Clear and Present Danger and the war on drugs

Hey all,

So, I've been discussing this topic over the past couple of days, and this book (movie) came back to me. This book presented a whole other aspect to the war on drugs in terms of enforcement. It suggested using a military approach to stop drugs. The method used by our government (after a friend of the president's is killed by a drug cartel) is very hands on. They send military teams into Columbia where they blow up airfields, drug production facilities, and even lower level drug production. They also take out most of the top drug dealers in a bombing, but it comes back to hurt the soldiers in a negative way. The groups are sold out and left for dead even though the operation was successful. Of course, some of the guys make it out, but they suffer heavy causalities in the process. Overall, it's a very good book, but it's also an interesting concept. Honestly, it'd be difficult for me to support it, but it was an idea that I wouldn't have thought of. What do you think?

The Wire and the war on drugs

Hey all,

I wanted to discuss the Wire because it is largely the source of my drug and drug enforcement knowledge. The most disturbing that I learned was from a documentary. In Baltimore, only 1% of those convicted of drug crimes are white. If this is the case, drugs in the white community are essentially legal, but I digress. In the pilot episode of this show, someone says "you can't even call it a war, wars end". It's been nearly 100 years since the narcotics law was passed, and we haven't moved towards the end of drugs. Yet, the great thing about the Wire is that it addresses the drug problem and says: the current enforcement strategy of shaking down corners and fiends is clearly uneffective. Clearly, a different strategy needs to be taken.

This is where season 3 suggested something that had actually been proposed by a previous mayor of Baltimore. You don't legalize drugs, but you choose to ignore them. If people stay in a predetermined area, drugs are legal. When you have these people in one area, it's easier to control from a criminal and health standpoint and crime should decrease. But, as is the theme with this show, this effective plan will ultimately fail and the proprietor of it will be demonized (much like the mayor was). Clearly, we're losing the war on drugs if it hasn't been lost already. If this isn't a viable solution, then what is?

the war on drugs

Hey all,

I was thinking about this after watching the Wire again (which I will talk about in other posts). Still, I wonder: are we even close to winning this war? The number of drug arrests have only increased since 1970 with the total number of drug arrests in 2006 at approximately 1.89 million. Today, I was thinking about possible solutions to this problem. First off, we could just legalize drugs in this country. It seems like a simple solution that would cut drug arrests to a minimum and allow them to be taxed. Regulation would come into play which would be seen as a positive. However, this may be part of the solution, but it alone has some problems. There is no reason for addicts to discontinue using in this scenerio. The excess money from taxes can go to drug programs, but addicts would have to voluntarily seek treatment. For users of heroin, crack cocaine, and meth, this is unlikely to happen, so I've been thinking about another possibility.

There is an economic approach to this as well as a reasonable criminal approach. First, stop arresting the addicts unless they immediately go into a treatment program. By reducing demand, it should reduce supply. Secondly, the amount of drugs coming into this country and being made in this country have to be reduced. I'm not sure about the best way to do this, either. At this point, I hit a road block. I'll think of a plan and discuss this issue again. Let me know what you think.