Statistics from the War on Drugs Tell a Story

In 1971, President Richard Nixon first declared a national â€Å"war on drugs,† and greatly increased the size and authority of federal government drug control agencies. Since 1988, the U.S. war against illegal drugs has been coordinated by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). The director of the ONDCP plays the real-life role of Americas Drug Czar. Created by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, the ONDCP advises the President of the United States on drug-control issues, coordinates drug-control activities and related funding across the Federal government, and produces the annual National Drug Control Strategy, which outlines Administration efforts to reduce illicit drug use, manufacturing and trafficking, drug-related crime and violence, and drug-related health consequences. Under the coordination of the ONDCP, the following federal agencies play key enforcement and advisory roles in the War on Drugs: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services AdministrationFederal Bureau of InvestigationBureau of Justice AssistanceDrug Enforcement AgencyUnited States Customs and Border ProtectionNational Institute on Drug AbuseU.S. Coast Guard Are We Winning? Today, as drug abusers continue to flood America’s prisons and violent drug crimes devastate neighborhoods, many people criticize the effectiveness of War on Drugs. However, actual statistics suggest that without the War on Drugs, the problem may be even worse. For example, during fiscal year 2015, Customs and Border Protection alone reported seizing: 135,943 pounds of cocaine;2,015 pounds of heroin;6,135 pounds of methamphetamine; and4,330,475 (Yes, 4.3 million) pounds of marijuana. During fiscal year 2014, the Drug Enforcement Agency seized: 74,450 pounds of cocaine;2, 248 pounds of heroin;6,494 pounds of methamphetamine; and163,638 pounds of marijuana. (The discrepancy in marijuana seizures is attributable to the fact that Customs and Border Protection has the main responsibility for intercepting the drug as it flows into the U.S. from Mexico.) In addition, the ONDCP reported that during 1997, U.S. law enforcement agencies seized an estimated $512 million in illegal drug trade-related cash and property. So does the seizure of 2,360 tons of illegal drugs by two federal agencies in just two years indicate the success or utter futility of the War on Drugs? Despite the volume of drugs seized, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported an estimated 1,841,200 state and local arrests for drug abuse violations in the United States during 2007. But whether the War on Drugs has been a smashing success or a dismal failure, it has been expensive. Funding the War In fiscal year 1985, the annual federal budget allocated $1.5 billion to fighting illegal drug use, trafficking and drug-related crime. By fiscal year 2000, that figure had increased to $17.7 billion, increasing by almost $3.3 billion per year. Jump to fiscal year 2016, when President Obama’s budget included $27.6 billion to support the National Drug Control Strategy, an increase of $1.2 billion (4.7%) above fiscal year 2015 funding. In February 2015, U.S. Drug Czar and director of the Obama administration’s ONDCP Michael Botticelli attempted to justify the expenditure in his confirmation address to the Senate. â€Å"Earlier this month, President Obama in his 2016 Budget requested historic levels of funding -- including $133 million in new funds -- to address the opioid misuse epidemic in the U.S. Using a public health framework as its foundation, our strategy also acknowledges the vital role that federal state and local law enforcement play in reducing the availability of drugs -- another risk factor for drug use,† said Botticelli. â€Å"It underscores the vital importance of primary prevention in stopping drug use before it ever begins by funding prevention efforts across the country.† Botticelli added that the expenditure was intended to remove the â€Å"systemic challenges† that had historically held back progress in the War on Drugs: Over-criminalization of illegal drug use;lack of integration with mainstream medical care;lack of insurance coverage for drug abuse treatment; andlegal barriers that make it difficult for people once involved with the criminal justice system to rebuild their lives. A recovering alcoholic himself, Botticelli urged the millions of Americans in substance abuse recovery to â€Å"come out† and demand to be treated like people with non-abuse related chronic diseases. â€Å"By putting faces and voices to the disease of addiction and the promise of recovery, we can lift the curtain of conventional wisdom that continues to keep too many of us hidden and without access to lifesaving treatment,† he said.

