Annick Minsa
Professor Nicole zaza
English 1302
18 February 2015

There’s no Justice in the War on Drugs

Milton Friedman (1912-2006), leading conservative economist was the author of multiple writings and winner of a Nobel Prize in economics. In his essay, he criticized the “war on drugs” and explained how at different levels the effect of that war negatively affects the society. His writing is divided in a succession of subtitles where he enumerates the points that sustain his argumentation.
In his first paragraph, the point that the author makes is that even though the use of informers to resolve drug related crimes is necessary, it also makes the situation worst because it involves more actors who then get easily attracted by the practice of corruption: “Informers are not needed in crimes like robbery and murder because the victims of those crimes have a strong incentive to report the crime. In the drug trade [---] on the contrary, it is in the self-interest of both that the crime not to be reported. That is why informers are needed. Here, the author use ethos, offering a common ground to the pro “war on dug” understanding the reason why informers are used but also showing them the implications of that technic. He also uses logos by making a connection between the use of informers and the increase of the corruption: “The use of informers and the immense sums of money at stake inevitably generate corruption”.
In the second paragraph, the author point of view is that the government is sending way too many people in prison: “In 1970, 200,000 people were in prison. Today, 1.6 million people are.” By using ethos, talking about statistics; he demonstrates his knowledge of the subject. He thinks that there is a better way of dealing with the drug issue and that the “war on drug” is just absurd: “there is no light at the end of that tunnel. How many of our citizens do we want to turn into criminals before we yell “enough”? He is using pethos because you can feel the frustration in is voice, he is trying to provoke a reaction in is readers.
In the 3rd paragraph, he introduce us to Sher Honsonko who give us statistics and facts about the effect of drug abuse and the mass incarceration: “Today in America we incarcerate 3109 black men for every 100,000 of them in the population.” We can see that once again, the author use ethos because he is introducing an outside authority in his essay. Milton is also showing that She Hosonko is comparing the US to South Africa under the apartheid to prove the gravity of the facts that he is pointing: “We jail over four times as many black men as the only country I the world that advertised a political policy of apartheid” The author choose that section of Sher talk to create a reaction into his audience, he is using pethos.
In paragraph 4, Milton depicts. The fact that the “war on drugs” contribute to the destruction of the inner cities: “young boys and girls view the swaggering, affluent drug