In June 1971, President Richard Nixon declared war on drugs, saying it was “public enemy number one.” producing the selling and using of drugs. It was now illegal and punishable with jail time, depending on the severity of the crime. This had a massive global effect. Leading to mass incarcerations in the US, political destabilization in third-world countries, violence in Latin America, and systemic Human rights abuses worldwide. No drugs equals no problems. This was the original idea. So, we have been dumping millions, trying to destroy the root of the problem. This leaves the market with low supply and high demand, thus increasing the people’s desire for substances, so they consume at the same rate but with an increase in the price of drugs, making production and dealing the most profitable crime in the world. The only people we successfully take down are not the producers or the dealers but the users. We treat these people who have problems like trash. As a society, we look down on them and treat them like criminals, but in reality, they are just victims of a broken system.

One thing is clear. This system is not working, and a possible solution that has worked is the decriminalization and regulation of drugs. Switzerland faced the same problems as the US. 

 

Portland, Oregon Opioid overdoes visits to the hospital  

280ob/2019

472ob/2020

739ob/2021

 

This failure is because the promised addiction treatment services never came or were added too late to be effective, even with the massive funding from legal cannabis sales. I think the reason this failed is due to corruption.  

 

Oregon ranks number one in the US in the percentage of citizens with a current or recent illicit drug use disorder. 9.04% and ranked 50th for people requiring substance use disorders treatment services that could receive them. 

 

PARAGRAPH 3 Then, Switzerland 

Switerzler followed the same drug policies as America. Switerzland faced a Heroin and HIV epidemic because of shared needles.

New  policies and ideas  HAT

  1. Prevention
  2. Therapy-heroin-assisted theory 
  3. Harm Mitigation 
  4. Repression

 

In 2017, 43% of global deaths related to opioids were caused by the USA alone. 

 

Canberra Australia 

 

Drug arrests before the laws were put into place 84,738/2010 and 166,321/2020

Most of these arrests have been for weed. 88% of these arrests were consumers, not dealers or traffickers 

 

 One big difference is that they aren’t facing a massive drug epidemic where thousands of people are overdoing like other countries when deciding to decriminalize drugs. However, they face an alarming amount of drug users, which are directly linked to the majority of crime in the area. 

 

As they prepare for this law to be set, they are ramping up treatment facilities and AOD treatment Alcohol and Drug treatment. ACT government invested 30 million dollars in addiction treatment. Origan entered the program with a massive drug epidemic. ECT is not so. In theory, they should make it much smoother.

 

This is to help reposition the war on drugs as a health crisis, not a criminal one.   The production and selling of the drug is still a criminal offense. But users of the drug will no longer be treated like criminals. Instead of being arrested, they would be fined for drug possession and recommended to a rehabilitation or reeducation center. Still, if one attends the treatment before an assignment deadline, they will not have to pay. Another law would be the amount of the substance an individual can carry so law enforcement can determine between drug dealers and users. If a country wants to take this approach, it must prepare and have the proper permissions before setting the law, or it may even cause a bigger problem. Portland, Oregon, was the first state in the US to legalize hard drugs. 

 

P4. Talk of future possibilities with legalization, strict regulation, and education will prompt smarter us, and if government controls will close illegal black market and drain cartels 

 

Usedhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJUXLqNHCaI&ab_channel=Kurzgesagt%E2%80%93InaNutshell

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haT4FrOYPtk&ab_channel=VICE

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yts3Vc2f-Cg&t=2s&ab_channel=ABCNewsIn-depth

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dU5yiKBqCk&ab_channel=VICE

 

Used https://ssir.org/articles/entry/inside_switzerlands_radical_drug_policy_innovation

Used https://www.opb.org/article/2023/09/27/oregon-drug-decriminalization-measure-110-overdose-deaths/#:~:text=Despite%20a%20reduction%20in%20arrest,materialize%2C%20the%20study’s%20authors%20wrote.

 

Used https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPM9mCwPj6w&ab_channel=KOIN6

usedhttps://www.oregon.gov/oha/PH/PREVENTIONWELLNESS/SUBSTANCEUSE/OPIOIDS/Documents/monthly_opioid_overdose_related_data_report.pdf