Free Essays on Drugs

The state of Illinois, specifically the Chicago area, is the focal point for the flow of illicit drugs into the Great Lakes Region. Chicago is the major hub for the delivery and transshipment of drugs throughout the Great Lakes Region and the Midwest. Three major types of trafficking groups are responsible for most of the drugs in Illinois. Mexican polydrug organizations, Colombian drug organizations trafficking in cocaine and heroin, and Nigerian groups trafficking in Southeast Asian heroin are the major transporters and wholesale distributors of drugs in Chicago. The most common means traffickers use to transport drugs into Chicago are commercial trucks, passenger vehicles, package delivery services, air packages or couriers, and railways. Organized street gangs such as the Gangster Disciples, Vice Lords, and Latin Kings control the distribution and retail of cocaine, heroin, and marijuana. Violent crime associated with street gangs, while declining in some urban areas, is increasi ng in suburban and rural areas of the state as these gangs expand their drug markets. Drug use affects the human organism in several ways. A division can be made between psychoactive effects such as changes in perception, cognition, affect, and levels of anxiety or inhibition. Physical effects like increased or diminished heart function, lung function and muscle tension. It is primarily the former effects, which make drugs desirable, and are a major reason for their use. Some of the physical effects enhanced or enduring bodily performance from stimulants, muscle relaxation or sleep from tranquilizers. These psychoactive and physical effects are influenced by the dose, administration mode, psychological or physical condition of the consumer, and the social environment in which drugs are taken. Many of the physical effects are termed because t... Free Essays on Drugs Free Essays on Drugs War on Drugs.† 1.) I have criticized President Nixon’s, â€Å"War on Drugs† both morally and on expediential grounds. Do we have the right to stop an individual from becoming an addict? Force, direct or indirect, should not be allowed to prevent a person’s choice to take drugs or alcohol. The ethical flaw in the war on drugs is similar to alcohol prohibition. 2.) In the drug game, neither the willing buyer or the willing seller has any desire to report a crime. This fact makes informers necessary. Informers and the huge amounts of cash involved leads to corruption, violation of civil rights, forcible entry, and forfeiture of property without due process. 3.) Today, eight times as many people are incarcerated than were in 1970. The number one source for the outrageous prison growth is the war on drugs. 4.) Sher Hosonko calls attention to the fact that we jail 3,109 black men for every 100,000. 5.) The inner cities have an advantage for selling drugs. Therefore, more dealers live in the inner cities. Bullets often fly when arguments between rival drug dealers occur. Ultimately, bullets fly because the drug trade is illegal. 6.) When drugs are illegal it causes prices to soar and quality to decline. Users must maintain a relationship with a criminal to supply their drug habit. An addict who wants treatment has to admit to being a criminal before receiving treatment. 7.) According to the Federal Health and Human Services Department, two-thirds of all terminally ill cancer patients did not receive adequate pain medication. This serious medical injustice is directly linked to pressures placed on physicians who prescribe drugs. 8.) Our war on drugs has undermined the stability of foreign governments. It has also led to thousands of deaths as well as economic loss in these same countries. 9.) Can a policy be moral if it leads to corruption, jail, racism, destroys inner cities, wreaks havoc on misguided individuals and... Free Essays on Drugs Most Americans do not want to spend scarce public funds incarcerating nonviolent marijuana offenders, at a cost of $23,000 per year. Politicians must reconsider our country's priorities and attach more importance to combating violent crime than targeting marijuana smokers. Marijuana prohibition costs taxpayers at least $7.5 billion annually. This is an enormous waste of scarce federal dollars that should be used to target violent crime. Marijuana prohibition makes no exception for the medical use of marijuana. The tens of thousands of seriously ill Americans who presently use marijuana as a therapeutic agent to alleviate symptoms of cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, or multiple sclerosis risk arrest and jail to obtain and use their medication. Between 1978 and 1996, 34 states passed laws recognizing marijuana's therapeutic value. Most recently, voters in two states Arizona and California passed laws allowing for the medical use of marijuana under a physician's supervision. Yet, states are severely limited in their ability to implement their medical use laws because of the federal prohibition of marijuana. America tried alcohol prohibition between 1919 and 1931, but discovered that the crime and violence associated with prohibition was more damaging than the evil sought to be prohibited. With tobacco, America has learned over the last decade that education is the most effective way to discourage use. Yet, America fails to apply these lessons to marijuana policy. By stubbornly defining all marijuana smoking as criminal, including that which involves adults smoking in the privacy of their own homes, we are wasting police and prosecutorial resources, clogging courts, filling costly and scarce jail and prison space, and needlessly wrecking the lives and careers of genuinely good citizens. Marijuana legalization offers an important advantage over dec... Free Essays on Drugs BUSH'S DRUG VIDEOS BROKE LAW, ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE DECIDES WASHINGTON - The Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, said on Thursday that the Bush administration violated federal law by producing and distributing television news segments about the effects of drug use among young people. The accountability office said the videos "constitute covert propaganda" because the government was not identified as the source of the materials, which were distributed by the Office of National Drug Control Policy. They were broadcast by nearly 300 television stations and reached 22 million households, the office said. The accountability office does not have law enforcement powers, but its decisions on federal spending are usually considered authoritative. In May the office found that the Bush administration had violated the same law by producing television news segments that portrayed the new Medicare law as a boon to the elderly. The accountability office was not critical of the content of the video segments from the White House drug office, but found that the format - a made-for-television "story package" - violated the prohibition on using taxpayer money for propaganda. Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, the senior Democrat on the Government Reform Committee, who requested the review, said the use of the mock news segments broke "a fundamental principle of open government." A spokesman for the drug policy office said the review's conclusions made a "mountain out of a molehill." The spokesman, Tom Riley, noted that Congress had authorized the drug policy office to fashion antidrug messages in motion pictures and television programming and on the Internet. His office stopped distributing the antidrug videos after the G.A.O. report on the Medicare segments, Mr. Riley said, and never acted unlawfully. The drug policy office told investigators that it would have been difficult for "a rea... Free Essays on Drugs DRUGS AND THE EFFECT THEY HAVE ON OUR CHILDREN’S LIVES Criminal Justice Good health allows us to be strong, happy, smart and skillful as we can possibly be. The worst thing about illegal drugs is that they damage people from the inside. Our minds and bodies run like fine tuned machines when we take care of ourselves. Doctors prescribe medicines (which are legal drugs) to heal our bodies when we are sick, but dangerous drugs are not recommended by medical professionals. The largest problem with use of illegal drugs, as well as cigarettes and alcohol, is among our young adults. Products like wine, beer, liquor are very harmful for our children because their bodies and especially their nervous system are still developing. It is stated that cigarettes and alcohol kill more people than cancer and car accidents caused by drunk drivers than all other drugs. Illegal drugs can cause brain damage. These drugs are â€Å"psychoactive,† which means that they change our personality and the way we feel. While under the influence of these drugs we are more likely to endanger our life as well as somebody else’s. These illegal drugs are very addictive and they are very difficult to stop. An addict’s body craves the drug and becomes dependent upon it. The drug-user may even become sick if the drug is discontinued and this is why so many people, children and adults, become a slave to these drugs. More than 100,000 people die every year because of drinking. Children are twice as likely as adults to become involved in fatal drunk-driving car crashes. Half of all assaults against girls or women involve alcohol. Drinking is illegal if you are under the age of 21 and could be arrested for this crime. Nicotine is also very addictive. Once we start smoking it is very difficult to stop and smoking cigarettes causes lung cancer and other diseases. Statistics indicate that tobacco and nicotine related diseases kill more than 400,000 people every year... Free Essays on Drugs America’s inception as a country was founded in smuggling and illegal trade; with that in mind it is of no surprise that drug use and or abuse is a large part of our culture and a fixture in our collective minds. Children today in America go through mandatory drug education (DARE), federal employees are subjected to mandatory drug testing, and all professional athletes are subjected to those as well. Still, even with so many preventative measures being taken to curb Americans from drug use our prison system is choked with drug offenders, and by â€Å"drugs† I am referring to the standard grouping of â€Å"illegal substances† in this country: what are classified as illegal, naturally derived drugs: hallucinogens, narcotics, opiates, and marijuana. The fact of the matter is that the use of these afore-mentioned drugs has reached an all time high in this country. When an observer to this situation sees only what is occurring presently as the problem, then they are w holly misguided. Drug u! se has always been, and most likely always will be a popular pastime in the United States, and in fact drug use per capita is only higher, at least my opinion, because of stringent government inter-action and â€Å"education†, which I believe only introduces more Americans to drugs than would otherwise be aware of such substances. So where did drugs begin in American life? Getting high at least it seems can be traced all the way back to the first settlement of American land in Virginia†¦ When Jamestown was settled in 1607 the English colonists were looking for any sort of possible income. As it happened their location for settlement was located in one of the best possible places in the world for the production of naval products. Hemp was one of the first products grown in Jamestown, its primary use of course was for making stiff naval rope for the ships that would be constructed there, however it is noted that along with the growing of marijuana, the ... Free Essays on Drugs The state of Illinois, specifically the Chicago area, is the focal point for the flow of illicit drugs into the Great Lakes Region. Chicago is the major hub for the delivery and transshipment of drugs throughout the Great Lakes Region and the Midwest. Three major types of trafficking groups are responsible for most of the drugs in Illinois. Mexican polydrug organizations, Colombian drug organizations trafficking in cocaine and heroin, and Nigerian groups trafficking in Southeast Asian heroin are the major transporters and wholesale distributors of drugs in Chicago. The most common means traffickers use to transport drugs into Chicago are commercial trucks, passenger vehicles, package delivery services, air packages or couriers, and railways. Organized street gangs such as the Gangster Disciples, Vice Lords, and Latin Kings control the distribution and retail of cocaine, heroin, and marijuana. Violent crime associated with street gangs, while declining in some urban areas, is increasi ng in suburban and rural areas of the state as these gangs expand their drug markets. Drug use affects the human organism in several ways. A division can be made between psychoactive effects such as changes in perception, cognition, affect, and levels of anxiety or inhibition. Physical effects like increased or diminished heart function, lung function and muscle tension. It is primarily the former effects, which make drugs desirable, and are a major reason for their use. Some of the physical effects enhanced or enduring bodily performance from stimulants, muscle relaxation or sleep from tranquilizers. These psychoactive and physical effects are influenced by the dose, administration mode, psychological or physical condition of the consumer, and the social environment in which drugs are taken. Many of the physical effects are termed because t... Free Essays on Drugs Drugs I accept as true the statement, â€Å"Drugs don’t kill people, people who use drugs kill themselves.