Example Of Essay On Drug Enforcement Responses

Response to Tia Finnerty’s Post

I agree with the post’s comment about the need to rationalize drug laws, which I had mentioned in my post as well. However, I am not in complete agreement with the post’s stress on Haley and Bohm’s (2014, p. 212) statement that made comparison between drugs and alcohol in reference to criminality. Ditto with the question that came after citing that particular passage in the book. The question seems to imply that the commerce and use of illegal drugs are not the problem, but alcohol is. I think that the comment of Haley and Bohm (2014, p. 212) is not a good basis to conclude a comparison between drugs and alcohol because there are some missing information or data that could support a conclusion. For one, the authors did not expound on the kind of criminality associated with drugs or those associated with alcohol. The disparity in crime rates could also be accounted for by the fact that alcohol is generally not illegal, and, therefore, a lot more people are consuming alcohol, whether alcoholics or not, than those using illegal drugs.

Response to Miranda Greer’s Post

If the problem of drug enforcement mainly stem from the inability of drug enforcers to keep up with new varieties of illegal drugs that keep popping up in the market, then there is a need to enhance and upgrade intelligence work. However, I don’t think it is just a matter of upgrading intelligence or using informants more effectively. Haley and Bohm (2014, p. 213) aptly described the problem: illegal drugs breed, support and sustain corruption because drug organizations can well afford them. Illegal drugs after all are a billion dollar industry. I agree though with the post that programs, such as DARE, that are geared towards the education of children in the hazards of illegal drug are very important in the fight against the problem. However, considering that illegal drug use in the country remains constant and most of the users are the youth (Haley and Bohm 2014, p. 213), then it can be said that DARE is not really effective. Either it should be scrapped or improved to make it more effective.

Works Cited

Haley, K. and Bohm, R. (2014). Introduction to Criminal Justice. 8th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill.