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Drug Control and Public Policy in the United States

Jesse Mathewson | July 8, 2009 | 0 Comments

Many cases of public policy exist in the United States today that have been formed based on flawed generally accepted opinions or worse policy based in moralistic views that have not been reflected in the facts. One of these policies is the ban against drugs and drug use. Currently in the United States, there is a “war” being fought against drugs and according to President Reagan and his wife Nancy it was “just say no” time for drugs. Of course, medical, scientific, and sociological persons know this is not nearly as simple as these politicians wished it to be. However, the drug war did not start in the 1980’s it started much earlier in this country, even though the very public war against drugs began in the 1980’s. With the advent of new “designer” drugs came, new waves of crime, and Reagan began the war in force. Current politicians carry the mantle concerning drugs and the United States drug control policy high, many are proud of their stance and continue to hold that stance regardless of potential cost in lives and money spent.

As far back as 1914 and the Harrison Narcotic Act which outlawed cocaine usage the United States, government has based its legislation regarding drugs on flawed moral reactions to something it could have been making a good tax revenue from. Cocaine was introduced to the United States in the form of “tonics,” coughs syrups, and even as a flavored drink called “Coca Cola.” Cocaine was one of the largest drugs of choice for many Europeans and upper class people all over the world for a very long time. It was actually touted as a non-dangerous beneficial treatment by many physicians and pharmacists during the mid 1800’s to very early 1900’s. Even after its illegalization because of the Harrison Narcotics Act, people from the higher end of society tended to use it and still to this day do. One drug that came from cocaine was crack, a derivative and watered down version of true cocaine. At the time crack cocaine first hit the streets in force in the early 1980’s many saw the devastation resulting in the attempts by drug “cartels” grabbing their shares. Of course, if this drug were legal there would have been no reason for the crime waves in the first place, however thanks to the Harrison Narcotics Act, several other Laws passed over times this, and many other drugs were illegal. Another drug was amphetamines known in the modern world as Methamphetamines, or crystal, crystal meth etc. This drug was first formulated in the late 1800’s and was used by medical, scientific personnel to help them “keep going” the army soon picked it up and eventually it “morphed” into the drug we now know as Crystal Meth. Another major issue for the political side of the drug war was PCP, and Marijuana.

Marijuana is the most interesting drug of all; the plant that it grows on can be used for many things that we currently use petroleum-based products. One of the largest myths regarding marijuana is that it is a gateway drug. This has been shown to be false, “Marijuana does not cause people to use hard drugs. What the gateway theory presents as a causal explanation is a statistic association between common and uncommon drugs, an association that changes over time as different drugs increase and decrease in prevalence.” (Morral, McCaffery, Paddock 2002) There are several other studies as well showing that Marijuana is actually less harmful than cigarettes in moderate portions. One of those studies shows the following information “There have been no reports of lung cancer related solely to marijuana, and in a large study presented to the American Thoracic Society in 2006,” (Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse 1995) Another common misconception regarding marijuana is that it is extremely harmful to a persona health. According to “In 1995, based on thirty years of scientific research editors of the British medical journal Lancet concluded, “the smoking of cannabis, even long term, is not harmful to health.” (Deglamorising cannabis 1995) Another portion is the medical benefits of marijuana, “Marijuana has been shown to be effective in reducing the nausea induced by cancer chemotherapy, stimulating appetite in AIDS patients, and reducing intraocular pressure in people with glaucoma.” (Vinciguerra, Moore, Brennan 1988) and it is good for patients with neurological disorders. (Nerve Pain included) “There is also appreciable evidence that marijuana reduces muscle spasticity in patients with neurological disorders.” (Baker, Pryce, Croxford 2000) Now according to the United States government each of these “myths” is being cited as fact, sadly people believe that our government and the politicians making public policy are never wrong. When it comes to medical usages the government says the following “no animal or human data support the safety or efficacy of smoked marijuana for general medical use.” (Office of National Drug Control Policy, 2009) When it comes to the harm (or lack thereof) being caused by marijuana the government states the following, “Marijuana has a high potential for abuse and can incur addiction. Frequent use of marijuana leads to tolerance to the psychoactive effects and smokers compensate by smoking more often or seeking higher potency marijuana.” (Office of National Drug Control Policy, 2009) This statement directly contradicts the actual medical facts associated with marijuana. There are several other common myths regarding marijuana and as important, as it is to provide all the facts the above mentioned will suffice for the time being. However, as you can see public policy is being swayed away from factually based evidence and utilizing old “myths” instead.

