Drugs are considered dangerous in almost everywhere in the world, and many societies have developed various forms of social control aimed at using power and authority to stop the use of drugs. However, since the beginning of the war on drugs by President Nixon in the United States, the war on drugs has become a complete failure and more people, get affected despite the establishment of highly sophisticated and funded institutions and laws on drugs. The 60s saw great popularity in the use of drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, and heroin for recreation and many youths were engaged in them. The government of the United States then saw that this was a trend that led to great social problems and youthful rebellion and thus began development of measures to control the use of drugs by the public which is commonly dubbed as the war on drugs. 

Despite the development of measures aimed at controlling drugs, the drug businesses made more money than ever before. The government tried to criminalize it, recruits more enforcement agencies, make sentencing for cases associated with drugs, but all these aspects of criminalizing drugs do not work. The war on drugs has only created more social problems in the country targeting people with low income and incarcerating them with minor charges for very harsher penalties. The approach of prohibition and use of power to control drug use in the country seems to only worsen the problem. This is because as many law enforcement agents target low-income people in the society, the other bigger fish in the problem operate without fear and these are some of the factors that have contributed to the developments in the illegal drug industry (Jay, 2017).

The problem of mass incarceration in the United States has created a lot of debates for many years. The main reason being the composition of the population of prison inmates whereby the majority belongs to African American and Hispanics and most of the charges for these prisoners is usually associated with drugs. Social problems in the society have led to great gaps in economic development whereby whites have become economically advantaged as compare to African Americans, Hispanics and other minorities. The drug industry, therefore, became a viable source of income for many youths in poor neighborhoods in most cities in America. This factor coupled with prohibition efforts by the government associated with criminalizing drugs and using harsh sentences has seen the high numbers of African Americans and Hispanics in prison with outrageous sentences for minor criminal activity. An example is death sentences for possession of drugs (A Brief History of the Drug War, 2017). However, the approach of incarceration of people from poor communities and neighborhood is only encouraging players in the industry, one factor to consider and which is in relation to the racial problem of drugs is the difference between powdered cocaine and crack cocaine which is the smoked version. These are the same drugs, but powdered version is more purified and used by wealthy people while crack cocaine is found in poor neighborhoods. Most cases of incarceration associated with cocaine are based on crack and very few on powdered cocaine even though statistics show that whites use cocaine far more than African Americans and Hispanics yet less law enforcement actions are taken on whites (A Brief History of the Drug War, 2017).

It is, therefore, clear to say that the war on drugs is very complicated. This is because it is a war with hidden social factors within that do not wish to end the products. The drug industry is only benefiting the rich while the poor get incarcerated. This has made the war on drugs a total failure and has added to society more social problems than ever before (Arena: Is it time to end the war on drugs?, 2017).

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