The war on drugs is an attempt by the United States government to discourage the circulation and use of illegal drugs. Although these efforts may be “effective” at taking drug users and low level drug dealers, it does not meaningfully combat the pervasive drug culture or reduce amount of drugs and users. High level drug lords and murders are not the focus of police investigations because petty drug possessions are easier arrests. Keeping a person in prison for a year costs taxpayers around $30,000. With long mandatory sentences for multiple drug felonies, this cost is accrued for many years. The war on drugs also elicits police and legal costs on top of the cost of imprisoning people. Additionally, imprisoning family members may in some cases force families to rely on federal programs like Medicaid and food stamps or push a family further into poverty after a working member of the family is imprisoned for a lengthy sentence.
This cost seems particularly unreasonable considering that on average, less than $12,000 are spent per student in public schools. I find it frustrating that we spend so much money imprisoning people for minor offenses that could possibly be prevented by spending some of this money on better education and school programs to support students and keep them away from drugs. Although the drug culture is pervasive and more educational support would probably not reach those entrenched in the culture, it could help some “decent” kids stay “decent” instead of succumbing to “street” pressures. More educational support would lead to more career options and goals and give kids more hope for the future. As Anderson points out, the main thing that delineates decent kids from street kids is decent kids’ “certain amount of hope for the future” (Anderson 37).
On a somewhat unrelated note, I read this article a few months ago and found it really interesting. The article talks about how drug-sniffing dogs, through lack of training, can mislead officers and give them cause to search a car when there is really nothing tipping off the dog. Also, the article examines how dogs pick up on clues that officers may unintentionally give from profiling.
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