War On Drugs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

War On Drugs - Essay Example Its initiation was aimed at taking a firm stand on drugs because of the effect that drug abuse has had on society. The problem comes about when prisons become overcrowded as facilities, and supervisory staff is not enough. This, in turn, leads the government to injecting more resources to correctional organizations at the expense of other pressing issues such as healthcare and education programs. Conversely, such organizations may be ignored causing prison facilities to be strained and prison staff over-worked without earning any extra income; this is usually the more common scenario (Yahoo! Inc, 2007). Pinpointing the Source In order to rectify this problem, which essentially is an inflated budget, it is vital to pinpoint the source of the overall problem of drug abuse in the society. Questions such as which are the most common illicit drugs, where do the drugs come from, who distributes them, what are the loopholes that enable this distribution persist, how else can persons be dete rred to participate in drug trade. This breakdown allows specific solutions to be arrived at; without having to call for harsh punishment directly, which translates to serving longer terms in prison. The government should consider the fact that rehabilitation through imprisonment is not a solution for drug traffickers; because what instead happens is that they interact with much worse criminals and get further inclined to a criminal lifestyle. Moreover, having a criminal record prevents them from getting legitimate jobs thereby, leading them back to drug trade (Yahoo! Inc, 2007).In some states, the war on drugs has kept use of government resources at bay by seizing assets from drug traffickers. ... Inc, 2007). In some states, the war on drugs has kept use of government resources at bay by seizing assets from drug traffickers. This has been viewed as a self-financing method but in reality resources gained from asset forfeiture end up being transferred to other departments with scarce resources. In addition, police agencies have been noted to seize assets from innocent persons with the aim of acquiring resources for financing their departments. The resources amassed from asset seizures end up diverting focus from actual crime fighting. There needs to be a shift in thinking whereby drug prohibition has proven not to be effective in alleviating drug trade. Over time, the argument for drug prohibition has been that there is a relationship between drug trafficking and other violent crimes such as car theft and robbery. Therefore, if drugs are prohibited, the law is better enforced as such crimes are prevented (Benson, 2009). However, this has been proven ineffective as prisons have b ecome overcrowded and most states have had to call for release of petty offenders. This has proven quite risky, as individuals who are viewed as petty offenders may have considered graduating to higher crimes because of interacting with serious offenders. Either way, the petty offenders arrested for drug trade are released back into society without any assurance that they have been rehabilitated. The issue then becomes identifying a way of effectively rehabilitating drug traffickers where incarceration is not an option. Another issue is the stringent laws on parolees as most of them will inevitably violate them and end up stuck in the vicious recycle of the prison system (Romaine, 2011).