The way the law is interpreted has changed as a result of numerous events occurring all over the globe. The fight to change the legislation to permit particular activities has always been about universal principles that are applied differently in various states or countries. The goal of this has been to build and strengthen the judicial system of that specific nation. One area that has asked for the amendment of the nation's laws, regulations, and codes of conduct to permit and reject particular activities is the laws relating to children's behavior.
Children's deviant behavior is a problem that requires a cautious strategy. Different countries have different approaches towards solving the problems that face the day to day criminal activities done by the student. Legally, the activities tend to vary in the extent of criminality when viewed from a global perspective. Some activities done by the young people are punishable in some countries while the same acts done in other countries tend to be aberrant or normal based on the country's legal perspective on the issue. Concerning the issue, deviant behavior's focus is increasingly changing day in day out based on the different dynamics of law as expressed in different ways by the global courts (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2015). In some countries, a certain deviant behavior is marked as criminal offenses while the same deviant behaviors are normal in some cases.
The use of drugs is one of the global issues affecting the myriad of people across the country’s global legal territories. The use of some drugs in some countries has been termed a deviant behavior while in other co8untries appearing to be a normal act as recognized by the laws governing the land. Solving of this issue is very imperative that involves the use of all the stakeholders involved in the regulation of law within our societies. Drug use across the world has had a great implication with a number termed negative among people. Children n the other hand have involved themselves in the acts that have turned them from what the society expects from them to something different.
One of the major activities related and associated with the drug use in many countries is the increased death of people. The loss of lives has been contributed by the increased carelessness coming from the use of the drugs hence resulting from the use deaths. The law systems of the different countries due to the actions contributed to the loss of lives through drug use have created a diverse avenue that has critiques the use of the drugs through legal procedures. In many cases, the use of drugs by the underage has erupted into viewing the issues across a wider perspective of life. While analyzing the issue of the use of drugs by children, two countries of choice will be our point of reference to help analyze the legal implications, and interpretations act as deviant for the two countries. For the case of the paper, the United States of America and Portugal will be our countries of choice (Kleiman & Hawdon, 2011).
Drug use has contributed to the loss of many people across the decades. These deaths are caused by the drug-related use cases that put the user's lives into risky situations. The law interpreters through this have analyzed the various dimensions through which the concept can be approached to help reduce the death-related cases in our people. This has gone to an extend of analyzing the economic, social, political among other perspectives that can be involved directly or indirectly to the death cases experienced in our day to day activities. Explanation of this concept will be aided by a cross-examination of the death cases in the United States and Portugal qualitatively and quantitatively.
In the two countries, drug users spend a reasonable amount of money annually on drugs. Statistically, around one hundred billions of dollars are spent by drug uses in the U.S in a year on drugs. Due to the huge expenditure the drug users undergo, there have been cases arising where the drugs have been associated with criminalities. The criminal activities have originated from the fat drug cartels have seen great incentives for the use of drugs due to the user's ability to spend.
The increased death of people from the two countries as a result of the use of drugs has led to regulations been put in place using the legal means. For instance, the United States record of the death of drug users in 2011 recorded some about 40000 people. Portugal, on the other hand, has its death rate at about two deaths per one million people. The concept of coming to a solution that will cease the death-related cases resulting from drugs is one of the areas the countries are coming up with day in day out. Since some require legal obligations to solve, others need critical thinking and evaluation of the drug-related issues within our societies. Some solutions can be arrived at by critically coming out with regulation techniques that help find solutions to the problem. Since most of the drugs consumed within the boundaries of the United States and Portugal are unregulated, criminal activities have arisen leading to ordering, distribution, selling and consumption of the drugs illegally.
Concerning the above-mentioned statement, various scholars have come up with their philosophical points of views on how the concept of the drug can be approached to offer long-lasting solutions to the problems facing drug users. The criminal related activities as posed by selling unregulated drugs can be called to an ultimate end through regulation of the items by the government. Since the main problem brought about by using drugs in the two countries is the death and spread if diseases by drug users, there could be ways of finding a solution through regulation of the drug use. Just like alcohol, other drugs can also be imposed on some standard of measurement to regulate the use and selling of the drugs through the imposition of taxes that leads to legalization of the drugs.
