4. The War on Drugs begun during Richard Nixon’s presidency is roughly four decades old. How has it helped or hurt society here and abroad?
Hurt. Pointless, expensive.
Hasnt done much – stop any focus on marijuana
squandered resources, incarcerated millions, greater fear in society
hurt home and abroad through arrests, destruction of economies in the developing world
It has hurt our society by allowing the waste of gov’t funds as well as time spent.
major hurt in all places.
s
Arbitrary prohibitions of ‘drugs’ are bad, enforcing them even worse. War v drugs has fostered policing abuse, gang and cartel economies and violent turf wars, enviro destruction from growers and cops in the countryside
It has increased crime, same as prohibition.
It has made the War on Drugs disproportionately waged. Casual users have been treated like hard-core have been targeted like hard core users of cocaine, crack, heroin, and the like.
As with all wars, the War on Drugs has created new enemies, new corruption, and new suffering in many places.
Huge drain on our economy; has lead to unnecessary violence and death.
Waste of Money going after Marijuana users
Expensive here and abroad.
Why is there such a high demand in the USA? and who is locked up?
It has helped hardly at all and like prohibion of alcohol it has created a whole new class of criminals.
s
We spent a lot of money and are losing
Our prisons are overflowing with people who are guilty of nothing more than drug use, overlooking the real corporate criminals.
encarcerating people of color is no way to treat humans beings
It would be a shorter list if one only listed the ways in which the War on (Non-Corporate) Drugs *hasn’t* harmed society. Increased crime? Check. Increased corruption at all levels of Government? Check. Increasing State violence against innocent people? Check.
hurt. it’s criminalized drug use
hurt
Corruption and social unrest.
The War on Drugs legislation was aime at appeasing the ultra conservative hypocrites in this country, who wanted to pass their beliefs and views on to the rest of America. It cost our government billions of dollars here and other countries abroad. It also promoted human suffering resulting in imprisonment, death, and created more social unrest.
HURT
hurt
It has destroyed the lives of millions of Americans by criminalizing activity that can only be described as benign and even beneficial.
Hurt society by creating a violent underground market.
it’s been a large expenditure of money with little return
hurt
It hasa hurt society!
The damage is massive, here and abroad.
HURT the US here and abroad. Dating back far longer, the criminalization of certain substances (alcohol during Prohibition, etc.) has been used by powerful factions to intimidate opponents and discimnate against specific sectors of society. It has generated a worldwide industry of growing, making and trafficking in drugs that is lucrative to certain people and fatal to many others.
Both helped and hurt.
It’s a victimless crime.
It has created a huge, anti-social drug culture, including powerful drug cartels.
Forty years later we still have a drug problem and the government insiders are making bundles on the illegal trade!
It has been a waste of time and money, making things here worse.
Baddly Hurt everyone involved
it was naive
It has hurt. It’s a scam. It’s a lie. It’s an issue politicians run on. It has cost billions. But most of all, it hasn’t worked.
War on drugs has been more destructive than most other wars.
hurt
has created overpopulated prisons and disastee south of the border
just another reason to create police state
By wasting millions of Dollars that cold be used for helping the Homeless.
we’ve spent a fortune on the war on weed, as well as jailed thousands and thousands of people. Totally riduclous.
Has Hurt society terribly.
Criminalized innocent citizens. Created prison/industrial system. Wasted billions of dollars on weaponry in violent War on Drugs.
It has continued to hurt the society by supporting organized crime by giving them a product to sell.
There is no question it has hurt society in the US, Other countries are not so backwards as America has become since the advent of “Compassionate Conservatism”.
it keeps the prison business in business
have not help
It, like Nixon, repressed liberals.
It has hurt society here and abroad. The only war that was worthwhile in the past fifty years was the War on Poverty
It has filled prisons with people who don’t belong there.
It has hurt society by sidelining other priorities.
It has driven huge numbers of Americans into prison, and caused the deaths of tens of thousands of Mexicans. We need to stop the War on Drugs, and treat people who are addicted as medical patients.
Millions of llives have been ruined because of criminal records. Millions of dollars have been wasted. The war on drugs has twisted our society. We help in the growing of poppy in Afghanistan and we arrest those who use the poppy derivatives.
It is a waste of resources, human and financial.
too many of our jails are filled with folks convicted for distribution. This does not stop usage. Legalize it so it can be monitored and the state can benefit from the income
Its a waste of effort and money
Hurt society and wastes money.
I do not know of any way in which it has helped -
Mexican drug cartels dependent on illegal drugs in the U.S. have threatend the safety and stability of Mexican society
Immeasureably hurt. Ask the overwhelmingly people of color who now occupy our over crowded prisons
Seriously destructive to millions of lives
Hurt
No opinion.
Look in our overcrowded prisons, it is a health issue not a law enforcement one
Created the crisis in Mexico, led to rise of private prisons.
Hurt.
Arrested people in the USA, Made many drug lords very rich
See previous comment…
I has hurt my enriching and empowering criminal cartels & local gangs.
12/10/2011 12:33 AMView Responses
hurt
Hurt society here and abroad by bringing about more violence
no
es
I admittedly do not know much about the International War on Drugs, but I can’t see where those policies have helped .
Hasn’t helped here; people will get high! Certainly hasn’t helped abroad – look at Mexico!
Billions up in smoke, thousands in prison who don’t need to be there. The war is over. It’s been lost.
it has taxed the judicial and criminal legal system. Funded Mexican mafia wars.
It has increased the Black prison population
It has hurt society both here and abroad
hurt
hurt society but a marvlous help to the mafia and crime
A complete waste of money and innocent people are spending their lives in prison because of this ridiculous war. You get more time in prison for smoking pot than you do for raping a kid.
Crowded prisons, disproportionate to poor people
HURT – too much money, violence
Billions of dollars wasted, millions of lives adversely affected by imprisonment
Duh
It has adversely affected people of color and justified fifty years of police abuse and over population in our jail system instead of providing meaningful programs for rehabilitation.
As stated above, it is an unmitigated financial and sociological failure and must be stopped.
Life sentences, increased violence, money wasted on a fabricated “war on drugs”
It hasnt worked at all and has only built a huge criminal network worldwide.
HURT — the world over!
Has been devastating to our society as well as others.
No Way
Hurt badly
It has enriched criminals, criminalized innocent people and caused violence. It’s Prohibition Part 2.
Increased prison population on a racist basis.
The War on Drugs has given the drug dealers & cartels power by financing their criminal activities while failing to reduce the demand for drugs
Hurt very much.
It hasn’t helped society. It’s only hurt it.
The War On Drugs is a JOKE.
END the WAR!
Hurt
It was caused the global proliferation of ultra-violent transnational narco-states abroad, and the development of a (corrupt) militarizized police state complemented by for-profit slave state at home.
hurt
Hurt, encouraged a black market. Drugs should be legalized, regulated, and controlled.
Hurt. Through racial and other profiling. It is a “class crime” pure and simple— Legalize marijuana and make war a crime!
It hasn’t done a DAMN thing!
It has created the Prison-Industrial Complex, which so heavily targets young black and brown men, while building up armies of law enforcement officers.
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