Waste of Tax Money on Drug War
Essay title: Waste of Tax Money on Drug War
The “Waste of Tax Money” on Drugs
This country spends millions, and millions of dollars on the “War on Drugs”. Is this “War” really necessary? Ive done a lot of research and I was very surprised to see the facts on how these laws came into place.
The first drug law I could find was an 1875 San Francisco ordinance that outlawed the smoking of opium in opium dens. This law was passed out of fear that Chinese men were luring white women into their dens and “associating” with them. It was followed by similar laws outlawing the trafficking of opium by anyone Chinese origin, and restrictions on the importation of smoking opium. The law targeted “smoking” opium because it was thought that the smoking of opium was mainly a Chinese custom. Basically, these laws were a way to legally target the Chinese.
Cocaine was outlawed because of the fears that superhuman “Negro Cocaine Fiends” would take large amounts of cocaine and then go on violent rampages, killing people and raping white women. Though there was little evidence that any black men actually did this, the U.S. set a record in 1905 with 105 recorded lynching. During the same time, policemen switched from a .32 caliber to a .38 caliber pistol, because no one believed a .32 caliber could kill a super Negro.
Marijuana was outlawed in 1937 to eliminate Mexican workers who crossed the border during the depression to find work. The specific reason giving for outlawing marijuana was its “violent effect on the degenerative races” (Harry J. Anslinger, 1937). The American Medical Association (AMA) was opposed to the law. When supporters of the law were questioned about the AMAs view on the law on the floor of congress, they lied and said the AMA was supporting them. This was done because the law would not be passed without the AMAs support. The law was passed, and the AMA protested but the law was never repealed.
In all the cases, newspapers around the country ran stories about the terrible things these drugs did to racial minorities, and the horrors that the minorities inflicted on innocent white people while on the drugs. Research today shows that none of the stereotypes were true.
Surveys done by the Federal Government show at least 12.7 million people has used some illegal drug in the past month, and 30 to 40 million have used illegal drugs in the past year. That is a fairly large number of people. So if these laws are to protect us from harming ourselves, you would think a large number of people would be dying from these drugs. Well, here are the statistics:
Tobacco kills about 390,000 a year.
Alcohol kills about 80,000 a year.
Second-hand somke kills about 50,000 a year.
Cocaine