Drug Abuse :: Substance Abuse Essays

Drug abuse takes a toll on guild that can only be partially measured. While we are adapted to estimate the number of do drugs-related crimes that occur each year, we can never set up fully the extent to which the quality of life in Americas neighborhoods has been diminished by drug-related criminal behavior. With the exception of drug-related homicides, which have declined in upstart years, drug-related crime is continuing at a strong and steady pace. legion(predicate) Drug-Related Arrests Occur Each Year. In 1994, state and local law enforcement agencies do an estimated 1.14 million arrests for drug law violations. The largest character of these arrests were for drug pigheadedness (75.1 percent).45 Arrestees frequently Test Positive for Recent Drug Use. The National Institute of justness Drug Use Forecasting (DUF) program calculates the percentage of arrested individuals whose urine indicates drug use. In 1995, DUF data collected from male arrestees in twenty-three citie s showed that the percentage testing tyrannical for any drug ranged from 51 percent to 83 percent. Female arrestees ranged from 41 percent to 84 percent. Among males, arrestees charged with drug possession or sale were most in all probability to test positive for drug use. Among females, arrestees charged with prostitution, drug possession or sale were most likely to test positive for drug use. Both males and females arrested for robbery, burglary, and stealing vehicles had high positive rates.46 Drug Offenders Crowd the Nations Prisons and Jails. At midyear 1996, there were 93,167 inmates in national prisons, 1,019,281 in state prisons, and 518,492 in jails.47 In 1994, 59.5 percent of federal official prisoners were drug offenders48 as were 22.3 percent of the inmates in state prisons.49 The increase in drug offenders accounts for nearly three quarters of the total growth in federal prison inmates since 1980. Most drug offenders are imprisoned for possessing more drugs than pos sibly could be consumed by one individual distributing drugs or committing secure crimes related to drug sales. In 1995, for example, only 4,040 people were sentenced in federal courts for marijuana-related charges 89.1 percent of those offenders were facing trafficking charges.50 Inmates in Federal and State Prisons were often under the Influence of Drugs when they Committed Offenses. A 1991 survey of federal and state prisons, rear that drug offenders, burglars, and robbers in state prisons were the most likely to report creation under the influence of drugs while committing crimes. Inmates in state prisons who had been convicted of homicide, assault, and public redact offenses were least likely to report being under the influence of drugs.