Drugs are a major problem not just in America, but in the whole world. It is important to know the effects drugs can have on humans, which drugs are legal and which are not, who uses them the most, and what has the U.S. government done about stopping them.
People use drugs for many reasons such as pleasure or to become intoxicated because drugs make them feel good. Other people take them for medical reasons because they may ease chronic pains. Illegal drugs are the ones that are not allowed for people to have. Legal drugs are the ones that doctors prescribe to people for medication purposes. Drugs that are against the law are the most problematic in today's society because they affect and destroy many lives. According to the BBC News, illegal drugs can cause things like hallucinations (seeing strange things), sickness, depression, liver and kidney problems, and fits. Some illegal drugs can kill even at the first time the person takes them. That is why the government prohibits illegal drugs.
People of different ages use and take illegal drugs, but it is mostly youth that consume them. Alice Park stated in “Teens and Drugs” that a new report by the University of Columbia finds that 75% of all high school students have used alcohol, tobacco or either legal or illicit drugs and that 20% of these adolescents are addicted. Peer pressure, risk taking, socialize, fit in, or to hide from emotional pain are some of the reasons why youth do drugs.
The cost of preventing people from using illegal drugs is a very high one. The United States’ government has spent billions of dollars trying to reduce illegal drug use and trafficking into the country. In 1971, President Richard Nixon officially declared a war on drugs because drug abuse became a serious national threat, according to an article of the National Public Radio. After President Nixon declares the war on drugs some administrations, policies, campaigns, and acts were created such as the Drug Enforcement Administration, Anti-Drug Abuse Act, and the National Drug Control Policy to name a few.
It is hard to estimate the exact amount of money spent by the United States’ government on the war on drugs. A chronology published by PBS states that in 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act and approved $1.7 billion to fight the drug crisis. Of the $1.7 billion, $97 million were spent on building new prisons, $200 million for drug education, and $241 million were designated for treatment. An additional $1.2 billion was added to the war on drugs budget by President George Bush in 1990. In 2000, President Bill Clinton adds another $1.3 billion to help Colombian military combat drug traffickers. In 2010, President Barack Obama added another $10 billion and promised to reduce drug use and the damage it causes, Martha Mendoza declared. It has been 40 years since President Nixon declared the war on drugs, and efforts to prevent and stop drug abuse have not ceased in the United States.
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References:
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/find_out/guides/uk/drugs/newsid_1609000/1609624.stm>
<http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/29/teens-and-drugs-rite-of-passage-or-recipe-for-addiction/?xid=huffpo-direct>
<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9252490>
<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/cron/>
<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37134751/ns/us_news-security/t/us-drug-war-has-met-none-its-goals/>
The war on drugs has been and continues to be a hot topic. As you stated, the United States keeps throwing billions of dollars at the issue, with little change. In the past 40 years of fighting the war on drugs, how much has the government actually done? It is difficult to say because so much drug activity goes under the radar. Drugs are readily available in almost any city across the nation. The government either needs to cut back the funding to the war on drugs, or find a way to capitalize on the heavy drug use throughout the country.
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