Drug Policies And The War On Drugs Criminology Essay

Drug Policies And The War On Drugs Criminology Essay The War on Drugs is an aggressive drug policy aimed at bringing the fight towards drug suppliers and cartels. It began during Nixons term when he escalated Americas problem with drugs as a moral equivalent of war (Ratliff). Presidents Ford and Carter expanded Nixons resolve when they focused the war by attacking the supply lines of drugs. Reagan followed through by militarising and launching strikes to suppliers and drug cartels and tripling its funds in drug eradication. The War on Drugs went on for years with the United States running a foreign policy that sought to encourage, persuade, bribe, or coerce its neighbouring countries (Ibid) to join them in their giant crusade against drugs. South American countries mostly supported this war because this increased their chances to receive U.S. aid. War on Drugs became a media maelstrom in the mid-80s when basketball stat Len Bias died of cocaine overdose. What followed was the signing of the Drug Policy known as the Anti-Drug Abuse Act that placed the problem of drugs as a national security problem. With the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, the U.S. government started to use military and intelligence forces in the war against drugs. What started as a metaphor actually escalated into reality when the US. Military invaded Panama to seize Manuel Noriega in 1989, who was then imprisoned for drug trafficking. Afterwards, during the Clinton administration, the United States increased its funds in countering the supply-side of drug trafficking. George W. Bush added billions more to the war on drugs effort, though by this time. The so-called war on drugs have become a very unpopular issue and many have become opposed to it. The war on drugs has also lost steam since it has been a foregone priority as the United States has become focused on countering international terrorism. Despite this the debate continues, for almost 40 years in its existence, U.S. has shuffled opinions on what to do with the decades-old policy on the crusade against drugs. Should they hang up their gloves and look for alternative solutions. The government has weighed in the pros and cons of the matter. The pros on the war on drugs are looked in the sociological importance of continuing the crusade. It is believed that drug trafficking is a flagrant disrespect of the law, and society is compelled to punish such rebellion through overt force. Punishment and retribution are the keys to stopping drug trafficking and therefore the justice system should criminalise the activity and all its forms. Therefore, putting traffickers behind bars is part of the literature of war. When theyre shut out, drug availability is reduced; and so when you decrease the availability of drugs, abuse goes down too. In short, the war on drugs is really about tackling the supply side of drugs. The U.S. government directs its efforts in purging all supply lines and drug cartels to stop the availability of drugs. When the United States elevated this priority into their foreign policies, what they actually did was to compel other countries to take care of their citizens in terms of health and safety, protect its youth from becoming corrupted by drugs and pushers. The U.S. war on drugs spread like wildfire reminding that this is not just one countries war, the problem of drugs is a global human problem that everyone should take seriously. In the process, because of the war on drugs, elaborate institutions and industries around the world emerged from prison systems, anti-terrorism, anti-money laundering-governments became more aware. However, the downside of the war on drugs is staggering. To many, the war just ended up as the militarization of Latin America. Mexico is now spending $800 million to a billion a year on the drug war (Tavis), just because they dont want Americans invading them just like what they did in Panama. So Mexicans do it themselves: 90% goes to enforcement and the military to purge drug trafficking and only 10% goes to drug treatment. A good number of local officials argue that good share of that gargantuan budget should have gone to Mexicos under-education, impoverishment, etc. The same goes with Colombia and the rest of South America. To the general opinion of many, the U.S. led war on drugs is just a silent Vietnam War that is putting civil war into a boiling point. Dissidents on the war on drugs argue that the term itself war is an inappropriate metaphor. It gives the wrong idea. Yes, there is nothing wrong about thinking war on drugs in the context of law enforcement. Law enforcement is an indispensable tool in control and outlawing drug market-related violence. Very few contend on this argument. But when you start to think a war on drugs as sending troops to other countries then that is a different matter entirely. This is something many have opposed to, like the way Americans now bitterly opposes the war on Iraq. In this case, the war on drugs truly fits its description, a war that amounts to billions that are operated from a situation room, targeting an exact enemy; the suppliers, the factories, the Colombian drug cartels, the problems they cause. But to operate the war on drugs as if America is up against the Nazis is looking at the problem from the wrong end. Here, drug trafficking runs in two ways: there are the foreign suppliers and theirs the local demand. You just cant solve the problem by military strength when the problem also comes from within? Thus, heres where the biggest criticism of the war on drugs: its too short-sighted. Its examining only one side of the pole. This war on drugs has escalated so far that the U.S. government no longer mind about collateral damage. They want to win the war conventionally. But what should be understood is that this is a war against people. For example, Colombia is a place of continued violence between left-wing guerrillas and right-wing militias. Peasants have nothing more to live on besides growing coca because theres demand for it. Now, with the war on drugs, the United