In the United States and Portugal, social, economic, political and cultural pressures imply the use of drugs. These have gone to the extent of interfering with the criminal justice systems of the two countries in the fight of criminalities in drug and drug use. This paper will address these factors. In our explanation, Portugal's decriminalization step on all drugs will be considered to determine the current use of the drugs while the U.S criminalizing acts on all drugs considered on the other hand. The emphasis of decriminalizing to focus on the drug user's health conditions in the U.S compared to the U.S approach will help conclude a possible technique to employ.
The Political pressure of Drug use in the U.S and Portugal
The United States act of criminalizing the drug usage resonate with the law enforcement agencies within the county. The tremendous financial resource amounts have been notes in the U.S sidelining with the law enforcement agencies to place the drug laws in place. This political pressure is driven by economics and drug-related criminal activities that tend to call for criminalization of the drugs in the state. The law enforcement agencies have been involved in the activities through the formation of lobby groups that tend to act on behalf of the groups for their interests. The political goals in the U.S have superseded the country’s role of ensuring proper legislative mechanisms are put in place to facilitate better policies to curb drug criminalization.
In the U.S, drug enforcing laws contribute to billions of dollars through expenditure. The self-interested colleagues from the various political line front tend to inhibit the law enforcing process that might favor decriminalizing of drugs. This is due to their set objectives and goals that are directed towards siphoning the profits related to the drug laws. This calls upon for the emergence of drug cartels and criminal gangs that contribute to the selling of drugs through the black markets. In the long run, the cartels and the criminal gangs resulting from the process tend to use the unregulated drugs to fund their gangs that contribute into the slow growth of criminal activities in the U.S. A good example is the U.S famous Al Capone gang. The increase and growth in cartels supported by political mafias contribute to a slow move towards enforcement of the laws governing the use of drugs in the country. In return, the death of the drug users remains to be high with other associated conditions such as diseases encroaching among the users. This capitalization of the legal system through the use of political participants can be explained better using the Marxist theory that relates capitalism to the causes of all deviance.
Portugal, on the other hand, has been able to enact its laws f decriminalizing of all the drugs fully. This has been driven by a myriad of factors within the country such as the economic and cultural pressures that contributed to making f this decision as claimed by Kristof, (2017). Unlike in the Unites States where the legal systems are working on other people's interests, the Portugal system works in the interests of the country's men and women. Having been surrounded by strong teaching from religion, Portugal's reflection between its culture and the political system could coincide with their catholic teaching od reintegrative shaming practice. With the effort made into the system of ensuring drugs are decriminalized in the country, their objective was simplified with a focus on safeguarding the citizens against abusing drugs and the associated diseases such as HIV/AIDS.
As pointed out earlier, the intension of the decriminalization of all drugs by the Portuguese government is to ensure that the health welfare of the citizens is taken into account. Therefore, the contribution of this to the people as viewed on the wide perspective has been associated with the promotion of equality among people. Promoting equality as a message sends to those involved in the use of the drugs is viewed differently in a positive manner with the possibility of making positive steps to change termed highly.
The Social Pressures on Drug use in Portugal and the United States
In Portugal's side, a lot of pressures contributes towards their bold step of decriminalizing all drugs. Due to the use of drugs in the country through sharing of needles among others, the rate of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis infection in increased. This became and a health concern hence a need to rescue the falling generation through the help of the government. Even as the government decriminalized all drugs, their emphasis and focus changed. In this case, there were more concerned with the health of the drug users. On the other hand, helping enforce the laws related to the decriminalization of all drugs was helped through the punitive techniques that were put in place by the government against drug users.
