Mark Bradford EDGE 6/2/05The Pit Falls of the War on DrugThe drug laws that are in place right now are very inefficient. This paper will focus on the people and the specific elements that are affected by the inefficiency of the drug laws. When looking at the drug laws at a glance a person might be lead to think thatthey would be very effective and they seem reasonable. While drug laws in themselves are necessarily wrong, some of the discrepancies in the laws make them unfair and take from the category of handing down justice and puts them into the category of cruel and unusual. First there will be an analysis of prohibition throughout American history, then an analysis of what the actual crimes and punishments are for a few of the drug in the United States. Next there will be a look into who is affected by the laws and how. Finally, this paper will try to provide some kinds of solutions to the problems that are being caused with the drug laws. First the definition of a drug is any substance that has an effect on the mind and body except food, and the definition of a crime is an act or omission that is punishable or goes against a law. When crime is looked at in this sense it can be said that government is the cause of all crime because every crime that is committed has to go against a law that is passed by the government. In looking at the problems with the drug laws, a history of where the drug laws come from is necessary. In the first 140 years of the United States all drugs were legal. This means that if a person wanted to do any drug atany time that the person could do it without having to worry about any penalties. The actual first federal law that was passed was the Pure Food and Drug act of 1906. This law was did not even put a restriction on the drugs that were available. This act was moreof a labeling act. This was used to make sure that people knew what they were taking. This act stated that the consumer had a right to know the correct identity of the product. This was a time period where the government was very liberal pertaining to drug laws. The government did not think that it was their place to tell people what was useful for them to take or not. During this time period the U.S. used to import and export opiates toother countries. In the period before 1913 the alcohol taxes provided about half of the federal income, but in that year an income tax was introduced which in turn made a decision to prohibit alcohol much easier for those who were making the decision in the government. Between of years of 1919-1923 is where the American people lost their rights to control their own medical treatment. The act that was passed that took this right away was the Harrison act. This act restricted doctors to prescribing narcotics only in thecourse of their professional practice. The passing of this law lead to lead to the harassing of doctors who did no follow the laws and sent a message to those who did not pay close attention to the specific definition of what constituted as professional practice. This was of course dependant on the persons interpretation was. There ended up being a number of doctors that ended up getting jail time and many others with warnings. This act also put a restriction on the physicians and their ability to give drugs. The physicians could only give drugs on a doctor’s prescription. January 16, 1920 was the beginning of the alcohol prohibition. Since the beginning of prohibition there have been entrepreneurs that have stepped up on the opportunity to capitalize on the market of selling what hasbeen prohibited when the demand on the prohibited is great. Smuggling has come a long was since the beginning of the prohibition of alcohol. One example of the how far its come is that “ One early smuggler was a cab driver who simply drove his clearly marked New York City taxi cab 350 miles north to Canada, loaded up all the whiskey that it couldhold, and drove back to New York with cases of whiskey plainly visible through the windows” (http://www.dpft.org/history.html). From these humble beginnings the act of smuggling has come a long way, into much more sophisticated and thought-out techniques. April 4, 1933 was the official end to the alcohol prohibition. The act of prohibition is still alive today in the form of drug laws that still exist today.When taking a look at the drug laws and the viewing the different demographics of people in the prisons it has to be said that a lot of the drug law punishments are not equivalent to the crime that is committed, they are in essence too harsh. When looking at the fact that minor non-violent drug offenders are receiving some of the same sentences as murderers and rapist is when one has to think that the sentences are a little bit excessive. “Only offenders convicted of murder and kidnapping/ hostage taking serve longer sentence than crack offenders. Those convicted of robbery serve an average of 108 months; arson, 68 months; sexual abuse, 65 months; and manslaughter, 25 months” (http://www.famm.org/si_crack_powder_sentencing_fact_sheet.htm). The people going to prison for drug violations are not only receiving tougher sentencing but they are more of them in the prisons than those who went to prison for any other reason, the fact is that 60% of all federal prisoners in prison are in for drug offenses. Those convicted for crack cocaine serve an average sentence length of 119 months in prison! Tobacco is responsible for the death of millions and is still legal while on the other hand a drug likemarijuana has not been the proven cause of one death but is still illegal. Due to the war on drugs the “The estimated time served by drug offenders in state prisons increased a full year between 1987 and 1996; federal drug sentences doubled” (http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/usa/Rcedrg00-03.htm). When dealing with powder cocaine the mandatory minimum sentence for defendants convicted of selling 500 grams of cocaine is five years in prison. For five kilos the minimum sentence is ten years in prison. The crime of simple possession of powder cocaine by first-time offenders is considered a misdemeanorand is punishable by no more than one year in prison. There is a big discrepancy betweenthe punishments of crack cocaine and the punishments of powder cocaine, even though there is no big difference in the damage that is incurred by the user. For crack cocaine the mandatory minimum