States want to stop growing coca at all costs, without giving aid to peasants to do other profitable livelihoods. So the peasants end up as collateral damage. By killing the supply lines, the U.S. believes that the demand will die. And so they keep focusing on the killing supply by all means possible, even by arrogant policies such as the potential annual decertification of Latin American government that are determined not to cooperate with the United States (Ratliff). Why the war on drugs became so criticised, it is because of this very policy, which has strained and continues to strain relations with Latin American countries. The negative effect of these policies has weakened foreign institutions of garnering support from their own countries, especially if they adhere to the United States. In fact, theres a growing number of Hispanics that are already disenfranchised with the whole crusade (Tavis). There are generally two factions: one started supporting guerillas (who wants America to be decertified) and the other looking for ways to distance themselves with the U.S. and not cooperate like Mexico has done. For experts, they are of a strong opinion that America should not continue the war on drugs on the basis that focusing only on the supply side of the problem will not amount to anything, it will only be a waste of money. What U.S. should do is start facing the reality that the real problem comes from the demand side; that the root of the problem is from within. You cant call a war when the problem is within. You need alternative solutions. One example is to look at the problem not as a security threat or even a delinquency but rather as a health problem, stemming from a lack of education or youth cultural disillusionment. The way to treat drugs is to spend more money on schools, treatment efforts, not on prisons and on the military. Another problem with the war on drugs is that it looks at very limited solutions. For example, the so-called war is too focused on marijuana (Conan). Other drugs, like crack and other harder drugs, tend to be overlooked. Violent crimes are mostly committed by someone on hard drugs, not on marijuana. Now if they only focused on harder drugs, you can get a little more done. After President Obamas inauguration, the new drug policy was to drop the war on drugs term from the language of the administration. This is a drastic change from the approach of previous presidents and steer the new drug policy towards prevention harm reduction strategies that is much favoured in Europe (Glaister). The new administration embraced new drug policies supporting federally funded needle exchanges with an aim, according to David Johnson, assistant secretary of state, was to establish a policy based on public health needs (ibid). The objective of this new policy that replaces the war on drug stance is to create stronger and broader regulations than the drug policies in the past. The executive director of the Drugs Policy Alliance, Ethan Nadelman, has long sought for alternatives to the old policy of war on drugs, and the changed that Obama instigated was a welcome relief to his organisation. Washington officials reaffirmed in a congressional meeting held in March 2009 that the administration had to shift the age-old national drug policy as a response to the growing trend that drug-related violence has been transferring from the US to Mexico despite the aggressive military campaign against drug suppliers. The meeting followed a report from former presidents of South America, particularly, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, who all opined that the war on drugs policy was a complete and utter failure (Ibid). Many conservative politicians in the South blamed the United States for emphasising more on criminalising drug use and drug supplying rather than tackling the addiction problem itself. The criminalization and the aggressive approach of the war on crime only create an increase death toll. The new approach must, therefore, be based on public health. Obama is looking at a more proactive side in creating a new drug policy aimed at reform and rehabilitation, rather than intimidation. This is a lesson learned from the damages that the War on Drugs has created. Through over-criminalization, it has so far assaulted American civil liberties, clog the jails and courts. This new policy also paved the way for police corruption, like what happened in the 1999 Rampart Scandal case that involved department-wide corruption and racketeering of the LAPD. The war on drugs is also open for abuse by misguided police officers that confiscate drugs to criminals and then enrich themselves by reselling it. Worse, the war on drugs has so far cost the taxpayers approximately $3.2 billion during the Reagan and Bush presidency and then another set of billions were spent during Clintons administration (Drug Policy). Furthermore, because of it, the United States was suddenly propelled as having the highest per-capita incarceration rate for any nation in the world. The problem is drug use has not decreased and crimes committed in connection with addiction and drug use continue the upward trend. It seems there is no stopping a great number of Americans of wanting various drugs and they always have the money to buy a quick drug fix. $3.2 billion was spent on law enforcement, not a dollar went to rehab centres. Most of them went to the military to combat alongside Latin American governments to build para-militaries against cartels. What should have been done is to spent that money back home and treat the root of the problem of addiction and lack of education on drug use. Obama, who described in his autobiography having used marijuana and cocaine, steered his administration to finally get rid of the war on crime and treat needle exchanges for intravenous drug users a healthcare issue (Sullivan). Because it is true, obviously, that putting drug users in jail would not do anything concrete if you dont treat them. Once released, they return to the same neighbourhood and is back to the same problem. This is what the new drug policy should be addressing.

