Evaluate the success of drug control policies in the United States

This essay aims to look at the success of drug control policies taken by the United States in the 20th Century. I shall be examining the advantages and disadvantages of the various policies that targeted different sections of the drug industry. In order to do this I shall look at policies implemented that were aimed at both the supply side and the demand side and deliberate on their effectiveness at controlling drugs in the US.
In the 1960’s and 1970’s there was a dramatic rise in the number of diagnosed drug addicts in the United States. This was a great concern for the governments at the time and the first policies introduced in the US were aimed at the demand side – to decrease trafficking and addiction. This was because drugs could be smuggled in reasonably small quantities, so in this way they were hard to detect when crossing borders. I think it is important to state now that any statistics used concerning the trafficking and consumption of drugs have to be taken with...