America's handling of the
drug abuse problem has not been a success. In June 1971, President
Nixon declared a “War on Drugs” saying that drug abuse was
“Public Enemy No. 1”. The political figures continued this war
with Nancy Reagan running a campaign of “Just Say No”. Four
decades after the start of the War on Drugs Americans have paid more
than 1 trillion dollars in arrests and imprisonment for this war. In
2010 more than 50% of all federal prisoners were arrested for drug
crimes.(Source)
 |
| War on Drug has Increased Prison Population |
In Johann Hari new book
'Chasing
The Scream - The First And Last Days of the War on Drugs' he
shows a different cure to societies addiction problem. He states that
addiction comes from being lonely, isolated or depressed with their
environment. Instead of looking at it as an addiction problem,
Johann Hari says it is more like a bonding problem. He states that
when animals are in a positive environment, the addiction tendencies
fall to the wayside.(Source)
This concept by Johann
Hari's is demonstrated in a study with mice and two water bottles.
The mice in the study were given an option to drink from a water
bottle containing water or water laced with heroin or cocaine. The
mice were in small cages and in isolation. The water with drugs were
always chosen. Another study is well known as Bruce Alexander's “Rat
Park”. The mice were put in the cage with other mice, food, more
space and exercise equipment. With a better environment to live in,
the mice chose the water that did not have drugs.(Source)
Johann Hari's theory is
justified in a living example of history. The American soldiers that
went to Vietnam were found to have a large heroin addiction problem.
Forty percent of soldiers had tried heroin and 20 percent were
addicted. The government was setting up for a large rehabilitation
program to deal with the soldiers coming home after the war.
Surprisingly ninety-five percent of the soldiers that were addicted
stopped on their own when they returned home. This confirms the
correlation between a positive environment and a decrease in
addictive behavior.(Source)
Hari shows and example of a
government showing postive results with reducing addiction. Portugal
has shown proof of social to bonding reducing addiction for the last
fifteen years. With one of the worst drug problems in Europe,
Portugal decriminalized all drugs. The money they saved on drug
related arrests and imprisonment was used for reconnecting people.
They used the money for subsidized jobs, housing and clinics to
socially deal with their problems in a comforting way. With this new
approach Portugal's injection drug use is down by 50 percent. America
with it's drug addiction failings can benefit from decriminalizing
drugs and improving social society.(Source)
Source:
http://bjc.oxfordjournals.org/content/50/6/999.abstract