Study Proposal for a Social Studies and Premedical (Premed) Student Ess

Study Proposal for a Social Studies and Premedical (Premed) Student As a Social Studies and premedical student, I aspire to lead an international health and development non-governmental organization (NGO). Combining my skills as a physician and practitioner of development, I plan to enhance the health of marginalized, persecuted, and exiled populations. Through direct interaction with government bodies and humanitarian NGOs, I hope to highlight and curb the medical and psychological burdens stemming from human rights violations. Building on my skills as a humanitarian law and refugee tracing instructor, I also wish to train international and indigenous relief personnel to ensure the sanitary, nutritional, and health standards of uprooted populations. Aspiring to bring holistic leadership to the health and humanitarian sector, I must thoroughly understand and know to confront the social, political, and cultural factors linked with poor health. I therefore propose to pursue and academically focussed MPhil in Development Studies preferably from Oxford U niversity or from the Univers...

Business Intergration Essay

New IT developments are important to all business disciplines because they trigger changes in marketing operations, e-commerce, logistics, human resources, finance, accounting, and relationships with customers and business partners. Nothing about business or corporate strategy is untouched by IT (Turban & Volonino, 2011). The five elements of an IT-enabled business strategy Business strategy| * Contains the mission, vision, and objectives of the organization * States the company’s market strategy * Describes the unique value proposition the company offers customers * Provides the distinct value configuration of the organization| Business expectations of IT| * Describes how the company might expect IT to contribute to the success of the * business * Possible business expectations of IT include delivering better value, reducing costs, * or improving products and services| IT strategy| * Provides information on IT applications * Describes how to develop the competencies of the people who work in IT * States how IT is to be organized and controlled within the company * Describes the technical infrastructure| IT assessment| * Aims to reveal how technology helps or hinders a business * Can include network and systems performance reviews, software audits, and * concept testing and development * Can include strategic evaluations, technical reviews, and risk management * Should recommend how to use technology to meet business goals| IT plans| * Outlines a company’s long-term IT plans * Is concerned with how IT should be deployed, managed, and implemented in the * future * Should be cost effective and in line with business goals| What are the advantages of aligning business and IT strategies? There are many advantages when an organization IT strategies are aligned with the organizations business strategies. Information technology is a key business function in almost every successful organization. An effective IT strategy will enable businesses to: * Reduce cost; * Standardize processes; * Enhance productivity; * Improve risk control mechanism; * Implement new business strategies; * Facilitate organic and acquisition driven growth; * Gain competitive advantage by exploiting new technology; Other benefits of the alignment of IT and business strategy is automation, knowledge, organizational improvements, and innovation. Automation can result in increased efficiency while decreasing cost. Knowledge in IT is the ability of an organization to collect, store, process, and disseminate information. The benefit of knowledge gained from IT is cost reduction, greater efficiency, and increased revenues. IT also leads to organizational improvements which usually lead to more decentralized leadership structure which improves the overall effectiveness of the organization. Proper alignment of IT and business strategy can make an organization stand out and look different from its competitors. This alignment can provide a competitive advantage for an organization. How does IT deliver business benefits that are related to the business strategy? IT delivers business benefit by performing high-speed, high volume, and numerical computation. IT provides fast, accurate communication and collaboration unrestricted by time and location. IT gives organizations the ability to store huge amounts of information that is accessible via private networks and the internet. In addition it enables automation of routine decisions making and help facilitate complex decision making. IT also improves the ability to make informed decisions. IT also helps to facilitate collaboration, enhance customer relationships, develop new analytic capabilities, and provide feedback on performance. Reference Turban, E., & Volonino, L. (2011). Information Technology for Management (8th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc..

