The use of illegal drugs in America is viewed as a criminal behavior rather than a social problem. The declaration of the war on drugs in the early eighties further emphasized the idea of users being criminals when in fact, users are no more criminals tha n the authority over them. A criminal act is one that harms society, an action done deliberately for whatever motive that causes another person harm. Albeit, the statistical increase …showed first 75 words of 1175 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1175 total…though we are moving backward. A drug user is not a criminal in the sense that our society deems him to be. We need to further explore our options for dealing with this social behavior to curb it before it escalates beyond our grasp. It is the politicians of this era that are hurting our society the worst, with their fears of not being re-elected outweighing their fears of a growing criminalized drug offender population.