[d]rug defined offenses, [which are] violations of laws prohibiting or regulating the possession, use, distribution or manufacture of illegal drugs, [d]rug related offenses, to which a drug's pharmacologic effects contribute; offenses motivated by the user's need for money to support continued use; and offenses connected to drug distribution itself [and the] [d]rug using lifestyle, a lifestyle in which the likelihood and frequency of involvement in illegal activity are increased because drug users may not participate in the legitimate economy and are exposed to situations that encourage crime

The most disturbing fact of these grim statistics is that American society is doing so little to change them. It is observed in the 1996 CASA Study that from 1993 to 1996, “as the number of inmates needing substance abuse treatment climbed from 688,000 to 840,000, the number of inmates in treatment hovered around 150,000 and much of the treatment they are receiving is inadequate” (SAAP 1998) From 1995 to 1996, the number of inmates in treatment decreased as the number in need of treatment rose. Contrary to conventional wisdom and popular myth, alcohol is more tightly linked with more violent crimes than crack, cocaine, heroin or any other illegal drug. In state prisons, 21 percent of inmates in prison for violent crimes were under the influence of alcohol--and no other substance--when they committed their crime; in contrast, at the time of their crimes, only three percent of violent offenders were under the influence of cocaine or crack alone, only one percent under the influence of heroin alone (SAAPP 1998).

[f]rom 1980 to 1996, the number of people in prison has tripled due overwhelmingly to

Twenty three years later, these policies have had significant effects on the criminal justice system, most of them negative. The United States now incarcerates more than 450,000 people for nonviolent drug offenses – more than the entire European Union (with roughly 100 million more people) incarcerates for all criminal offenses combined. The vast majority of these offenders are in state and local jails and prisons, where they now account for almost one-fourth of the total population behind bars. Additionally, tens or perhaps hundreds of thousands of non-drug offenders on probation or parole are imprisoned or re-imprisoned each year for nothing more than testing positive for drug use or an arrest for simple drug possession (Brownsberger, Aromaa 2001)

Some topics in this essay:
York Male, Drug Abuse, Control Policy, Population SAAPP, Crime Reports, Crime Act, CASA Study, Abuse NHSDA, Alliance DPA, Policy ONDCP, drug abuse, criminal justice system, drug users, justice system, criminal justice, drug alcohol, drug possession, positive drug, national institute, drug trafficking, prison population, drug alcohol abuse, drug control policy, national drug control, office national drug,