Sociological Imagination And Social Imagination - 1431 Words

As clichà © as it sounds, Dr. Seuss was right. â€Å"There is no one alive that is youer than you.† From a sociological persepective, this is also â€Å"truer than true†. As individuals we are cultured and moleded by our society from the moment we are born. Every society, although there may be similiarities, will also have many differences due to the influence of its history and individuals. The history and individuals, are also in turn, influenced by its society. That is why it is important in the furthering of understanding a society, to observe it through the eyes of an outsider. Sociological imagination as defined by C. Wright Mills is the ability to view how a society s unique historical circumstances influence the people and†¦show more content†¦My parents are from the Philippines and are foreign contract workers in Saipan and have lived there for more than 25 years. I am an only child. We were not the richest family but I feel like I was spoiled as a ch ild. I was spoiled not in the sense of material objects but with love, attention, etc. In 2013, my father was diagnosed with cancer and underwent treatment in the Philippines. My parents did not have any health insurance as my mother was the only breadwinner of the family and her job paid just above the minimum wage, which was $5.05, and her job had no benefits. His absence was very hard for me but knowing that he was undergoing treatment made me accept it better. In August, 2015, Typhoon Soudelor (world’s strongest) hit Saipan. Houses, electric poles, buildings, and trees were damaged. There was no electricity, water, cable TV, and internet for several months. My mother and I had to line up in long lines for gas, ready to eat meals, and water. Our garage roof was damaged and our house was flooded. Then, my father was hospitalized. He passed away a month later, three days before my senior year of high school. The typhoon and the death of my father devastated me but I man aged to stay strong and continued on with my schooling and activities. I am still grieving but I try to focus on the work at hand and not let my emotions deter me from accomplishing myShow MoreRelatedSociological Imagination and Social Issues1251 Words   |  6 PagesSociological Imagination and Social Issues People are more likely to use psychological arguments to explain why things are they way they are rather than look at the sociological aspect of them. They think that problems happening in their lives are personal and overlook that they may be caused by society (Ferris amp; Stein 13). Sociological imagination challenges people to look at the â€Å"intersection between biography and history† and see the role we each play in society (Mills 1959 and Ferris amp;Read MoreSocial Interaction : A Sociological Imagination976 Words   |  4 PagesSocial interaction occurs between all individuals in society and can be studied through the use of the sociological imagination. A sociological imagination allows one to link their everyday activities and situations to society as a whole. I can study my own personal social interactions and the situations I encounter by applying concepts, theories, and perspectives that sociologists have developed for analyzing society and social situations. A lthough I encounter situations on a day-to-day basis, oneRead MoreThe Sociological Imagination And The Social Issue Of Child Abuse1492 Words   |  6 PagesIntroduction The Sociological Perspective was a concept argued by C. Wright Mills was and still is a valuable tool to help people look at, understand and interpret their everyday lives and social world around them (in which they live). The argued perspective will be discussed through the use of the Sociological Imagination with the Personal Problem of Depression and the Social Issue of Child Abuse with what can be done to solve both of these ‘Dilemmas of Youth’. 2. 1. Sociological Imagination The SociologicalRead MoreSociological Imagination, Social Construction Of Reality And Socialization902 Words   |  4 Pagesof sociological imagination, social construction of reality and socialization help us learn more about ourselves and the world. Sociological imagination is the way in which individuals realize the connection between their own experience of reality and the experiences of society as a whole. This realization allows people to make sense of the world around them. When one applies sociological imagination, they are stripping their own personal experiences from their thoughts to analyze the social worldRead MoreThe Sociological Imagination and Understanding Personal Troubles as Social Issues1259 Words   |  6 PagesThe Sociological Imagination and understanding personal troubles as social issues: The Sociological Imagination allows us to question â€Å"things† or issues which are common and familiar to us and to find its deeper meaning. With the Sociological Imagination way of thinking, we find reasoning and uncover why many things in society are the way they are. The Sociological Imagination does not attempt to understand the individual and his or her problems alone, but focuses on issues and problems as itRead MoreThe Usefulness