User:Pkoewle/sandbox

Potential Edits to Wikipedia article

 * 1) Expand polls and statistics since listed (2008)
 * 2) bringing in new polls past 2008
 * 3) Address the new bloom in Heroin and the Public Opinion effects
 * 4) Expand on current public opinion in the United States
 * 5) Public Opinion about drug users in the United States vs Opinions about the drug war. (these could be different, kind of like how individual Representatives have higher support versus the institution of Congress)
 * 6) Add new information with the bloom of Opioids in the United States
 * 7) Show the new policies passed to deal with the Opioid Crisis in the United States
 * 8) Look at opinion shifts internationally with this new bloom in the United States on the War on Drugs.
 * 9) Bring up the growing division on how to handle the drug war in America (preferably circa 2014 to present)
 * 10) The Democrats have an opinion and the Republicans have an opinion on how one should deal with the growing issue. ( especially with opioids)
 * 11) show the public opinions on the broadness of the issue and the specifics of the drug war, like opinions about users and how to deal with them.

Public Opinion on the War on Drugs
The Americans are not the only nationalities that have an opinion on the Drug War. Pew Found that, "Fully 80% of Mexicans support using the army to fight drug traffickers, essentially unchanged from 83% in 2009. Opposition to using the army has increased only slightly, from 12% to 17%. Just over half (55%) of Mexicans say the army is making progress against the traffickers, while only 22% think it is losing ground and 21% believe things are about the same as they have been in the past. However, assessments have become somewhat less positive since last year, when 66% felt the army was making progress and only 15% said it was losing ground"(3). Mexicans, unlike Americans, have more support on the war on drugs versus Americans, this could be due to the fact that many Americans are not as heavily affected by direct violence like the citizens of Mexico who see more violent and criminal acts than the average American.

Today with growing drug addiction problems in the United States many Americans feel that the War on Drugs is still failing, "A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that just nine percent (9%) of Likely U.S. Voters think the United States is winning the war on drugs, down just slightly from the recent high of 10% who felt that way in 2015. Seventy-five percent (75%) don’t think America is winning this war. Fifteen percent (15%) are undecided"(1).

Public Opinion also sees an need in change of policies involving drug users, "More than six in ten Americans (63%) say that state governments moving away from mandatory prison terms for drug law violations is a good thing, while just 32% say these policy changes are a bad thing. This is a substantial shift from 2001 when the public was evenly divided (47% good thing vs. 45% bad thing).  The majority of all demographic groups, including Republicans and Americans over 65 years old, support this shift(2)". More and more Americans are begining to believe that current punishments for those using are not acceptable anymore and the trend from 2001 to 2014 has shown a very large shift to the numbers seen in 2014. Pew Polls also found that, "Two-thirds (67%) say the government should focus more on providing treatment for people who use drugs like cocaine and heroin. Just 26% think the focus should be more on prosecuting people who use such drugs(2)". With drug abuse being so wide spread in the United States party lines are being forced to be crossed to help put in new legislation to win the drug war and battle addiction. Drug Alliance wrote that," President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have made a series of moves over the past year indicating that they are serious about reducing mass incarceration and fixing the crimi¬nal justice system. And in an otherwise-bitterly-divided Congress, legislators from both sides of the aisle are pushing to reform mandatory minimum drug laws. The reforms are supported by a group of Senators who can only be described as strange bedfellows: Senators Mike Lee (R-Utah), Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), Jeff Flake (R-Arizona), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), Carl Levin (D-Michigan) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island)(1)". Growing bipartisanship is becoming more familiar with the crisis applying pressure to their states health and finances.

