Drug Laws: Effective or not?

Is the "War on Drugs" working?

for whom?

For employees of the NY Penal system, its working fine. For everybody else it seems to be a bust (no pun intended).

3 Words,

"Did prohibition work?"

No.

Canada has relaxed drug laws. Still we don't have the social issues like our friends to the south. Filling jails with potheads does absolutely nothing to solve the underlying problems with welfare, unemployment and education.

"War on Drugs" is just a stupid slogan, designed to perpetuate fear.

Whose 'War on Drugs'?

Sorry, I was referring to the USA's "War on Drugs".

Declare a "war on" or a "czar" and see a program fail (only insofar as it helps the common folk--the bureacracy does just fine).

Please. The so-called "war on drugs" is a fucked up boondoggle.

Its done nothing to stop the flow of drugs into the country and it's done nothing to stop people from using drugs.

Draconian mandatory minimums and stupid marijuana laws.

It's a gov't funded cluster fuck.

IMO, pot should be legalized, sold like cigarettes and taxed.

Other drugs too, maybe.

'The War on Drugs' is more accurately named 'The War On The Constitution'.

-Ghoti

No. the war on drugs does not work. Even as a prosecutor, I a saw that the street is a supermarket of drugs and all thwar on drugs does is drive up the prices, it does not in any way stem or stop the flow of drugs inot the country. In my opinion, the greatest proponents of the war on drugs are the drug dealers themselves-if drugs were legalized, they would all be out of business.

Well - the war on drugs works for the private prisonteers.

The largest of them is all-Corrections Corp. of America, headquartered in Nashville. According to Forbes magazine, CCA is among the nation's 100 fastest growing businesses and the top five performing companies on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares soared from $50 million in 1986 to $35 billion in October, 1997.

This push to privatize corrections takes place against a socioeconomic background of severe and seemingly intractable crisis. Pre- "War on Drug" era, with its "toughness" on criminal offenders, pris on populations soared through the 1980s and into the 1990s, making the U.S. the unquestioned world leader in jailing its own populace. By 1990, 421 Americans out of every 100,000 were behind bars, easily outdistancing our closest competitors, South Africa and the then USSR. By 1992, the U.S. rate had climbed to 455. In human terms, the number of people in jails and prisons on any given day tops 1.2 million, up from fewer than 400,000 at the start of the Reagan era.

While incarceration statistics have skyrocketed, crime rates have increased much more slowly. In fact, from 1975 to 1985, the serious crime rate actually decreased by 1.42 per cent while the number of state and federal prisoners nearly doubled. The number of people sent to prison is actually determined by policy decisions and political expediency.

So to answer your question has the "War on Drugs" worked - well it has for another American corporation and for more crooked American politicians looking for easy buttons to push with the stupid American public.

Has it worked for the average American?

Probably not. My guess would be that the average American on the street has some family member caught up in the prison system that they have had to support or bail out or hire legal counsel for (more big business).

The real fallout are the people who do become addicted because there is nothing left for them, all the real funds have been directed to GovCo. Most are left with the option of waiting months for a spot to open up in a treatment facility (like a strung out meth user is going to wait). Most end up residents of GovCo prisons or homeless.

Very little funds are directed into researching the physical reasons for addiction in comparison to funds directed into punitive measures for people who become addicted. I wonder why that is?