of the Sociological Imagination  in Relation to Gender, Social Inequality and Suicide1766 Words   |  8 PagesThe Usefulness of â€Å"The Sociological Imagination† in Relation to Gender, Social Inequality and Suicide Sociological imagination is the â€Å"quality of mind† (Mills, 1959: p. 4) that enables us to look outside our everyday life and see the entire society as we were an outsider with the benefit of acknowledge of human and social behaviour. It allows us to see how society shapes and influences our life experiences. Is the ability to see the general in the particular and to â€Å"defamiliarise the familiar†Read MoreEssay on The Sociological Imagination1389 Words   |  6 PagesMy personal condensed definition of â€Å"the sociological imagination† is that it is the idea one should be aware of the societal structures around themselves, and how those structures can influence a person and vice-versa. In addition, I think that having a â€Å"sociological imagination† also involves a deep appreciation for the importance of society and culture. Consequently, for a person that has completed a basic introduction to sociology college course and actually paid attention , I would hope thatRead MoreSociology Imagination833 Words   |  4 Pagesdefined sociological imagination as the vivid awareness of the relationship between experience and the wider society. The sociological imagination is the capacity to shift from one perspective to another: from the political to the psychological; from examination of a single family to comparative assessment of the national budgets of the world; from the theological school to the military establishment; from considerations of an oil industry to studies of contemporary poetry.[1] Sociological Imagination:Read MoreThe Concepts Following Sociological Imagination675 Words   |  3 Pages In this essay I’ll be talking about Sociological Imagination and the concepts following it and more especially the importance of it. Sociological Imagination is one of the core concepts of Sociology whereas Sociology is all about studying people within the society and what they do. Sociological imagination is all about using one’s mind to see how people are affected by tangible and intangible things around them. Sociological imagination is affected by social forces which are forces that influenceRead MoreSociological Imagination1017 Words   |  5 PagesThe concept of â€Å"sociological imagination† is one that can be explained many different ways. A simple way to think of the sociological imagination is to see it as a way a person thinks, where they know that what they do from day to day in their private lives (like the choices they make), are sometimes i nfluenced by the larger environment in which they live (Mills 1959, 1). What C.W. Mills meant by this concept is that it is the ability to â€Å"understand the larger historical scene in terms of its meaning

Jaga vs. D Free Essays

In its Bath Star Judgment, the Constitutional Court referred to the interpretive approach followed in the Gaga v D ¶ones, a notorious case from the asses. In this essay, I argue that the recent comments by the Constitutional Court about the case clearly show that the Gaga judgment Is no longer relevant to the Interpretation of statutes after the democratic transformation. The facts of the Gaga case The Gaga case was a notorious case which occurred in the early sass’s. We will write a custom essay sample on Jaga vs. D or any similar topic only for you Order Now Gaga being the accused in this case, as he was caught selling inwrought gold which is illegal. It was hen decided by the jury that he would be sentenced to â€Å"three months imprisonment suspended for three years†. Section 22 of Act 22 of 1913 read as follows: â€Å"Any person who has been sentenced to imprisonment for any offence committed by the sale of inwrought precious metal and who is deemed by the minister to be an undesirable inhabitant of the union may be removed from the union under a warrant†. Therefore Gaga was declared as being an undesirable Inhabitant and a warrant for his deportation to India was Issued. Gaga challenged this because he declared that he had not been sentenced to Imprisonment. The molester had argued this point made by Gaga by stating that even though it is a â€Å"suspended sentence of imprisonment†, it is still a sentence of imprisonment. Gaga once again argued saying that he was not physically sentenced to imprisonment. The dominant interpretive approach before 1994 as followed by the majority in Gaga. The textual approach which was used in 1950 when the Gaga case had taken place, is an approach to interpretation which was used In majority of the cases before 1994 (which was when South African came a democratic country). This is an approach hereby legislation Is Interpreted simply Just by the way It Is written. It focuses on the grammar used In the text or In legislation rather than the actual content of the case-The text base approach refers to the literal meaning of the text. There are many variations of rules of interpretation which occur under the textual approach. The primary rule of the textual approach being, â€Å"that if the ordinary or plain meaning of the