Drug PolicyDuring the 1980’s drugs in America were running ramped. Drugs swept through the communities ruining everything in its path. Families were being destroyed, and the people demanded that the government do something about it. In the early 70’s, Nixon took a stance and announced that he was declaring a war on drugs. Legislation later passed multiple drug policies with one of them being the Anti- Drug Abuse Act of 1986. This policy would change the entire criminal justice system and society (GovTracks.us, n.d.).
Up until the 1980’s, America’s government did not have many minimum sentencing requirements for drugs; however, with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, there were very harsh sentences established for those that violated the drug laws that were established. Congress determined which drugs were most common, and they determined the mandatory minimum sentence for each. Individuals found with 5 grams of crack, 100 grams of heroin, or 500 grams of powder cocaine received a minimum sentence of 5 years in prison. Although congress protested that the vast differences in amounts of drugs for minimum sentencing was due to the severity of the drugs, many individuals claimed there was too much of a racial disparity occurring with these laws(GovTracks.us, n.d.).
Congress hoped that this act would discourage those that were selling these harsh drugs to stop, and for those that would not stop; they wanted to teach them a very valuable lesson by giving them extreme punishments. Congress desperately wanted to give America back its communities it once had before drugs consumed them. By passing this act, they wanted to cripple “kingpin” dealers and stop the transportation of these drugs. Not only did the act address those that were selling it, but they also had penalties for those that were transporting it from other counties. This act allows an increase of taxes on imports for the countries that do not cooperate with the United States’ effort to combat
The Administration and many experts believe that it was the people of the United States who were behind the current marijuana law to provide it legal status. That was not true, although the U.S. did cooperate with the Mexican government to stop trafficking in marijuana in the 1990s, which is why the United States began a comprehensive policy against trafficking of marijuana. It was also possible that some states were cooperating with some cartels. Furthermore, the U.S. government is more interested in getting out of the business of importing drugs, not protecting American workers from the risks. The United States would always try to get out of dealing with the Mexican cartels, who were in business to get out of the illegal drug trade.
We should know, however, that not all states were willing to cooperate with the United States on this important issue. The United States also had very limited information about how many children were going to be being brought into the United States annually, as well as a very small number of children who are not legally brought into the country because of one or the other of the states. For example, none of the states that cooperated with the Mexican government allowed child labor, which is when labor is forced on other people. That is why children were not allowed to work as laborers, and the children could still easily be forced into labor for other reasons. A large number of American farmers who were providing their cotton to Mexican companies were told they were not allowed to work for Mexican farmers because they were taking home a wage of $500,000 per year. However, with new laws that started with this legislation in 1994 requiring those who made profits for Mexican companies to share their wages with Mexico, the American farmers were not able to grow their crop.
When all these problems started to crop up on the farm, the government started to intervene. We were never able to establish a national system of enforcement, so much so that a few of the governors and legislatures of New York, Los Angeles, and other states signed a collective agreement to provide them with greater freedom. New York Gov. Ray Snyder was the first to enact a program for states to assist in enforcement of their own laws. This is an example of a program that began with a small state, the Department of Transportation, that opened a $1.2 billion federal prison and allowed millions of federal dollars to pour into public education in the state to increase incarceration rates.
In 1997 the Congress passed the Marijuana Enforcement Act, which established the National School Lunch Program and expanded the National Marijuana Training Center to include all youth enrolled in education. These efforts greatly improved the chances of those that were brought into the country for training, creating more than 9,000 new jobs created and saving the lives of more than 2,500.
The Administration and many advocates