E-Marketing Strategy

E-marketing is an effective tool to establish and strength the corporate brand image. The brand relation can be strengthened by online presence (through website and services) with an aim to retain the customers and eliminate the price factor. More and more people are using net which is creating great potential for online business. A brand expressed the hopes and expectations of customers. The online presence of an established brand also requires such criterions where customers expect some thing different than every day website. For an well known brand, it is not just dumping information online, but establishing communication, telling the visitors clearly; what is company about and what it stand for? Pepsi is successful in conveying that image. Its website www. pepsi. com is filled with many innovative features to capture the attention of visitors. The E-marketing strategy is based on the similar principals as traditional marketing 4P’s (Product, Price, Promotion and Position); however online marketing needs some additional P’s (People, Process, and Proof). E-marketing is the extended form of traditional marketing requiring the synthesis of the following factors; Personalization, Privacy and Security, Customer Service, Site, Sales Promotion. These functions allow managers to further their businesses online. (a) Personalization The basic concept behind the personalization is to understand a certain customer and establish relation. Thus the vital issue is to gather information about customer and then develop personalized products and services. For example Amazon asks the customers to make an account; where customer provides information about themselves. Based on this customer information, every time a customer logs in, products related to customer interests automatically pops up. This strategy works two ways; it allows the marketers to target individuals on personal level; and on the other hand it allows individual customers to go no further, but find product right in front of their eyes. (b) Privacy and Security Privacy is related to personalization. When businesses gathers information and store this customer information; the crucial issue is to make it safe. A major task of e-marketing strategy is to develop policy or guide lines for gathering information and keep this information private and confidential. Another crucial issue is security. Any transaction performed on the websites becomes the responsibly of the business and to ensure that no outsider is able to access the information. Thus a wise marketer will convey clear and convincing the customers that their provided data is safe hands. (c) Customer Service Like any traditional business, customer service is an essential part of e-business. Good customer service is a key to gain loyalty form the customers. Compared to traditional service online shoppers can come from anywhere in the world with different time zones; providing 24/7 customer service in crucial. One example is precisionreservation. com which provides online (hotel) booking to travelers. The booking is done automatically, while the copy of booking is sent via email. In case of any question, live support is available 24/7 through online customer service. Such excellent strategy allows the customers service to reach customers in real-time. d) Site E-marketing interaction takes place online on digital location which is called site. This location /site have to be available 24/7 and should have the infrastructure to support the number of visitors it receives each day. For any online business, the name should be very clear and should not be confused with any other name. The site should not have any resemblance to any other brand or any other business which makes t he customers confused. Any such resemblance is considered unethical practice and has severe consequences. Another issue is scalability; Amazon receives million of visitors with hundreds of orders each day. Amazon is able to meet the growing number of customers orders as its website has the vital infrastructure for its growing number of customers. (e) Promotions In any effective marketing campaigns, sales promotions are crucial. While developing an e-marketing strategy it is essential to develop online sales promotions targeted at shoppers. The target of any promotion is not long term sales, but achieving immediate goals (in term of volumes). Other than traditional methods; such as discount marketing manger needs to understand the latest technology well enough to exploit it. For example; doing promotions through RSS, which instead of news letter provides almost live data on day- to- day basis. It is very easy for online shoppers to compare the price before they make purchase; which makes it inevitable to check the competitors prices and promotions before starting any campaign. Conclusion For companies who already have established brands need to reach to the online consumers through consistent advertising to enhance their corporate image. One easy way is use the search engines; such as Yahoo and Google who offer relevant add with the queries surfers are seeking. This strategy helps in reaching old and new customers more effectively rather than waiting for customers. E-marketing needs new dimension to be considered compared with traditional marketing, even though e-marketing is evolved from traditional marketing. However such concepts revolve around the principal where customer and business can reach each other in a meaningful way.

