By Shrien Alshabasy
I chose to focus my reading packet on the ways that the U.S. government, private prisons and pharmaceutical companies profit off of petty drug crimes and those with mental illnesses and addictions. The current drug laws in place are ineffective. They are based off of gross misunderstandings of what certain drugs do to one’s body, oftentimes criminalizing a drug (like marijuana) that poses no harmful effects to society. At its best, drug laws are useless and based off of misconceptions. At its worst, drug laws are dangerous and pose a great threat to the American people. Throughout my research, I decided to focus on the three main structures that profit off of drug laws – the government, prisons and pharmaceutical companies. Then, I decided to focus on the intersectionality of those who are most commonly imprisoned – minorities and the mentally ill.
I began my research by looking into the Drug Enforcement Administration and how they play a role in imprisoning those suspected or caught doing or selling drugs. What I found was that DEA officers actually gain a great deal from unnecessarily strict drug laws. DEA officers are allowed to breach civil liberties, like the freedom to privacy in one’s home or to one’s property, in order to arrest someone for a drug crime. Once caught, DEA agents are allowed to seize assets like cars, money and other valuable pieces of property. This gave me a glimpse on a small scale to the ways that the rights of drug users are oftentimes breached and how governmental officials profit off of this. After this, I looked deeper into bigger forces behind drug laws, like the CIA, banks, and pharmaceutical industry.
I focused a lot of my research on how the mentally ill are placed into prisons. It was interesting that there was no investment by the federal government into mental health facilities but rather an influx of contracts offered for private prisons. Additionally, the articles I read showed that it is not inevitable that those with serious mental health issues will wind up in prisons, but rather first time interventions for crises will avoid recidivism. Reading accounts of those who were mentally ill and placed in prisons, and also reading reports of suicides, was upsetting but eye opening. It showed that the U.S. government does not care about the wellbeing of its people, but cares about profits. Therefore, consumers should be skeptical that the government has the people’s best interest in mind when creating drug laws.
Then, I looked into Big Pharma and the Federal Drug Administration. Drugs approved by the FDA made to battle anxiety and depression have a negative effect consumers. Additionally, drugs made to battle addictions to heroin or cocaine create worse and more dangerous addictions, causing withdrawal and extreme pain. This shows that there is no real proven basis in drug laws that prohibit the consumption of marijuana but allow the selling and approving of dangerous drugs with destructive side effects. It was also interesting that doctors are invested in the selling of these drugs, with knowledge that they are harmful or ineffective, since they also get paid for it’s success.
The extent of my research proves that drug laws are more harmful than helpful. They work in the favor of companies and people in power, instead of people consuming or surrounded by drugs. Instead of helping people with addictions, drug administration’s push dangerous pharmaceuticals forward. The federal government invests in private prisons rather than mental health facilities and poor minorities are incarcerated at mass numbers, disrupting society and family life. American drug laws are based off of misinformation, work for profit and remain ineffective.
How Pharmaceutical Companies, the Government and Private Prisons Profit Off Petty Drug Crimes and the Mentally Ill
Profiting from Mental Ill Health
The Real Reason the DEA Won’t End the War on Drugs
Who Benefits from the War on Drugs?
Prisons Have Become Warehouses for the Mentally Ill
Presumed Guilty: How Prisons Profit off the ‘War on Drugs’
Rethinking Mental Illness and its Path to the Criminal Justice System
How Big Pharma Is Cashing in on Addiction to Alcohol and Illicit Drugs
Patients Before Profits: Rachel Kiddell-Monroe Takes On Big Pharma
War on Drugs: How Private Prisons Are Using the Drug War to Generate More Inmates