Reference no: EM133603156

Question: "War on drugs" is not an official term but rather a shorthand way to refer to the efforts by the United States and other governments to reduce or eliminate certain kinds of drug use. It is often attributed to U.S. president Richard Nixon, who in 1971 declared that drug abuse was "public enemy number one." The term has been used for many years, mostly by people critical of drug-control efforts. Two of the terms defined on page 5 are relevant for understanding these government efforts. Deviant drug use is drug use that is disapproved of by a social group, and which the group acts to correct when it occurs. In this case, the important group is the governing body (e.g., Congress in the United States, or parliament in some other countries). The corrective actions taken by these governments are formalized and may include some form of punishment, or treatment offered as an alternative to punishment.

Therefore, these examples of deviant drug use also comprise illicit drug use (use of a PSY307 - Drugs & Behavior Summarization Assignment Copyright 2022 Post University, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED drug that is illegal). It is important to understand that the deviant and illicit quality of these acts depends both on the drug-using behavior and on the government's response to that behavior. For example, 50 years ago interracial dating and marriage were considered by many to be deviant behaviors and were even outlawed in several U.S. states prior to a 1967 Supreme Court decision.

The same type of behavior now is neither illicit nor deviant in the eyes of most Americans. As marijuana use becomes increasingly acceptable to more Americans, it is less likely to be considered deviant, at least at the level requiring formal legal correction. Many U.S. states have reduced or eliminated penalties for possession and use, and pressure is being put on Congress to take similar steps at the federal level. The origins of today's war on drugs are described in Chapter 3, but for now we need to understand that a great deal of money is spent and many peoples' jobs depend on these efforts worldwide. The United States is considered by most to be the leading governmental factor, both in terms of the amount of money spent and its influential role in convincing other nations to pass similar laws and to participate in international drug control efforts.