Attribution Theory Essay

Attribution Theory Definition The process by which persons interpret and pinpoint causes for their own personal and other’s behaviour is the theory of attribution. 1 In this motivational theory, a person always finds a way to explain things, he make inferences on why things or events occur. After explaining the events a person then predicts future events through his inferences. He wants to understand the reasons or causes behind behaviour of people and why events happen. It was first proposed by Fritz Heider in 1958 and further developed by Harold Kelly and Bernard Weiner. Theories Internal vs. External Attributions Every person observe and analyze things differently thus having different ways of explaining things. The attribution theory proposes that when people observe and analyze things they try to find out whether it is caused internally or externally. 2 Attribution is a three-stage process: (1) Observation of an individual behaviour, (2) Determination whether the behaviour is intentional and (3) Attribution of the observed behaviour to internal or external factors.Those that are believed that can be personally controlled are called internal attributions while those believed to be caused by outside forces are external attributions. 2Â  Example of internal attributions are ability, personality, mood, efforts, attitudes or disposition while external attributions are task, other people and luck. 4 Following is an example of an application of this theory is when an employee failed to perform in a given task, a manager tries to explain why this thing h appened. He may attribute this failure to poor efforts made by his subordinate (internal attribute) or he may consider that the given task maybe be too difficult for his employee (external attribute). Consistency, Distinctiveness and Consensus On the other hand, when making a determination between internal and external causes of behaviour, three factors must be considered: (1) consistency, (2) distinctiveness and (3) consensus. 1 Consistency is how frequent a person behaves similarly when faced with the same situations. Distinctiveness is how different a person behaves when faced with different types of situations. Consensus is when a group of people behaves similarly when faced with the same situation. 2 When a person behaves similarly when faced with same situations, we can say that the consistency is high; if he acts differently every time exposed with the same situation, consistency is low. 3 An example of consistency is the following is when an employee consistently has a low performance when he always assigned in a individual task rather when he is assigned in a group task. The observed behaviour of the employee wherein there is a high consistency can be attributed to an internal factor which is attitude. When a person behaves differently during different types of situations distinctiveness is high; if he behaves similarly during different situations, distinctiveness is low. 3 An example of distinctiveness is when an honor student gets high grades (same behaviour) in all of his subjects during three consecutive grading periods (different situations). The observed behaviour of the student wherein there is a low distinctiveness can be attributed to an internal factor which is ability or effort. When the observed behaviour of a group of people is the same in a given situation, consensus is high; if this group behaves differently given a similar situation, consensus is low. 3 An example of distinctiveness is when all students are late in a first period class (consensus is high), the attribution to this behaviour maybe due to an external factor which is traffic caused by a vehicular accident. Figure 1. Summary of the key elements in attribution theory. 2 Errors and Biases in Attribution The difference on how every person thinks, perceive and judge things may lead to some biases. One may consider the greater attributes of certain occurrences to external factors rather than internal factors or the other way around, well on the actual these considerations may not be correct all the time. Fundamental Attribution Error and Self-serving Bias Fundamental attribution error is when people have the tendency to consider the influence of external factors more than considering the influence of internal or personal factors. 2 An example of this is when we attribute the promotion of an officemate to perfect timingor luck rather than to his own efforts and perseverance. Self-serving bias is overestimating the influence of internal factors or personal traits rather than assigning external or situational factors to certain occurrences. When a person attributes his personal success to his own traits or internal and his misfortunes to bad luck or external factors, he is thus committing a self-serving bias. 1Self-fulfilling Prophecy Perceiver’s expectations for a person will cause the perceiver to treat the person perceived differently and the person perceived will respond in a way that confirms the initial expectations. 1 Example of this is when a teacher thinks that his student will do well during his exam so he spends more time with this student and coaches him well, in return the student will get a high score in the exam. Summary Attribution theory is important to management because managers’ and employees’ actions and opinion can be influenced by how they perceive or see the reasons that cause human behaviour given a certain situation. 3 Different attributions of a manager to an employee’s attitude and performance can affect the standing of the employee in the organization. If a manager attributes the employee’s poor performance to lack of effort in performing the assigned task, he may fail the employee or give the employee a low rating during performance appraisals. On the other hand, if the manager attributes the poor performance to the high level of difficulty of the job, the manager may review and revise the job specifications to lessen the difficulty level of the job. Attribution also affects employee motivation. If an employee attributes the success to external factors, then they may lose motivation since anything that may occur is beyond their control. If an employee attributes success to internal factors like perseverance, then they are expected to have a high motivation for their job.