When it comes to crime, the government is very clear that they believe drug related crimes are wrong, as most law-abiding citizens will agree with. However, what is commonly not mentioned is that being on drugs does not necessarily cause crime so much as the drugs themselves being illegal. According to the United States government “Drug-related offenses and drug-using lifestyles are major contributors to the U.S. crime problem” (Drug-Related Crime, 2000) When we look at the facts regarding this one must agree a very large percentage of crime in the United States is drug related. Unfortunately, our political appointees tend to approach it from the wrong angle, “Government spending related to smoking and the abuse of alcohol and illegal drugs reached $468 billion in 2005, accounting for more than one-tenth of combined federal, state, and local expenditures for all purposes, according to a new study.” (Eckholm, 2009) Currently in the United States according to the Federal Bureau of Investigations “In 1973, there were 328,670 arrests logged in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) for drug law violations. In 2007, that number rose to 1,841,182 arrests for drug law violations logged in the UCR. Also in 2006, there were a reported 597,447 arrests for all violent crimes and 1,610,088 arrests for all property crimes, out of a total 14,209,365 arrests for all offenses.” (FBI Uniform Crime Reports 2008) These numbers account for almost 4% of the total population in the United States and over 25% of the crime committed in the United States. Whether we like it or not a “war” against drugs may not be the best solution to this problem. Especially considering that, crime rates skyrocketed following the enormous crackdowns on drugs and drug users, directly following the Reagan administration. Currently, in the United States, we spend more money “fighting” this war that has increased crime and addiction than on our schools, and health care, and social programs combined instead of looking to treat addiction and stop crime our politicians have increased both.

When it comes to drugs, we can see the government mandating issues based on moral and ethical considerations versus legal and medical recommendations have in fact created a very large money pit and problem for our nation. Unfortunately, due to programs such as D.A.R.E. and others the government has succeeded in convincing millions of Americans that “combating” this evil of drugs is working. The result of this is that while millions of Americans are sent to prison, refused treatment, and having the lives of those closest to them ruined other Americans are continuing to support a failed policy. While I cannot ever condone either, someone abusing drugs legally or illegally I also cannot understand the need for our government to mandate policy that in itself is destroying more lives than it is saving. Having spent years going over the facts and statistics and studying the laws I cannot understand the necessity for a “drug” war versus legalization, taxation, mandated treatment, and other more beneficial approaches to this problem with drugs and drug addiction.

The potential long-term implications of the current Drug Enforcement policies are more far reaching than we currently believe. There are many views concerning what will happen in the future. More importantly, can we continue to spend over a half of a trillion dollars annually to fight something that cannot be won? What will the financial implications be, and what are the possible results of this policy placed there by our Political leaders who are intent on ensuring their continued political success over the true health and well being of the people they are supposed to represent? With the current economical situation, this amount of money could be used to offset the deficit or even ensure that certain long-standing social programs are run better. The political implications once people begin to realize that the war is causing more problems than the actual drugs themselves are also dire, there is the potential collapse of an entire way of life simply based on the understanding that the government so many looked up to has been lying to them.

In conclusion, we see that in many ways we should as a nation start moving forward and looking to facts versus our own personal beliefs. The old myths regarding drugs and drug related issues may not always be correct. As leaders in this nation, there should be more fact-finding and less political scratching. To prevent crime and more eventual devastation of innocent lives we should begin to approach treatment as a valid possibility versus simply incarceration of criminals and lawbreakers. Obviously, there are problems with legalization or even decriminalization however, the long term benefits would generally outweigh those short-term problems.

References:

Baker, D., Gareth Pryce, and J. Ludovic Croxford. (2000)

“Cannabinoids control spasticity and tremor in a multiple sclerosis model.”

Nature 404.6773 (2000): 84-7.

Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse. “Legalization: Panacea or Pandora’s Box.”

New York. (1995): 36.

Crime in America: FBI Uniform Crime Reports 2007

(Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice, 2008), Table 29, from the web at

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2007/data/table_29.html and Arrest Table: Arrests for

Drug Abuse Violations, from the web at

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2007/arrests/index.html last accessed Sept. 18, 2008.

Deglamorising cannabis The Lancet, Volume 346, Issue 8985, Page 1241