Description
This thesis serves as an analysis of how California’s current drug laws are failing at mitigating the number of citizens who become drug offenders. All the while the United States (US) continues to face the biggest opioid crisis it has ever seen in its history and our neighbors in Mexico are facing a profound homicide rate far beyond anything in the US. This follows on from the devastating effects that cocaine, especially crack cocaine, had on urban communities in the 1980s and 1990s. Recent ballot measures voted into legislation by the citizens of California for drug reform and their punishments have arguably had greater negative consequences than positive. Despite the positive impact of not using prison as a solution, it has led to more drug offenders on the streets rather than in prison, which has created an increase in property crimes. Heavily populated cities San Francisco and San Diego have witnessed this impact first-hand. The decriminalization of illicit drugs in California was a major reversal in historic government policy for addressing the drug addiction problem, functionally ending mass incarceration for non-violent drug offenders. These non-violent drug offenders were not in jail or prison, but this approach has limited rehabilitation potential to really solve the drug problem. California and the US overall are struggling to find solutions that do not revert to the failed tactic of mass incarceration. Somehow finding solutions that can strengthen the role of the rehabilitative processes and educational incentives may save countless lives in getting people out of the drug culture, as fear of incarceration has now largely been removed. Such Public Health rehabilitation if paired with the current threat assessments and interdiction tactics of federal agencies like the Drug Enforcement Agency and Department of Homeland Security appear to be the most promising solutions for curbing the drug problem within the United States. Removing the drug demand from the US could then have extremely positive impacts on countries like Mexico involved in the supply side of drug trafficking.