While making applicable methods that will ensure that the laws are fully enforced, ‘special’ treatment had to be done on the drug users. Special treatment in this case involves a technique that will ensure that the drug users are integrated to feel no shame or guilt. This was facilitated through making the drug users feel important individuals in the society unlike what happens to other societies where the drug users are discriminated. What was the importance of drug decriminalization this technique and how was it achieved? The method was reached upon through Portugal's control theory of reintegrative shaming that helped give top priority to the people's health. The technique contributed towards removing any fear related to the arrest and criminal labeling as far as drug use is associated.
In Portugal, this was made easy through the help of the Commission for Dissuasion of Drug Addition (CDDA). CDDA helped in assembling all the individual's affected by drug use, and they could be paneled to obtain their drug use history. The determination of whether punitive measures should be taken against the drug users was based on the past the users narrated to the CDDA. Among the disciplinary measures that involve fine, warning or left on probation could be decided by the commission after the hearing. Besides, the commission through voluntary admitting of the individual drug use history to a drug treatment facility, can suspend their case. Unlike in the United States, removing the criminal aspects related to drugs in Portugal was intensive that aimed at eliminating the fears of being arrested when someone is marked as an individual with drug-related illness.
On the other hand, the United States uses a different approach towards dealing with drugs hence posing a social pressure to some individual groups. In addition to having punitive laws towards drugs, the United States target greatly differs to that of Portugal. This has created a difference hence inability to solve the problem of drug use in the states. Their target focuses on the minority (Ingraham, 2015). This is a discrimination of the laws hence contributing to the criminalization of drugs. The drug laws in place are meant to control the minority group within the society. Drug laws in the U.S can be viewed from a perspective of oppressing another group of people. For instance, the U.S laws on opium targeted the Chinese minority.
A number if theories can be put in place to explain Portugal's scenario. For example, the social reality theory can best explain the activities taking place at the U.S. The theory asserts that law creating in societies is done and enforced by the dominant group of people. However, the laws are made to oppress the people occupying the lower ranks in the societies. This is a clear explanation of the opium law that was meant to oppress the Chinese group who are the minority in the U.S. Generally, the social perspective of the drug laws was meant to benefit the white Americans who are viewed to be the majority while on the other hand oppressing the other groups of Americans. The illustration of social reality theory was evident through the drug charges that as expressed to the white Americans and the African and Hispanic Americans. In this case, the drug charges on white Americans were let off since they belong to the majority group while the minority (African American and Hispanic) set on trial as an expression of oppressive and non-uniform use and enforcement of law related to drugs.
The Economic Pressures on drug use in the United States and Portugal
On economic grounds, the U.S focus on punitive measures resulted in prison industrial complex (PIC) whose connection can be related to the prison's private, state and federal fun. Enforcement of drug laws in a state entails setting and spending money to help solve the drug-related issues. In the U.S, almost 50% of the prisoners are made up of the drug-related culprits. Through a close examination of the federal prison system, it is evident that the illegal drugs acts are a big business towards the industry. If all drugs are decriminalized in the U.S, then this will pose a danger to the growth of the prison industry. Princely, decriminalizing all drugs in the United States will contribute to the shut of the prison industry due to the highest number of participants coming from the illegal drug sector.
Presence of illegal drugs in the U.S is one of the ways through which the government uses to obtain money for the economic purpose. This is done through taxes, fines among others that come in huge denominations helping in money circulation in the economy. If the institutions dealing with drugs may be closed down, then a subsequent massive layoff is likely to be experienced. Therefore, the pressures from the economy due to drug use impacts the judicial and political system ultimately.
Just like in social pressure, the social reality theory can be used to explain the influence of drug use on the country's economic pressures. Regarding the theory, the high-level groups in the society tend to benefit through the oppression of the lower rank individuals. Concerning this, consideration of the economic factors through a need to increase monetary values in the society leads to the oppression of the other people. In this case, making monetary demands from illegal drugs to drive the PIC industry contributes to the oppression of the drug users. This is done so yet the drug cartels who belong to the rich class in America are freely protected by the law.
