The War on Drugs In the last few years a real push has been looming on the idea of legalizing now illegal drugs. The idea is now becoming a hot debate throughout the entire nation, from all walks of life. The idea of decriminalizing illegal narcotics is and will continue be an ongoing conflict.People chose to abuse drugs for many different reasons. One reason comes from Edwin Sutherland’s and in simple terms people learn deviant behavior. It was Sutherland who came up with the theory of differential association; people learn or conform to the norms of the company they keep.The business of selling drugs and laundering drug proceeds has become a very lucrative enterprise. Somewhat like the profits made by organized crime during the prohibition era. It is all about supply and demand, as long as there will be a demand there will always be a supplier who can run the market. This creates the opportunity for enormous profits. Robert Merton created the strain theory, which puts people on a social latter at the top being of the highest social class and the bottom, the lowest social class. Some people choose to skip steps by committing crime to help their economic class, which is directly connected to social standing.Crowell 2Attempting to control the use of illegal narcotics is an a seemingly never ending battle and is being fought on two fronts, which leads us back to supply and demand. The current approach dose not seem to be effective, butt can any approach be effective. The idea of narcotics being illegal posses a threat to one’s freedom, this creates a deterrent to not engage in such illegal activity. The other side to this has people engaging in such activity just for the reason of being deviant. One example of why such crime is committed is the illegitimate opportunity structure, which makes the opportunity to commit crime right in the path of one’s life. The idea of decriminalizing now ...
