAL
AUTHORITY OVER INTERSTATE COMMERCE.
 FIRST FEDERAL LEGISLATION SINCE THE HARRISON ACT!!
 THE ACT SET THE STAGE FOR AN INNOVATION IN THE FEDERAL
DRUG LAW ENFORCEMENT TECHNIQUES.
 THE INNOVATION WAS THE ASSIGNMENT OF LARGE NUMBERS
OF FEDERAL NARCOTICS AGENTS TO WORK IN LOCAL
COMMUNITIES.
AND IN THE 1980’S
 THE COMPREHENSIVE CRIME CONTROL ACT
OF 1984 SUPPLEMENTED THE 1970 DRUG
STATUTE BY AUTHORIZING THE DOUBLING OF
A SENTENCE FOR DRUG OFFENDERS WITH
PRIOR DOMESTIC OR FOREIGN FELONY DRUG
CONVICTIONS.
 THE ANTI-DRUG ABUSE OF 1986 IMPOSES
MANDATORY PRISON SENTENCES FOR
CERTAIN DRUG OFFENSES.
AND THE RESULTS??
 In his Senate floor speech introducing the legislation,
Senator Jim Webb tackles another thorny political issue,
U.S. drug policy, "The elephant in the bedroom in many
discussions on the criminal justice system is the sharp
increase in drug incarceration over the past three decades.
In 1980, we had 41,000 drug offenders in prison; today we
have more than 500,000, an increase of 1,200%." It has
been 37 years since President Nixon first declared a "War on
Drugs" and Senator Webb is not it's only critic. The U.S. now
spends close to $40 billion a year at home and abroad
trying to stop the flow and use of drugs. At home, youth
drug use has declined, but hard drugs are cheaper than
ever. Abroad, drug profits fund terrorists, drug lords and
other dangerous non-state actors. (pbs)
TIRED OF WAGING WAR?
 In a 2001 Pew Center poll, 74% of Americans
said they thought the U.S. was losing the
drug war and could never stop drug use. What
is less clear is where to go next. While polls
indicate little desire among Americans for the
legalization of hard drugs such as cocaine and
heroin, a growing minority support legalizing
and regulating marijuana.
OTHER STRATEGIES HAVE TO BE LOOKED AT!
 OTHER POINTS OF VIEW SHOULD BE
EXAMINED (BUT BE CAREFUL)
 Since December 31, 1995, the U.S. prison
population has grown an average of 43,266
inmates per year. About 25 per cent are sentenced
for drug law violations.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice
Statistics

 DRUG SENSE.ORG
HOWEVER!!
 The U.S. prison population grew at the
slowest rate (0.8%) since 2000, reaching
1,610,446 sentenced prisoners at year end
2008.
 Growth of the prison population since 2000
(1.8% per year on average) was less than a
third of the average annual rate during the
1990s (6.5% per year on average). (DOJ)
TREATMENT IS A NECESSITY
 Scientific research since the mid-1970s shows that
drug abuse treatment can help many drug abusing
offenders change their attitudes, beliefs, and
behaviors towards drug abuse…and successfully
remove themselves from a life of substance abuse and
crime. It is true that legal pressure might be needed to
get a person into treatment and help them stay there.
Once in a treatment program, however, even those
who are not motivated to change at first can
eventually become engaged in a continuing treatment
process.(NIDA)
THE ALTERNATIVE IS THAT

Untreated substance abuse adds significant
costs to communities, including violent and
property crimes, prison expenses, court and
criminal costs, emergency room visits, child
abuse and neglect, lost child support, foster
care and welfare costs, reduced productivity,
unemployment, and victimization. The cost to
society of drug abuse in 2002 was estimated at
$181 billion, $107 billion of which was
associated with drug-related crime.(nida)
DRUG COURTS ARE AN AVENUE TO ADDRESS THIS
 In 1989, the Dade County Circuit Court
developed an intensive, community-based,
treatment, rehabilitation, and supervision
program for felony drug defendants to
address rapidly increasing recidivism rates.
Less than twenty years later, there are more
than 2,140 drug courts in operation with
another 284 being planned or developed.
WHAT THEY DO!
 Drug court diverts non-violent, substance abusing
offenders from prison and jail into treatment. A
decade of research indicates that drug court
reduces crime by lowering re-arrest and conviction
rates, improving substance abuse treatment
outcomes, and reuniting families, and also
produces measurable cost benefits.
 Courts are operating or being planned in 50
States, the District of Columbia, Northern
Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, Guam, two Federal
Districts, and more than 70 tribal locations(Office
of National Drug Control Policy)
A FEW CLOSING THOUGHTS
 THE COST OF DRUG ABUSE IS DEVASTATING
TO THIS COUNTRY
 ANY APPROACH WITHOUT A STRONG
TREATMENT PLAN IS LIKELY TO FAIL. WE JUST
CANT LOCK EVERYONE UP!
 HOW MANY DRUG TREATMENT CENTERS ARE
PRO-LEGALIZATION??
 HAS LEGALIZED GAMBLING REDUCED THIS
VICE?