In Portugal, drug use contributed to an increase in the number of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis within their people. The decision of decriminalizing drugs was the best given that this would lead to creating financial resources available. This comes through maximizing on the fact that the preventing drug addiction and use among people serving as a priority. The economic effort aimed at creating a better economic bond between drug users and other stakeholders served as a motivation to the people. This resulted in the involvement of the government in the programs that would lead to decrease in HIV/AIDS and hepatitis through drug use. The government would then provide safer methods of drug use to the users such as clean syringes that would prevent the sharing of needles. Creating a healthy people was a driving tool towards ensuring a future economically stable environment.
The Cultural Pressures on drug use in the United States and Portugal
Cultural pressures such as strict adherence to the religious ties helped strengthen the decriminalization in Portugal. The great fact has so far influenced the legal and healthcare codes that almost 90 percent of the Portugal people are Catholicism. This has made the various tenets of the government to be to be in place based on the impact of religion in the country. For instance, maintaining a cool and strong sense of proper punitive actions to the drug users have been guided by the religious, cultural practices. Collaborating with the drug users in shaping their drug use course through shameless acts has been moved by the ability of the people and agencies in Portugal through the use of religious practices such as the virtue of forgiveness among the Catholic cultural values (Ingraham, 2015). Other values such as love for the sinners and hate to the sin have contributed into creating happy lives to the drug users who might be viewed as sinners in other countries such as the U.S. This has been done through the help of Portuguese bodies such as the CDDA aimed at eradication of stigma in people.
On the other hand, the U.S culture is impacted by the belief that success of individuals lies in their responsibilities. Balm game in the U.S focused on individuals who were unable to achieve their success besides their religious beliefs. Concerning drug use, religious beliefs played a vital role in the United States' legal system. The idea of the Protestants to seek forgiveness from god played a vital role in shaping the criminalization of drugs. Through this, no one cared about the drug offenders when involved in the drug-related cases. It is through this that drug offenders have primarily contributed to the filling of the U.S prisons with about 50% of the prisoners made up of drug offenders. Stigmatization became the order of the day from experience. The factor thus leads to the use and addition of drugs in the state. This explanation can be achieved through the application of labeling theory.
In conclusion, culture, politics, economy, and society related pressures have shaped the judicial system of criminalizing drugs in the U.S and Portugal. The theories such as Marxist capitalism, labeling, social reality, among others have been used to explain these relationships in the two countries. I, therefore, recommend Portugal's moves to help reduce the drug use among its people. This can also be replicated in other countries across the globe that can help analyze the economic, social, cultural, and political roles in drug use.
References
Aleem, Z. (2015). 14 Years After Decriminalizing All Drugs, Here’s What Portugal Looks Like. Retrieved from https://mic.com/articles/110344/14-years-after-portugal-decriminalized-all-drugs-here-s-what-s-happening#.uNXhBSeXt
Baer, D. (2016). 6 incredible things that happened when Portugal decriminalized all drugs. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/what-happened-when-portugal-decriminalized-all-drugs-2016-3?IR=T
Eerten, J. V. (2016). Portugal: Fifteen years of decriminalized drug policy. Retrieved from http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/10/portugal-fifteen-years-decriminalised-drug-policy-161015091127668.html
Ingraham, C. (2015). Why hardly anyone dies from a drug overdose in Portugal. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/05/why-hardly-anyone-dies-from-a-drug-overdose-in-portugal/?utm_term=.615b1842fe59
Kleiman, M., & Hawdon, J. (2011). Encyclopedia of drug policy. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc.
Kristof, N. (2017). How to Win a War on Drugs. Portugal treats addiction as a disease, not a crime. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/22/opinion/sunday/portugal-drug-decriminalization.html
Long, D. (2015). Take the LEAP with Professor David Long on the Failed War on Drugs. Community Radio. (D. Bennett, Interviewer) Community Radio from Round Mountain. KKRN 88.5 FM, Montgomery Creek. Retrieved from http://kkrn.org/broadcasts/1070
National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2015). Drug Facts: National Trends. Retrieved from https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/nationwide-trends
