Have Drugs Become Scapegoats In Wider Social Conflicts Criminology Essay

Have Drugs Become Scapegoats In Wider Social Conflicts Criminology EssayAcross the world, many countries that experience issues like rising crime rates, domestic violence, unemployment, and veritable(a) depression look for something to blame for these occupations. Over the years there have been cases where authorities, in these countries, target illicit doses and illegal use of pharmaceuticals as the cause of their problems. Because drug use causes such damage to addicts it easily becomes a scapegoat for wider social issues and conflicts between different racial, religious and national groups.USAIn the United States, peradventure one of the most notorious examples of an illicit drug becoming a scapegoat was the situation with marihuana in the early 1900s. This stemmed back to the kickoff of the 20th century when marijuana was mainly used by minority groups such as Mexican farm labourers, blacks from the s give awayherly states and Filipino immigrants.The 1910 Mexican alteration led to thousands of Mexicans fled to the US. The large wealthy farmers welcomed these flock who were willing to work for low wages and local businesses made money because the migrants spent most of what they earned. (Marentes C Marentes C.P. 1996) thus far the townspeople and sm in all farmers werent so happy about the immigration. Small family farmers were driven out of business because they couldnt compete with large farms that had cut their costs by paying(a) cheap wages. Caught in the middle, the Mexican migrants became the focus for the economic conflict between business and labour. (Abel E L, 1980)The Mexicans use of marijuana was an easy target and racist politicians, in the farming areas, attacked the migrants as un-American and spread the myth that the use of marihuana caused insanity violence and crime. In 1911 the American consul in Mexico wrote a letter saw that marihuana causes the smoker to become exceedingly pugnacious and to concord amuck without discrimination. (Richard J Bonnie, 1974, p.221) Journalists who wrote articles with shock headlines such as the Marijuana Menace and Killer sight also encouraged these myths.Jerome L. Himmelstein argues that the Killer Weed image got created out of views that were held in society about the drugs original perceived users. Mexican labourers and some other lower strata groups. These people were stereotyped as unpeaceful/enraged. This idea for marijuana continued until the user group changed during the 1960s, to the middle class youth. (Himmelstein, J.L., 1938, 7(1)35-62)In this way marijuana quickly became the favorite scapegoat for the troubles of destitution, racism, and discrimination. The first states to outlaw the use of marijuana were the ones with large numbers of migrant workers from Mexico. California prohibited the possession of marijuana in 1907 and later include it in laws over against hard narcotics, such as heroin and cocaine. In 1914, the town of El Paso outlawed the possession or sale of marihuana. The law wasnt really designed to protect the locals but rather as a way of making life more difficult for the foreigners who they resented. (Abel E L, 1980)In the 1960s marijuana again became the scapegoat for a social and cultural problem, this time between generations.During the sixties many girlish people rebelled against the lifestyle of their parents. They wore different clothes, grew their hair long and dark to different religions and radical politics. The older generation were shocked by the music they listened to, their sexual attitudes and their use of drugs such as LSD and marijuana.During this time the claim of marijuana as a Killer Weed was replaced by the opposite line of marijuana as a Drop Out Drug and in 1965, age Magazine published an article saying that marijuana now affects users judgement and if used daily will dull a students initiative. (Time Magazine 1965, vol. 85 49) typography about this period in The Social Construction of Drug Scares Craig Reinarman says medical scientists were drawn into blaming drugs for the behaviour of youth because the dominant groups in society felt menace by the younger generations rejection of conventional values. (Reinarman C (1994) 14143)This rejection of authority came to head over the US war with North Vietnam. A large number of young Americans demonstrated against the war in Vietnam and this led to more conflict with the government authorities that wanted to neutralise the growing anti-war movement. The FBI often arrested protest leaders and activists on marijuana charges.In 1970, in response to what was seen as a growing drug problem, the US government passed the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and statement Act.IrelandOver the last 30 years capital of Ireland, in the Republic of Ireland, has experienced an pandemic of heroin usage, and the problem continues today. Heroin first began flooding into the northern and southern part of Dublin in the late 1970s and since then her oin has become symbolically associated with violent crime, public health problems, massive unemployment and urban decay.For to the highest degree 40 years the use of heroin has been responsible for a lot of the petty crime in Dublin. Addicts are involved in muggings, robbery of houses and harlotry as try to get money to buy the drug. But as the use of heroin criminal gangs moved into Dublin and this led to more violent crime, including many murders, as they fought to control the drug trade. A lot of the crime was between gangs but many innocent people were