Have Drugs Become Scapegoats In Wider Social Conflicts Criminology Essay

Have medicates Become Scapegoats In Wider well-disposed Conflicts Criminology EssayAcross the world, many countries that experience issues like rising hatred rates, domestic violence, unemployment, and unconstipated depression look for something to blame for these problems. Over the historic period there have been cases where authorities, in these countries, stigma illicit medicates and illegal substance ab hold of pharmaceuticals as the cause of their problems. Because do drugs use causes much(prenominal) damage to addicts it good becomes a scapegoat for wider neighborly issues and contrasts between varied racial, religious and interior(a) groups.USAIn the unify States, perhaps one of the more or less ill-famed examples of an illicit drug becoming a scapegoat was the situation with ganja in the early 1900s. This stemmed back to the start of the 20th coke when marijuana was mainly used by minority groups such as Mexican farm labourers, blacks from the southern sta tes and Filipino im migratorys.The 1910 Mexican revolution conduct to thousands of Mexicans fled to the US. The large wealthy farmers welcomed these plenty who were willing to work for low payment and local businesses made capital because the migrants spent most of what they earned. (Marentes C Marentes C.P. 1996) that the townshipspeople and sm exclusively farmers werent so happy close the immigration. Sm every(prenominal) family farmers were dictated out of business because they couldnt compete with large farms that had cut their costs by paying cheap wages. Caught in the put, the Mexican migrants became the focus for the economic strife 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 falsehood that the use of marijuana caused insanity violence and curse. In 1911 the American consul in Mexico wrote a letter saying that marihua na causes the smoker to become exceedingly pugnacious and to run amuck without discrimination. (Richard J Bonnie, 1974, p.221) Journalists who wrote articles with shock guide onlines such as the Marijuana Menace and cause of death Weed also encouraged these myths.Jerome L. Himmelstein argues that the orca Weed image got created out of views that were held in society about the drugs first perceived users. Mexican labourers and other lower strata groups. These people were stereotyped as uncivilised/enraged. This idea for marijuana continued until the user group changed during the sixties, to the middle class youth. (Himmelstein, J.L., 1938, 7(1)35-62)In this focus marijuana quickly became the popular scapegoat for the troubles of scantiness, racism, and discrimination. The first states to outlaw the use of marijuana were the ones with large falls of migrant workers from Mexico. California prohibited the possession of marijuana in 1907 and belatedr include it in laws 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 actually designed to protect the locals besides 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 term between contemporariess.During the sixties many young people rebelled against the lifestyle of their parents. They wore different clothes, grew their hair long and turned 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 do drugs and in 1965, Time Magazine promulgated an article saying that marijuana now affects users judgement and if used fooling will dull a stu dents initiative. (Time Magazine 1965, vol. 85 49)Writing 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 jeopardise 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 presidential term authorities that wanted to neutralise the growing anti-war movement. The FBI often arrested fend 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 Control Act.IrelandOver the last 30 historic period capital of Ireland, in the Republic of Ireland, has experienced an epidemic 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 and so heroin has become symbolically associated with groundless abomination, public health problems, massive unemployment and urban decay.For nearly 40 age the use of heroin has been responsible for a lot of the petty law-breaking in Dublin. Addicts are involved in muggings, robbery of houses and prostitution 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 just now many innocent people were caught in the crossfire the most well known was Veronica Guerin, a journalist who was investigating drug crime, who was shot by criminals while stopped at a occupation light. (Maggie OKane 2000)Ireland has seen a huge increase in the number of heroin connect deaths over last 30 years. According to a report in the European Journal of Public Health this is most noticeable in younger age groups where, for example, it rose 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 mid-nineties unemployment rates in the disadvantaged areas of Dublin were estimated to be between 33% and peak at 45%. (OGorman A Illicit Drug Use In Dublin) However, in some areas this rate was as gamy 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 genius of community, move d 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. (Loughran H and McCann M E 2007, cleansletter of the Alcohol and Drug look Unit, Issue 21)In Dublin its clear that heroin use is nigh tied to the citys problems with crime, public health, massive unemployment and run down housing. However the reliable problem affecting most heroin users in Ireland is extreme poverty. cash in ones chips year Belfast Telegraph reported the level of persistent poverty in Northern Ireland children is more than double that of those in Great Britain and verbalize 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 creative activity (JRF) blamed high levels of unemployment, disability, lower wages and poor quality irregular jobs for the high levels of poverty. (Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2009) diacetylmorphine 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 time. In the early 1900s its estimated that a arse of families living in one room. (litre 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 rugger 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 fix issues of poverty, change magnitude crime and failing aid. All of which led to the drug usage. (Cusack J, 2008)There are all the se people in quangos who are supposed to be dealing with this, but we can see nothing being done. There is no manipulation or rehab centre in Limerick. We see all these people politicians included 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 gear Twelve Thousand Years Reefer Racism, Schaffer Library of Drug Policy, http//www.druglibrary.org/Schaffer/hangmans rope/history/first12000/11.htm , Accessed 24 April 2010Cusack Jim (2008). Gardai fear epidemic of heroin in country 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, Dying 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 look into 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 mount Problem, Time vol. 85 49