† In reference to the implied objective reality of drugs, drugs are â€Å"motionless, timeless, undefined, non-perceived, and inanimate until we provide a motive for their use.† It is not until we create motives and provide drugs with meaning that we cause damage to the individual. I hold true that, â€Å"Bad things can happen with drugs, but good things also happen to people who use drugs.† Take for instance, the student who begins to abuse amphetamines to study for midterms. By using a drug, such as cocaine, the student is able to stay awake longer, therefore spending more time studying. Their grades greatly improve. This is a clear example of the â€Å"bad things happen clause.† I intend to draw upon Szasz and the Katiovich and Wieting article to support my views on the above two statements. In regard to the comparison of drugs and guns i ndexed as evil, I will discuss the possibilities of their potential usefulness as well. Drugs tend to become known as the true evil or â€Å"killerâ€Å". In all actuality the drug itself, left alone, does not kill the person. There must be a causal force behind the drug for damage to occur to the person. Addiction and dependency come into play. Once a person tries a drug, they may want to experience the euphoric pleasures associated with the drugs’ affects again and again. Therefore, the individual must repeat the action of ingestion. The individual has control whether to misuse the drug or not. Szasz argues that despite all the rhetoric to the contrary, no one is, or can be killed by an illegal drug. â€Å"If a person dies as a result of using a drug, it is because he chose to do something risky.† Do drugs cause crime, or is it our governments’ way of controlling our communities? Many people blame drugs for every problem in our society, but are drugs the real evil? No one p... Free Essays on Drugs The extermination of illegal drugs has always been one of the most important, worldwide issues. Ending the existence of drug abuse in our society is one of the toughest and most complicated goals we face. Despite constant battles against them, illegal substances continue to exist and thrive in our culture. With all the effort put into the war against drugs, why is there little success? Lack of effort is not the reason our attempts are failing. It is the lack of understanding that leads to the misdirection and failure of our attempts. Obviously a strong desire to use drugs exists, and it is the prevention of this desire that we need to focus on in order to wipe out drug abuse. In fact, our focus is strongly on punishing drug users, yet applying laws against committed drug crimes has not proven to be an effective solution. Drugs are still produced and distributed everywhere, and are taken by many. The reasons people use drugs still exist. Arresting people for drugs does not kill their desire to use them. Reprimanding committed crimes does not eliminate the reason they were committed. Addressing drug offenses after they have been made is not an effective deterrent because the desire for the drug's effect still remains. Why is this desire more influential than the law? Partly because the potential benefits of drugs overwhelm us, and turn our focus away from the potential dangers and consequences. People will go to extreme lengths to be the best, or better than what they presently are. Culture's attitudes toward beauty, money, power as a representation for success drives us to turn to drugs. Drugs symbolize power, status, freedom, and the ultimate â€Å"high† in our world. Drugs can help people achieve higher status, more power, as well as the overwhelming physical and emotional â€Å"escape.† Ultimately, the desire for the drug high is worth the risk which we conceive to be very small of being caught. In reality, the risk of getting c... Free Essays on Drugs It is known that people who are found to be using drugs, most likley of lower class, are put away for longer sentences than people who have committed a worse crime. When Oscar Danilo Blandon was arrested and admitted to crimes that sent others away he was let go easy. The Justice department turned him loose unsupervised most likley due to the fact that he was part of the Nicaraguan priveledged class. They even went as far as to pay him as much as $166,000 since his release. Situtations such as these prove that social status and money can go a long way. The people with high social class are the ones that hold the most power especially when it comes to government issues. Juan Norwin Meneses was listed in the DEA’s computers as a major international drug smuggler however, he was able to live openly and never spent a day in prison. How is this possible when others of lower class try to lead their lives and yet the second anyone of government official finds out that they are involved they get sent away immediately? Its almost as if saying â€Å"If you dont have money or have a high social status you will get put away because no one cares about you, as oppose to others who are well known and are lucrative in what they do. Is it truly fair for a sex offender to get put back on the street rather than someone who just takes drugs to get on with their day? Id rather have the drug dealer walking around. The government or rather the President should start worrying about these issues as well as others here in the United States. If not, then what will happen to our country as time goes on if we dont start to pick up the peices of where we are falling apart the most....