Addition of Final Edits


 * 1) By contrast, nearly identical shares in each party (68% of Republicans and 66% of Democrats) say drug addiction is a very big problem facing the country. source:http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/10/22/more-in-u-s-see-drug-addiction-college-affordability-and-sexism-as-very-big-national-problems/
 * 2) Most Mexicans (56%) blame both the U.S. and their own country for the drug violence in Mexico; 20% say the U.S. is mostly to blame and 17% blame Mexico. When Pew Research first asked this question in 2009, far more blamed the U.S. (25%) than blamed Mexico (15%), while about half (51%) said the countries shared responsibility. Source: http://www.pewglobal.org/2013/04/29/u-s-image-rebounds-in-mexico/
 * 3) "The survey of Mexico conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project between March 22 and April 7 also finds that illegal drugs and cartel-related violence rank among the top national problems facing Mexico; 71% say illegal drugs are a very big problem in their country and even more (77%) see the violence associated with drug cartels as a major challenge.    Concerns about illegal drugs and cartel-related violence are especially widespread in the North, where Mexico’s cartels have been especially active. Nearly nine-in-ten (87%) in North Mexico say illegal drugs are a very big problem in their country, compared with 69% in the South and in the Greater Mexico City area and 63% in Central Mexico. Similarly, 94% in the North see the violence associated with drug cartels as a very big problem; 75% in Mexico City, 73% in the South and 69% in Central Mexico share this concern." source: http://www.pewglobal.org/2011/08/31/crime-and-drug-cartels-top-concerns-in-mexico/

Final Edits (move to article)
Source Citation:


 * 1) Voters Have Little Faith in War on Drugs. (2018, January 10). Retrieved October 22, 2018, from http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/january_2018/voters_have_little_faith_in_war_on_druSince
 * 2) http://www.drugpolicy.org/press-release/2014/04/new-pew-poll-confirms-americans-ready-end-war-drugs
 * 3) http://www.pewglobal.org/2010/08/12/mexicans-continue-support-for-drug-war/
 * 4) http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/07/16/mexican-public-favors-military-use-u-s-aid-to-fight-drug-cartels/
 * 5) http://www.people-press.org/2014/04/02/americas-new-drug-policy-landscape/

Final Edits

In 2014, a Pew Research Center poll found more than six in ten Americans state that state governments moving away from mandatory prison terms for drug law violations is a good thing. will three out of ten Americans say these policy changes are a bad thing. This a substantial shift from the same question and views since 2001. In 2014 a Pew Research Center poll found that 67 percent of Americans feel that a movement towards treatment for drugs like cocaine and heroin is better versus the 26 percent who feel that prosecution is the better route.

In 2018, Rasmussen Report poll found that less than 10 percent of Americans think that the War on Drugs is being won and that 75 percent found that Americans believe that America is not winning the War on Drugs.

Mexican citizens, unlike American citizens, support the current measures their government were taking against drug cartels in the War on Drugs. A Pew Research Center poll in 2010 found that 80 percent supported the current use of the army in the War on Drugs to combat drug traffickers with about 55 percent saying that they have been making progress in the war. A year later in 2011 a Pew Research Center poll uncovered that 71 percent of Mexicans find that "illegal drugs are a very big problem in their country". 77 percent of Mexicans also found that drug cartels and the violence associated with them are as well a big challenge for Mexico. The poll also found that the percentages believing that that illegal drugs and violence related to the cartel where Higher in the North with 87 percent for illegal drug use and 94 percent cartel related violence being a problem. This compared to the other locations: South, Mexico City and the greater area of Mexico City, and Central Mexico which are all about 18 percent or lower than the North on Illegal drug use being a problem for the country. These perspective areas are also lower than the North by 19 percent or more on the issue of drug cartel related violence being an issue for the country.

In 2013 a Pew Research Center poll found that 74 percent of Mexicans would support the training of their police and military, the poll also found that another 55 percent would support the supplying of weapons and financial aid. Though the poll indicates a support of U.S. aid, 59 percent were against troops on the ground by the U.S. military. Also in 2013 Pew Research Center found in a poll that 56 percent of Mexican citizens believe that the United States and Mexico are both to blame for drug violence in Mexico. In that same poll 20 percent believe that the United States is solely to blame and 17 percent believe that Mexico is solely to blame.