A Comparison between Drug Policy as Social Control

Nicolas Beltran English 101 /Ms. Jackson March 13 2012 While reading “Drug Policy as Social Control” by Noam Chomsky and “Crito” by Plato I noticed a similarity between the two. People in higher power have ways of stabilizing populations. The government is customized to make people fail and the less fortunate are targeted. The inequalities of the government aren’t dealt with but they surely do exist. Law’s are strictly enforced to populations where mostly black males live and populations where crime rates are high. Not all people have to deal with the law the same way due to social class.
The government has it’s own way of controlling people who are thought to be dangerous. How does the government control people? The government is able to put fear in the hearts of people. Governments have tried to take away programs which help people who are struggling. People worry about public assistance such as welfare because they need it and the government uses the poor populations weakness to their advantage. The government has it’s own way of silencing people who they feel might be a threat to people in higher power like Socrates.
Socrates from “Crito” had information that might have endangered the government. That is the main reason why he was sentenced to prison. Both Socrates and Martin Luther King served time in jail. Neither of them were a threat to their communities. They were wise men who both were the voice of their community’s. The government seen them as dangerous so they were killed. This is why I believe the governments selected method of keeping things stabilized is unfair to the thought to be dangerous population. Countries are unfair when it comes to giving everyone equal rights.

There are people who are superior to the law. Did you notice not one sentence in “Drug Policy as Social Control” said anything about targeted rich or white people ? I wonder why no upper class people are being arrested. No one is perfect and we know the poor and dangerous aren’t the only people who get their hands on drugs. Many people get away with illegal transactions but they fly under the radar because they are rich. The upper class people do the same things the less fortunate populations are doing by taking and selling drugs but are less likely to be imprisoned.
In “Drug policy as Social Control its specifically says “none of this has anything to do with drugs”. The main purpose in the so called drug control is to criminalize dangerous black populations. Our country is known to give people equal rights and freedom. It isn’t as it appears as you can see our country has favorites and the poor are targeted. While the upper class seems more united the government makes the poor hate each other. The way the government works the less fortunate are setup to fail.
Job opportunities are decreasing and so are job wages. There are less support systems for the people who need them. The Percentage of poverty is increasing while the rich get all the attention as their wealth keeps growing. In “Drug Policy as Social Control” it says, “ If we wanted to stop drug use in the United States there’s an easy way to do it”. This means that the government can prevent drugs from getting into the country but they don’t because it helps them control populations by using drugs to criminalize black men.
Where is the justice in this method of controlling people ? In my opinion this is a setup. These problems continue occurring in our country but there is no change. The voices of dangerous populations will continue to be controlled by the government. Hopefully one day poor and thought to be dangerous communities will not be recognized as what they are thought to be. The voices of these communities have been silenced for thousands of years, so has Jesus Christ. All these leaders have died for what they believed in.