There are many public policy issues that the United States Government is constantly researching and debating. One such issue that stands out is how the government attacks the flow of drugs coming into, and the drugs already in the country. The War On Drugs has been going on for many years now, but is the government fighting it in the wrong way? There are a few elements to be looked at before being able to answer such a question. The Rockefeller Drug Laws were put into place in New York in 1973 with the support of the former governor, Nelson Rockefeller. The law mandates long prison sentences for the possession or sale of certain 'hard drugs.' People violating these laws receive punishments raking the worst in the country. And because of the Three Strikes Law, after a third felony conviction, there is a mandatory sentence of 25 to life. The people mostly affected by this are small-time hustlers and users suppressed in the ghetto-whether they'd be selling or even just possessing. In the mean time, the big time dealers and traffickers are usually not concentrated on. Another element to be looked at is the connection of the government in the 1980s, with cocaine trafficking. Many people believe that major CIA agents within the contra movement had a part in smuggling huge amounts of cocaine into the United States. The price of cocaine was already low at the time, and the supply being brought in to the country nearly cut the price in half. This made cocaine shift from mainly an upper-class crowd- to poor people that were suppressed in the ghetto, who could now afford this drug. And when crack was introduced, a highly addictive cheap smokeable form of cocaine, an epidemic swept through the ghetto and all other parts of lower-class America.
             The Government has been attacking the issue of drugs in the United States in the wrong way. "We are speaking of a plague that consumes an estimated $75 billion per year of public money, exacts an estima...