US. Foreign Policy throttling the growth of Russian Economy Essay

US. Foreign Policy throttling the growth of Russian Economy - Essay Example The researcher has discussed that the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War left Russia with unresolved issues that the West vehemently needed to change. The imminent split of the Soviet Union had Russia with an area almost 70 percent of the former USSR. Moreover, all the nuclear warheads estimated to be about 27000 remain in the hands of Russia, making it a foe to the American national security interest. These factors influence policy in Washington to dislodge the power of the Russian Federation. The Russian relation with the U.S. has been shaky because of its domestic trajectory, regional influence, and its international department. Russia’s stance on Iran’s nuclear facilities, its increased energy activities in Europe as well as poor democratic processes have worried the U.S. for over two decades. Moreover, the Russia Georgia conflict was against the interests of America in the region. For these reasons, the U.S. has applied a tightened foreign policy toward Russia with the aim of weakening its economy. The aggressive foreign policy of the Reagan administration brought the imminent collapse of the Soviet Union. The U.S. support for guerrillas fighting in Afghanistan had negative consequences for the Russian defence spending. In addition, the U.S. programme in the defence system made the Soviet counteract with a similar programme, but it was expensive given that Russia could not match the U.S. defence spending. This brought strain to the Russian domestic economy. The programme coded â€Å"Star wars† negatively affected the Soviet political and economic institutions.

Global Warming as an Ethical Issue Research Paper

Global Warming as an Ethical Issue - Research Paper Example The post war era saw the development of the industry on rapid scale. This came about in the form of development sector, heavy industry, production and manufacturing field. All these industries and developmental progresses led to the dimension of industrial wastes. The wastes so emitted from the industry were not just limited to the industrial surroundings; rather it got infused into the surroundings as well in the form of water, air and people. The original and slowly visible traces of the global warming can be traced back to the days of late 19th and early 20th century when industries saw a boom and technology gained impetus leading to establishment of heavy industries. The water waste is a result of number of things. These include the direct disposition of wastes into the water in the form of dumping of wastes. The others include the addition and disposition of wastes through the pipelines and exits of the industries and other heavily built machinery and instruments into the waters and seas. The different parts of the developed communities show heavy pipelines being developed and leading into the seas, rivers and oceans. The direct impact falls upon the water that is within the oceans, the sea life in the form of the fishery and other living material. Furthermore, the impact also falls upon the water extracted from these rivers and seas which is used for the domestic purposes at homes. Finally, the coral reef and other naturally gifted and present under sea wild life and aquatic material is at a threat. The waste material forms pours of clouding and protection which leads to prevention of sun reaching deep into the water, as a result the coral ree f damage. The coral reef makes up for an integral part of the sea life and healthy coral reef adds to the beauty as well as the overall naturally balanced aquatic life. The recent times have seen the usage of open