words in a legislative provision is clear, that meaning must be applied†. While ordinary citizens look at the everyday meaning of legislation, the courts look at the lain meaning of the text of the cases in this approach of interpretation. The golden rule of this method states that only if a specific wording of legislation is ambiguous and has more than one meaning in the dictionary. Also if the ordinary meaning leads to such absurd results, it will be Impossible to use the actual words In legislation to Interpret any case at all because by the courts applying the plain meaning of the text It would lead to them reaching a decision which would be rather Irrational. In these circumstances where the actual text cannot be used or ciphered from correctly then the court can turn to a number of secondary aids. Information other than the wording of the specific section. These aids are called internal and external aids. Internal aids include : â€Å"the same legislative text in another official language, the preamble, the long title, the definition clause, legislative purpose statements, interpretation guidelines, headings to chapters and sections, paragraphing and punctuations and schedules. â€Å". External aids such as the constitution and the bill of rights can also be used when the text isn’t clear and sufficient enough to come to a final decision or conclusion. In the case of Gaga the literal meaning of Section 22 of Act 22 of 1913 was applied because it did state that any offender would be considered as being an undesirable inhabitant and would be sentenced to imprisonment and this was exactly what happened to Gaga. No other facts of the case were taken into consideration and nothing was investigated thoroughly or further, therefore I feel this approach is rather orthodox and is not relevant to be used currently. It was Just simply the literal meaning of the act taken into consideration here. The court insisted on the plain literal meaning and applied it o the Gaga case, it was a decision that was simply to make and so Gaga was issued with a warrant for his deportation to India and sentenced to three months of imprisonment, suspended for three years. This approach is a very narrow approach and I feel it doesn’t really give an accurate indication of anything because there are very few texts that are actually clear enough whereby the court can actually reach one final interpretation of the legislature. In this approach the court also has very â€Å"little law-making capacity’. In my opinion this approach is no longer valid and should to be used as there is very little to actually work with, it isn’t open minded and will not help reach the best verdict. The alternative interpretive approach followed by the minority in Gaga This refers to the contextual (purposive) approach or also can be called text-in-context approach. This approach has been used even before 1994 in certain cases from time to time. This approach however has been overshadowed by the textual approach. In this approach â€Å"the context of legislation, including social and political policy directions Is also taken into account to establish the purpose of legislation†. Here the mischief rule is used. This rule makes use of external aids which include † the common law, whatever new remedies the legislature provides, and the true reason for the remedies. This approach provides â€Å"a balance between grammatical and the overall contextual meaning†. This approach takes into consideration the actual scope of the legislation and not Just the plain text or the grammatical meaning like the textual approach does. The court has a creative law making function when interpreting legislation. However this does not mean that the court gets to take over completely by paving all the legislative power. The interpretation process is not complete until â€Å"the object of the scope of the legislation is taken into account†. This is yet another reason as to why the new interpretive approach or rather the contextual approach is relevant to be used now rather than the textual approach. In certain cases sometimes the wider context could prove to be more vital than the actual legislative text. In this approach firstly the meaning of the text and the context needs to be determined, once this is done the second step is to apply this when interpreting. Bath star case. Section 39(2) of the constitution contains a provision dealing with ordinary statutory interpretation. The constitution being the supreme law of South Africa, it is only right that it is referred to when interpreting legislation. Section 39(2) implies that even where the ordinary meaning of the legislation is clear and unambiguous, the interpreter must still try to ascribe the meaning to those words that will best promote telecast one identifiable value enshrined in the bill of rights†. The Bath star case was a case about the allocation of quotas in the fishing industry. The number of fish that’s allowed to be caught when deep sea fishing is limited by the quota system. The quota which each fi shing trawler is allowed to catch is determined by the minister of environmental affairs and tourism in terms of the Marine living resources Act 