caught in the crossfire the most fountainhead known was Veronica Guerin, a journalist who was investigating drug crime, who was shot by criminals while stopped at a traffic light. (Maggie OKane 2000)Ireland has seen a immense increase in the number of heroin related deaths over last 30 years. According to a report in the European Journal of national Health this is most noticeable in younger age groups where, for example, it r ose from less than 1% in 1980 to 23% of 1519 year old male deaths in 1997. Many heroin users in Dublin also die from diseases such as AIDS and hepatitis caused by sharing needles. (Kelleher M J A, Keown P J, OGara C, Keaney F, Farrell M and Strang J, 2003/2004, vol. 15(6), p.589-592)In the late nineties unemployment rates in the lossd areas of Dublin were estimated to be between 33% and peak at 45%. (OGorman A adulterous Drug Use In Dublin) However, in some areas this rate was as high as 55% over three times the average for all of Ireland.Many of the people who turned to heroin in the eighties and nineties lived in run down flats and as they spent more money on heroin the areas became even more dirty and miserable. As a result, many people who had lived in these areas for years and who were the source of a sense of community, moved out to different parts of the city. Often the empty flats were then used for temporary housing of homeless people, making the problem even worse. (Lo ughran H and McCann M E 2007, impudentlysletter of the Alcohol and Drug Research Unit, Issue 21)In Dublin its clear that heroin use is closely tied to the citys problems with crime, public health, massive unemployment and run down housing. However the real problem affecting most heroin users in Ireland is extreme poverty.Last year Belfast Telegraph reported the aim of persistent poverty in Northern Ireland children is more than double that of those in Great Britain and said that 20% of families in Northern Ireland experience persistent poverty compared to a 10% in Great Britain. (Belfast Telegraph, 2009) A study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) blamed high levels of unemployment, disability, lower wages and poor quality irregular jobs for the high levels of poverty. (Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2009)Heroin addicts are the victims of this poverty and the use of the drug should not become the scapegoat for the problem. Poverty has been a major problem in Dublin for a long ti me. In the early 1900s its estimated that a quarter of families living in one room. (Lambert T, A Brief History of Dublin, Ireland) Heroin might be the thing that pushes people further into poverty but it wasnt the original cause of poverty in Ireland.Heroin is also not the reason for the high levels of disadvantage include the fact that 31% of the working age population isnt in paid work. Former Ireland international rugby player Gerry McLoughlin spoke out on the issues in Ireland saying the government had poor organisation in combating the drug epidemic. It seems to him that the real issue wasnt the Heroin, but abysmal efforts and moves made by Irelands government to sight issues of poverty, increasing crime and failing aid. All of which led to the drug usage. (Cusack J, 2008)There are all these people in quangos who are supposed to be traffic with this, but we can see nothing being done. There is no treatment or rehab centre in Limerick. We see all these people politicians inc luded in their plush, posh offices doing nothing. They are out of touch with the suffering of people on the ground. (McLoughlin G and Cusack J, 2008)In the eyes of GARDAI (Garda Sochna na hireann Guardians of the Peace (of Ireland)) police, Heroin is seen as the drug of economic recession, as back in the 1980s, the drug took hold of the working class during economic failure. (Cusack J, 2008)Illicit drugs are a massive problem in many countries but in cases such as America and Ireland the use of drugs was made a scapegoat for social and cultural problems that had many other causes.References ListAbel E L, (1980), Marijuana The First Twelve Thousand Years Reefer Racism, Schaffer Library of Drug Policy, http//www.druglibrary.org/Schaffer/hemp/history/first12000/11.htm , Accessed 24 April 2010Cusack Jim (2008). Gardai fear epidemic of heroin in rural areas, The Independant National NewsHimmelstein, J.L. (1938) From Killer Weed to Drop Out Drug, Contemporary Crises, 7(1)35-62Kelleher M J A, Keown P J, OGara C, Keaney F, Farrell M and Strang J, 2003/2004, destruction for heroin the increasing opioid-related mortality in the Republic of Ireland, 19801999, European Journal of Public Health, vol. 15(6), p.589-592Lambert T, A Brief History of Dublin, Ireland, http//www.localhistories.org/dublin.html , Accessed 1 May 2010Loughran H and McCann M E (2007) A community drugs study, Newsletter of the Alcohol and Drug Research Unit, Issue 21Marentes C Marentes C.P., (1996) The first migrant workers http//www.farmworkers.org/immigrat.html Accessed 23 April 2010New Policy Institute 2009 Monitoring poverty and social exclusion in Northern Ireland, Joseph Rowntree FoundationOGorman A, Illicit Drug Use In Dublin http//www.drugsandalcohol.ie/4272/1/791-0739.pdf , Accessed 29 April 2010OKane M (2000), The woman who knew too much The Guardian,Reinarman C (1994) The Social Construction of Drug Scares, Wadsworth Publishing Co., Chpt. 14 p143Richard J Bonnie, (1974), The marihuana conviction A history of marihuana prohibition in the United States, University Press of Virginia 1st edition p.221Time Magazine (1965) Education The Pot Problem, Time vol. 85 49