Drug Abuse As A Catalyst To Incarceration

The primary amount of individuals who have been incarcerated have abused, or used, drugs before they committed their crime. The drug problem within America has been increasing regardless of the federal stats that have been proclaimed. The war on drugs is a farce; a proclamation of indifference to the needs of the lower class. Drugs have been escalating to all lower class and middle class neighborhoods to a proportion that has never been seen in America's history. The government's form of action behind diminishing drugs within our communities is drug interdiction.

If you use the supply and demand curves within economics do illustrate what the effects of drug interdiction does, you will come to the realization that it shifts the supply curve to the left, increasing the price of drugs, and lowering the quantity of drugs sold. This won't entirely work. The true affect of drug interdiction increases criminal activity within our communities. This is because drug users usually can't afford the hire drug prices, so they rob, steal, and/or burglarize to obtain the finances necessary to supply their habit.

Another approach is drug education. Drug education shifts the demand curve to the left, lowering the price of drugs, and lowering the quantity sold. Drug users don't have a high incentive to rob, steal, and/or burglarize because of the lower prices.

I'm not saying that one approach should be chosen over another, but officials need to start pushing more tax dollars into drug education to lower criminal activity within our communities. Taking the time to do the research on how an addict thinks would be more beneficial than to lock them up and wait for them to get back out on the street and engage in the same activity that they were once involved in.