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The United States is at a crossroads in its drug policy.
In our effort to quell the drug trade, we have greatly
increased patrol and inspection on our nation's borders.
We have increased arrests for violation of drug laws and
lengthened sentences. We have stripped away the rights
of drug offenders and introduced drug testing in our nation's
schools and workplaces. We have poured billions of dollars
into overseas anti-drug paramilitary operations that commit
violent human rights abuses. And in the process of trying
to eradicate illicit coca crops, we have destroyed over
a million acres of land in Colombia alone.
Since 1990, more than half of the federal prisoners
in America are serving time for drug offenses. The availability
and purity of drugs has steadily increased over the
past twenty-five years. The violence in the drug trade
remains excruciatingly high and surges from year to
year and city to city. Meanwhile, there remain a myriad
of social issues as a result of drug abuse.
The use of drugs, and the enforcement of the anti-drug
laws, effects all subpopulations in the U.S., all sectors
of the economy, and many aspects of the legal system.
Whether we are talking about violence, poverty, race,
health, education, community development, the environment,
civil liberties or terrorism, the illegal drug market
is an important factor in the conversation.
We have tried to use force, prohibition and incarceration
to control the drug market, but our efforts have actually
led to a more efficient drug trade and a hugely profitable
drug market. It is time to rethink our strategy and
redefine our goals.
This section holds articles and speeches given by
CJPF that address drug policy in all of its forms and
effects. In this, we strive to provide a comprehensive
framework for rethinking the war on drugs. Read
more about the failure of the drug war. CONTEXT OF DRUG POLICY
Human beings have used various substances to affect
their mood and feeling for 6000 to 8000 years. The use
of alcohol, opium and cannabis precedes written history.
Tea and peyote (and probably tobacco) have been used
for over 1000 years. The use of tobacco and coffee (both
addictive, mood affecting drugs) have been used widely
around the world since the Eighteenth century.
Controls on the use of these drugs, through prohibitions
and taxes, have been implemented only in the past couple
hundred of years. Contemporary drug policy, expressed
formally in the Controlled Substances Act, attempts
to control the distribution and prevent the use of stimulant,
depressant and "hallucinogenic" compounds that can be
"abused". At the same time, the Act seeks to assure
that such compounds - when they have a use in medicine
- are available to patients through a tightly controlled
distribution system.
Despite such attempts at control, the government estimates
that at least $65 billion is spent annually on the illegal
purchase of controlled substances. Recent data says
that about 19 million Americans use illegal controlled
substances at least monthly. A great variety of such
substances are reported by high school students as being
easily available. Indeed, the availability and purity
of many common illegal drugs is now greater than 30
years ago.
To curb the illegal distribution of such drugs, the
government arrests 1.5 million persons per year. In
2002 alone, 340,000 people were convicted as felons
for drug offenses. There are currently between 400,000
and 500,000 persons imprisoned in the U.S. for violating
the drug laws; this is more than all the prisoners combined
in the European Union, even with its substantially greater
population. The federal prison population is now roughly
nine times the size that it was when the Controlled
Substances Act was enacted.
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