Drug Policy

During 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