Early Drug Policy in the United States
Early in the 1980s, the Federal Drug Policy of the United States of America went into force. Federal drug crimes have been subject to penalties under this general strategy. These punishments range from five to ten years in federal prison, but are not restricted to that. (Kleiman 1992).
Impact of Drug Laws on Substance Use
The drug laws have made a significant contribution to reducing substance use in the US. The federal drug policy has resulted in a significant decrease in drug use. For instance, since the policy's implementation in the 1980s, there has been a paradigmatic decrease in the misuse of opium, a drug that was originally abused by a lot of people. Moreover, the drug policy has been fashioned to be more combative and education based in the current setting. This giant policy, however has been made lame by political and law suits like the California voters passing a preposition legalizing cultivating or; and using marijuana for medicinal reasons which took effect in 1996, an action that brought a lot of contradicting legal and law suits antagonism between the federal and the government of the land.
The Need for Rehabilitation
If the policy would be changed to 'Rehabilitation' instead of 'Incarceration' of the drug users and education of the public on drug use; then the fight against drug would be a success. Many states should start seeking for a remedy to this menace by rather 'Rehabilitating' the victims than 'Incarcerating' them. By this, people would start to understand the in trigs in usage of various drugs (Deeran 2016). This liberal approach is workable as would be compared to the strict law enforcements that would bring revolt against the anti-drug laws as already witnessed in several states which have passed laws legalizing use of drugs. Furthermore, several Americans wish that most of the drugs should be made legal, and this is a dream they believe will one day be realized. In addition to this, the huge funds used to imprison and manage the drug victims would instead be used for administering behavior change activities and sensitization on drugs which would have long term administrative, social and financial benefit to the country (Bartow 2017).
Reference
Nadelmann, E. A. (1989). Drug prohibition in the United States: Costs, consequences, and alternatives. Science, 245(4921), 939-947.
Kleiman, M. (1992). Against excess: Drug policy for results (p. 360). New York, NY: BasicBooks.
Nadelmann, E. A. (1989). Drug prohibition in the United States: Costs, consequences, and alternatives. Science, 245(4921), 939-947.