18 of 1998. The Bath Star fishing company lodged a complaint that the quota which they had been allocated for the year was too small. Len section 2 of the marine living resources act there is a list of objectives given and it states that the minister must â€Å"have regard to† these objectives when quotas are being allocated. In this case Bath Star argued that only the textual approach was used because the ordinary meaning of the phrase â€Å"have regard to† was construed by the courts to mean â€Å"bear in mind† or â€Å"do not overlook†. In the statement made by the court they accepted that this was true. The phrase should have been looked into according to the context that it occurred in. Therefore the contextual meaning had to be looked into and not Just the textual approach because it is no longer relevant that Just the ordinary text or meaning of the words be taken into account, but in the new interpretive approach it is â€Å"the repose of legislation and the values of the constitution† that needs to be examined before any kind of decision is reached or before finalizing the verdict. The Bath Star case is a perfect example of why the textual approach is not recommended for use in this day and age where everything has now become more complicated and needs to be thoroughly interpreted so nobody feels that they have been cheated in any way. Words and phrases have a way of being misunderstood so therefore facts need to be collected when handling such cases and this can only be done when the purposive teeth is used. By this case it is also made clear that † the primary and golden rules of textual interpretation do not apply in our law anymore† Conclusion The supremacy of the constitution has overturned the interpretive approach to the contextual method of interpretation. I believe this was done so simply because it is proved that it is indeed the most appropriate and accurate approach to use when interpreting legislation. The text and context of the legislation as well as law cases must be balanced and it not Just be the text that’s taken into consideration therefore he Judgment used in Gaga case can no longer be used for the interpretation of statutes after the democratic transformation. I believe there are far too many weaknesses in the textual approach as it leads to many misunderstandings which creates further problems and disrupts normality, this is evident in both the Gaga and perspectives and therefore I do not support the textual approach used in the Gaga case as it only takes in the literal meaning of the text into consideration and ignores all other aspects. The contextual approach is thus the method which should be applied. How to cite Jaga vs. D, Papers

Negative Music and the Effects on Human Behavior free essay sample

I will trace the history of this type of music and discuss some studies which point out effects of listening to it. What is negative music? Negative music is music that has a negative effect. One form of negative music is music that is used to express or to stimulate negative emotions. A Viennese classical composer named Arnold Schoenberg was the first person to openly create negative music early in the twentieth century. HIS music was rejected by European concert attendees of the time and sometimes caused near riots.Based on discords, Schoenberg music caused listeners to feel uncomfortable and irritated. However, he became the pivotal composer of the early twentieth century and today he is considered one of the greatest composers of that century. The music ushered in an era of negative music in Western classical music that lasted for over fifty years. His theory was eventually accepted by composers throughout the Western world and was taught In the finest music schools. We will write a custom essay sample on Negative Music and the Effects on Human Behavior or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The result of all this was the Incorporation of negative music Into TV programs and movies.Negative music is used to create emotions of suspense, terror, anxiety, and fear. It is the music that accompanies crime programs and horror films. The same kind of music that concert audiences rejected because of the feelings that the music invoked became standard TV fare, and for the very same reasons (5). I never thought about the idea that scary and suspenseful music was a break from the norm. It Is obvious though that It changes behavior In people. Just watch a horror flick with a friend. You will both know when something horrible Is going to happen.The learned behavior from the music stimulus ranges from sliding back In your seat, o covering and closing your eyes. The music tells you something bad is coming and you know how to respond to it. Western classical music was the first style of music to incorporate negativity. The next step in the evolution of negative music was its introduction into rock music in the late asses. The first hard rock and heavy metal music was produced by the rock group called Blue Cheer somewhere around 1967. Their music was angry and had a noticeably heavy beat..At this time, the music of the Rolling stones, too, became harder and angry, with a negative accent. Many other