| الوصف: |
Drug addiction in modern society is by its very nature a global problem. Since President Nixon announced a “War on Drugs” in 1971, the United States has spearheaded efforts around the world to reduce and punish illicit drug production, trafficking and use. President Clinton, for instance, gave $1.3 billion to Colombia in 2000 to support coca plant defoliation and military training (“Timeline: America’s War on Drugs,” 2007). Last year, Afghanistan received $107 million from the United States (USAID) to fund alternatives to opium poppy cultivation (Office of National Drug Control Policy, 2011a). Furthermore, the 2012 federal budget will increase total spending on drug control, from $25.9 billion in 2011 to $26.2 billion (Office of National Drug Control Policy, 2011b). From these expenditures, it is obvious that Americans, at the very least, see controlling the production, trade and consumption of illicit drugs as a global priority. Other developed nations, including the members of the European Union, are also committed to international approaches in addition to comprehensive, national drug strategies (European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, 2010). And it is common knowledge that in many developing countries, the “War on Drugs” is both real and bloody – indeed, an estimated 40,000 people in Mexico alone have died in the five years since incumbent President Calderon initiated a “crackdown on the drug cartels” (“Q&A: Mexico’s drug-related violence,” 2011). However, not all American funding goes abroad, nor does it go solely towards shutting down production sites; the U.S. Department of Justice alone spent $87.9 million on imprisonment of offenders for drug-related crimes in 2009 (Office of National Drug Control Policy, 2011a), and over 1.35 million people in the U.S. were arrested for possession of illicit drugs in 2010 (United States Department of Justice, 2009). Such patterns of incarceration, both in the U.S. and elsewhere, largely originated from the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, signed into law by ... |
