Drugs and Crime

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Please see response attached, which is also presented below. I hope this helps and take care.

RESPONSE:

Let's take a closer look at several laws and legislation to consider for this question.

1. In your opinion, what legislation of the past 3 decades has had the greatest impact on the drug-crime relationship? Defend your response.

According to President Bill Clinton, "Crime in America has dropped for the past seven years -- the longest decline on record, thanks to a national consensus we helped to forge on community police, sensible gun safety laws, and effective prevention. But nobody believes America is safe enough. So let's set a higher goal: let's make America the safest big country in the world" (2000) http://clinton4.nara.gov/WH/Accomplishments/crime.html. In other words, community policing and effective prevention were imperative, but the gun-laws seemed to have the greatest impact on the drug-crime relationship for youth, criminals and drug-traffickers. The safety gun laws greatly reduced youth drug-related crimes and initiatives to keep the guns out of hands of criminals e.g., drug traffickers and greatly reduced crime as well. Also, two drug laws, the Zero Tolerance Drug Supervision Initiative and Anti-Drug Strategy also had a great impact on the drug-crime relationship.

Let's take a closer look at these factors, which you can further consider.

1. Zero Tolerance Drug Supervision Initiative and Comprehensive Anti-Drug Strategy

For example, the Zero Tolerance Drug Supervision Initiative helped in breaking the cycle of drug crime and recidivism. To reduce drug use and repeat drug offenses, for example, President Clinton and Vice President Gore fought for and signed legislation enacting the Zero Tolerance Drug Supervision Initiative to require states to develop comprehensive plans to drug test prisoners and parolees. In addition, the Administration has increased the number of federal inmates receiving residential substance abuse treatment from 1,135 in 1992 to 10,816 in 1999. The 1994 Crime Act has helped to expand the number of drug courts - which have been shown to reduce future drug use and recidivism - from a dozen in 1994 to more than 416 in October 1999. An additional 279 drug courts are in the planning stages. [ONDCP, FY 2001 Budget Summary; ONDCP, 2000 Annual Report, p. 62; FBOP Report to Congress, 1/99]

The development of a comprehensive Anti-Drug Strategy including a $195 Million National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign reduced drug related crime amongst youth. For example, the President appointed Barry McCaffrey, a four-star general, to lead the Clinton-Gore Administration's anti-drug strategy as the nation's Drug Czar. In 1997, President Clinton and Director McCaffrey launched the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, the largest targeted effort ever to teach youth about the dangers of drugs. The Campaign uses the full power of the modern media to encourage young people to reject drug use, and helps parents, teachers and other responsible adults talk to kids about drugs and get more involved in the lives of young people. Illicit drug use among young people age 12-17 declined from 1997 to 1998, and the average age of first-time use went up. ...