ropes sprang up during this period. In truth, hard drugs, mixed with psychedelics were having an effect. The world was witnessing a new phenomenon: musical groups of young men opening doors to the psychic world through the use of drugs were using electrified instruments to bring in a new music that was harmful to the human psyche, destructive, and angry (2). The turning point for the new music came when the group Led Zeppelin was formed. As the book Hammer of the Cods points out, the members of this group were constantly high on every kind of drug imaginable. When they toured, they vandalized hotel rooms, throwing TV sets and furniture into the streets. Very young girls were tied up and customized, group members taking turns, and a photographer from Life magazine, assigned to photograph Led Zeppelin as they toured, was nearly raped by band members in a hotel room. Yet Led Zeppelin TTS music. Throughout the asses, the music of Led Zeppelin was the anthem of American high school kids.For many people raised during this period, demeaning the music of Led Zeppelin is a desecration of a most sacred cow (3). The last here decades of the twentieth century saw negative rock music spread and popularized throughout the entire world. Heavy metal music became an accepted culture and is now almost an ancient music when it is compared with the newer forms of negative music that have since emerged. It is unfortunate and sad to say, but the children of the asses have been spoon-fed on the most negative and insolent music imaginable. Please consider what is taking place, and who is being affected.If {o listen to the radio carefully and use your powers of discernment to gain a sense f the degree of negativity in the music that you hear on the radio and TV today, you Nil find a great deal of the music that is lacking in positive influence. Pop music has gone down hill so much since its heyday in 1954 that the difference is shocking. In 1954, the songs of the top forty were positive, reinforcing, and romantic. There are some great singers today, but there is also a lot of really inferior, mediocre singers and music that expresses little in the lyrics, and nothing emotionally except perhaps for anger and hatred. And so many people have gotten used to mediocrity and ugliness in music that it isnt even noticed anymore (2). Hard rock, heavy metal, trash metal, hardcore, death metal, gangster rap, and the like have repeatedly been proven in experiments to have a detrimental effect. David Here, a 16 year old at Nanosecond River High School, conducted an experiment that sharpened his theory that hard rock taints the brain. Using 72 male lab mice, he separated the mice into 3 groups of 24: a control, classical, and a hard rock group.After weeks of putting them through the same maze at an original average time of 10 minutes, the control group heaved 5 minutes from the beginning time, the classical group knocked 8 minutes off, but the hard rock averaged 30-minute completion time, a considerable difference. Ere fact that 72 mice were tested makes his results more valid because of the larger sample size. Most noticeably, the hard rock mice did not sniff the air to find the trails of others that came be fore them. Hearers first experiment failed because the mice Newer not put in separate containers, and the hard rock mice killed each other (4).Lyrically violent and musically negative songs increase aggression related thoughts ND emotions. In a series of five experiments involving over 500 college students, researchers from Iowa State University and the Texas Department of Human Services examined the effects of seven violent songs by seven artists and eight nonviolent songs by seven artists. The students listened to the songs and were given various psychological tasks to measure aggressive thoughts and feelings. One such task involved participants classifying words that can have both aggressive and nonaggression meanings, such as rock and stick.The study also included songs with amorous lyrics to see how humor interacted with violent song lyrics and aggressive thoughts (1). Results of the five experiments show that violent songs led to more aggressive interpretations of ambiguously aggressive words, increased the relative speed with which people read aggressive vs. . nonaggression words, and increased the proportion of word fragments (such as h_t) that were filled in to make aggressive Norms (such as hit). The violent songs increased feelings of hostility without differences in musical style, specific performing artist or arousal properties of the songs.Even the humorous violent songs increased aggressive thoughts (1). The idiolect-song increases in aggressive thoughts and feelings have implications for real Nor violence, according to lead researcher Craig A. Anderson, Ph. D. Of Iowa State University. Aggressive thoughts can influence perceptions of ongoing social interactions, coloring them with an aggressive tint. Such aggression-biased interpretations can, in turn, instigate a more aggressive response -verbal or physical than would have been emitted in a nonbiased state, thus provoking an aggressive escalators spiral of antisocial exchanges, said Dry.