Assignment 1: View Eugene Jarecki's documentary, The House I Live In (YouTube). It documents that over the last 40 years there been more than 45 million drug-related arrests and that this "war on drugs" has cost an estimated $1 trillion as of 2012. Nevertheless, drugs are less expensive and more available today than ever before.
Question: Does this mean that the Classical School of Criminology's arguments regarding "the calculating criminal" and the importance of deterrence are false?
Assignment 2: It is common knowledge that Prohibition (and its related penalties and punishments) failed to prevent the consumption of alcohol in the early 20th century and, instead, crimes related to the illegal sale and use of alcohol sky rocked.
Question: Why haven't we shifted focus on the War on Drugs from incarcerating abusers and dealers to perhaps legalizing drugs - as was done regarding alcohol -- (removing the need for the illegal drug trade) and addressing drug abuse as a public health problem (treating, rather than punishing abusers)? There has been some movement to do the latter, but almost no public discourse about the former. Why not?