The War on Drugs

1 War on Drugs Introduction The war on drugs relates to the federal government’s efforts in curbing the production, trade and consumption of drugs considered illegal. This term does not refer to a specific defined policy or mission, but it covers a wide array of approaches that are aimed at achieving the common plan of prohibiting illegal drug proliferation and abuse. The fight against drug abuse in the United States dates back to 1906 when the federal government established the Pure Food and Drug Act and subsequently formed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate drugs.

The act stipulated that certain drugs be sold for medical reasons, and drugs that may cause addiction be clearly labeled as such. In 1914, the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act was formulated and enforced.

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2 This act regulated the use of narcotics, which included heroin and other opiates. In 1937, the Marihuana tax Act was enforced with the aim of regulating marijuana. In 1954, the U.S. interdepartmental Committee on Narcotics was established. In 1969, the Dangerous Substances Act was enacted and it categorized drugs depending on their medicinal value and on potential risks associated with the specific drug use. This led to the scheduling of drugs and definition of the penalties that are applicable to each schedule level. However, it was not until 1970 that the current federal antidrug policy was formed with the enactment of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act (Gaines and Miller 2011).

Fighting Drug Use Data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics show that more than half of the people in the U.S prisons are serving sentences which relate to drug offenses based on the antidrug legislations. The federal government spends substantial amount of money in the fight against drugs. In 2009, the federal government’s budget on this war was estimated to be in excess of $ 22 billion, while states used more than $30 billion on this war, according to a study done in 1998

by Columbia University (Gray 2001).

How the War on Drugs Violates Human Rights The violations of basic human rights arise not from consumption of the drug, but rather from the enforcement of punitive measures. The approach taken by the enforcement agents criminalizes majority of those who use the drugs, who in most cases are the socially disadvantaged while leaving the organized criminals to have an upper hand in this trade (Chepesiuk 1999). The war on drugs in the U.S. has led to serious violation of natural rights, deterioration of civil liberties and compromising justice, condemnation of individuals and groups, abuse of social and economic rights and promotion of capita punishments. The

3 consequences can be witnessed across all spectra of life, ranging from unwarranted detention of drug users for many years with forced labor, denying citizens drugs that can alleviate pain in chronic and serious diseases like cancer, torture of drug users, executions of suspected drug couriers, and many others. The perceived social view on some drugs has established a political environment where drug war legislation and regulations do not measure up to the recognized human rights standards (Gray 2001). The strategies taken by the U.S. government in curbing drug trade and use seemingly contradict with the acceptable human rights norms. These abuses of natural rights can be enumerated as follows: Criminalization While recognizing the fact that it is not a right to use drugs, it must be realized that criminalizing the use of drugs in essence is a war concerning the drug users. This means that people are directly impacted and thus this criminalization cannot be separated from right to health, privacy, among others. The outcome of this criminalization differs widely; for example, it can be in form of warnings, fines, and lifetime imprisonments (Chepesiuk 1999). The effects also differ across the populations and variations can be observed in age, ethnicity, social and economic status.

Right to justice The human rights are compromised in cases relating to drug law enactment. In most cases, drug offenders do not have access to fair trial and the delivery of justice to drug offenders does not follow proper standards. In some instances, enforcement agents presume the suspects are guilt, ignoring the standard process as reflected in the U.S. human rights law.

Torture and corporal punishment

4 The manner in which drug users and suspects are dealt with is cruel and sometimes inhuman. The war on drugs has taken a trend where those who use the drugs or are suspected with involvement are subjected to torture and beatings to extract information, forced confessions through withdrawal of necessities like medical care, corporal punishments, and rehabilitation procedures such as isolation. These measures are a contravention of international law.

Extrajudicial killings Killing those people involved in drug use is a blatant violation of the federal and international law. The war on drugs in the U.S. often includes extrajudicial and targeted killings (Gray 2001).

Long-term sentencing and arbitrary detention Since the war on drugs was initiated, there has been a rapid rise of prisoners because of the punitive enforcement measures. Majority of those behind the bars are small-scale players, most often from disadvantaged social and economic classes. More than 50% of the federal prisoners in America are serving sentences related to drugs. While drug use bears a similarity across all the US population, there is disproportionate representation of all the ethnic groups in prison. Approximately 13% of the US population is Black, 15% Hispanic and 80% White (Gray 2001). However, in 2005, those imprisoned for drug related offenses included 45% Blacks, 20% Hispanic and 28% White.

Health rights The war on drug often violates health issues such as “access to health-related education and information; the right to be free from non-consensual medical treatment; the right to prevention, treatment and control of diseases; access to essential medicines and involvement in health-related matters” (Robinson, Matthew and Scherlen 2007, pg 233). Drug users are

5 frequently denied their rights to health as they are prevented from obtaining treatment and harm reduction services, and political impediments which form barriers in acquiring medicinal drugs essential in palliative care. This has consequently limited the availability of opiate medicines, denying people their right to health. Other enforcement measures such as crop fumigation cause direct damages to health thus infringing on this fundamental right..

Conclusion The strict regulations imposed on drug use and trade, coupled with increased budgetary allocations in these counterproductive strategies demonstrates the role of the US government in denying its citizens natural rights. Despite the over 50 years of the war on drugs, the continued supply and consumption of drugs has not been prevented. Instead, it has only led to further escalation of the unintended negative results such as violation of natural rights (Fisher 2006).

The solution to controlling these undesirable consequences lies on legalization of drug use since the war on drugs only does more harm to the society as a whole. This will also help in decreasing crime rates and enhancing law enforcement. Other measures that government can employ to reduce the consequences arising from drug use include use of less stringent enforcements in combination with educational programs and enacting of containment policies like taxes and restricted sales and advertisements (Chepesiuk 1999).

6 Bibliography

Chepesiuk, Ron. 1999. The war on drugs: An international encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABCCLIO. Fisher, L. Gary. 2006. Rethinking our war on drugs: Candid talk about controversial issues.

Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group.

Gaines, K. Larry and Miller, LeRoy, Roger. 2011. Criminal justice in action, 6th edition.

Belmont, MA: Cengage Learning.

Gray, P. James. 2001. Why our drug laws have failed and what we can do about it: a judicial indictment of the war on drugs. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

Robinson, B. Matthew, and Scherlen,G. Renee. 2007. Lies, damned lies, and drug war statistics: A critical analysis of claims made by the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Albany, NY: Sunny Press.