Emphasis on Controlling Illegal Drugs through the Criminal Justice System - Essay Example

Most countries have used the criminal justice system to control and stop the illegal drug trade; this justice system involves jailing individuals who have been accused of using or selling illegal drugs.

In the last 30 years, there has been an international rise in the criminalization of improper use of drugs. Criminalization has led to the rise in the application of disciplinary authorizations executed on illegal drug offenders; in addition, there has been an increase in the rates of imprisonment.   However, it is vital to note that these policies have had a limited effect in reducing and controlling the abuse of illegal drugs in the streets.  In recent years, the have been some advancements on the fact that another effective approach needs to be implemented in order to combat the use of illegal drugs, addiction to these drugs has come out to be a health problem that needs treatment, medical intervention, and counseling instead of imprisonment. In the United States, the population in prisons has amplified from 300,000 to 2.3 million inmates in the last four decades. Among these inmates, only one in 3 adults in the United States prisons is on the system of parole or probation.  This has proved to be expensive as the government at present expends more than 68 billion dollars annually on the prison sector. Therefore, the jailing of offenders on the use of illegal drugs is one of the main of mass imprisonment in United States prisons. There are also substantial signs that drug execution has averted resources from law application of violent offenses and other dangers to public well-being (Sandro 44).

Drug offenders who show no previous history of drug abuse or any type of violence and no prior arrests usually face compulsory minimum sentences in excess of 25 years behind bars. A high total of drug low-level offenders who have been found guilty end up receiving harsh sentences such as life imprisonment without the option of parole, this is due to the penalizing laws. In the United States, the number of arrests that are made on the illegal use of drugs has increased in the last 25 years, these are basically low-level drug users. The most common drug that is common for being abused is marijuana; in addition, most of these offenders usually have other pending cases or have a history of arrest (Sandro 65).  These mass arrests have effects socio-political effects on a country, this is due to the fact that most offenders who are put behind bars are men, thus they leave behind women and children who have no one to care for and provide for them, thus dragging the economy of a country, they are countless effects of imprisonment of illegal drug offenders to the criminals, their family, and the entire nation.