Reyanna Bridge

Drugs Don’t Kill People, Policy Kills People: The Inefficacy of The War on Drugs in the United States

Introduction

Drugs don’t kill people, policy kills people: the inefficacy of the war on drugs in the united states . The US War on Drugs failed. From Nixon to Biden, punitive policies increased drug abuse and disproportionately affected communities of color. This analysis argues for a new policy approach.

Abstract

The War on Drugs, since its implementation under the stewardship of President Richard Nixon, has been a conclusive failure for reducing drug abuse and the drug trade in the United States. Spanning the Nixon to Biden administrations, federal drug policy has steadfastly oriented around punitivism to curb drug misuse. Other strategies that approach the issue as a healthcare crisis have produced fruitful results in other contexts, yet treatment policies were gutted under the Reagan presidency, replaced with criminal punishments that remain in place. The shortsightedness of punitive federal policy has seen an explosion in drug abuse from pharmaceuticals and a flourishing black market trafficking drugs into and across the United States for several decades. Communities of colour, especially Black and Latino Americans, bear the brunt of governmental pennalism, with over incarceration and drug abuse disproportionately affecting this demographic. Through this analysis, I explore the history of America’s War on Drugs and argue how policy makers’ single mindedness towards remedying drug abuse through criminal punishments has failed to insulate Americans against drug misuse.    

Review

This paper addresses a critically important and highly pertinent topic: the long-term efficacy and societal impact of the United States' War on Drugs. The abstract clearly articulates a strong and provocative thesis, arguing that decades of federal drug policy, rooted in punitivism from the Nixon to Biden administrations, have been a conclusive failure. It sets out to demonstrate how this single-minded approach has not only failed to curb drug misuse and the drug trade but has actively exacerbated these problems, leading to an explosion in drug abuse and a flourishing black market, with disproportionate and devastating effects on communities of color. A significant strength of the proposed analysis lies in its historical sweep, promising a comprehensive overview of federal policy evolution and its consequences over several decades. The critique is multi-faceted, encompassing the failure to reduce abuse, the exacerbation of the black market, the rise of pharmaceutical abuse, and the severe social justice implications for Black and Latino American communities. By positioning the US approach against alternative, health-crisis-oriented strategies that have shown "fruitful results in other contexts," the abstract suggests a valuable comparative perspective that could significantly enrich the discussion and underscore the paper's central argument that "policy kills people." To further strengthen its impact, the full paper would benefit from a detailed exploration of the "fruitful results" observed in other contexts, providing concrete examples of alternative strategies and their measurable successes to bolster the argument for a healthcare-centric approach. Additionally, while the abstract points to the disproportionate impact on communities of color, a deeper analysis of the specific mechanisms and historical precedents through which punitive policies have systematically marginalized these groups would enhance the paper's critical contribution to social justice discourse. Ensuring that the direct causal links between specific policy shifts (e.g., gutting treatment under Reagan) and the subsequent "explosion" in drug abuse and related social harms are thoroughly evidenced will be crucial for substantiating the powerful claim that "policy kills people."

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