Is the Drug War Winnable?
Question 3: Is the Drug War Winnable?
Kind of debates taking place about International Drugs Policy
Drugs are known to cause undesirable health conditions to their users especially when misused. In this regard, the war on drugs has become a debatable topic over the past decades whose campaign was started by the former American president, Richard Nixon. The war has been fought for in over forty years which spurs up the questions of whether it will ever come to an end. In this context, the term war refers to a sustainable campaign against an unwanted activity. Some of the debates about war include:
Policies for drugs and alcohol: One of the reasons as to why the drug war is unwinnable is the kind of policies used against drug use. For instance, arresting and punishing drug-using citizen is considered a great step to fight drug use while in the real sense it is not. While drug use is not considered a case to warrant someone a life-sentence, some victims are so used to drugs that they cannot do without them lest they die. In this regard, some drug-users are allowed to use some significant amount of drugs while in the cells in order to guarantee their survival. Some end up dying if they are blurred from using the drugs as a punishment in the cells (Cooley, pg. 85, 2018). In this case, the government ends up having no impact in fighting drug-use in using such kinds of punishment. It is thus, recommendable if the government deprived of wasting money on implementing ineffective criminal policies and focus on the better ones. For instance, reducing overdose deaths and minimizing the number of nonviolent drug users behind bars should be the main focus of every government. ORDER YOUR PAPER NOW
Drug abuse policy: The war on drugs is not only a war fighting the growing, selling, and use of drugs, but it is essentially a war on people. Such is because it entails the criminalization of everything concerning cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and other illegal drugs and the assumption that abstinence from drug use is the only relationship allowed with these drugs. Such a combination is what makes the war against drugs unwinnable.
The other types of debates surrounding international drug policy are related to:
- The debate that drug laws are effective
- Health arguments that drugs are beneficial
- Arguments for medical uses of illegal drugs
- The creation of drug cartels
- Violence of drug traffickers
Tensions and Contradictions within International Drug Policy
While various organizations have joined hands to fight drug use, people who grow and sell drugs take it as a serious business to sustain them. In other words, drugs play a great role in creating job opportunities for the dealers as they sell them. Other people use drugs as the source of motivation for work hence without them they are unable to do anything constructive. Illegalizing drugs use may thus prove to be more disastrous than beneficial. In this regard, if the drugs are illegalized, it may mean spurring up more crimes such as theft, murder cases, and others in an effort to earn some living especially for those who used to rely on the illegalized drugs (Young, 2016). Those who relied on the drugs for motivation will become idle and unwilling to work yet their needs still stand to be met. In this case, such people end up stealing and killing people to get money for their survival. Considering such repercussions, the war against drugs remains an unending topic. ORDER YOUR PAPER NOW
Trends and Subtle changes in International Drug Policy
- The use of technology to transact drug-selling businesses
- Global medical support for drug use. Some countries argue that illegal drugs have a significant amount of medicinal value hence should be legalized
- Addiction: Some people cannot survive without the illegal drugs due to addiction hence require them for survival.