The war on drugs has been fought over centuries worldwide unsuccessfully. Many people end up in prison due to factors brought about by drug usage. President Richard Nixon formally declared war on drugs in 1972 (Woods, 2015) . In the United States, for instance, prisons have become overcrowded with criminals convicted of drug abuse. Every year, the United States spends $51 billion financing the war on drugs. It was estimated in 2009 that more than half of the federal inmates in America were arrested on drug related charges (Pfaff, 2015) . The paper will analyze prison overcrowding and the war on drugs in the United States.
Due to severe punishments to drug users, more incarceration rates are occurring in the United States. The increase proves the fact that war on drug campaign has been unsuccessful. Statistics by the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy have shown that 25 percent of the world's prisoners are contained in the United States with one in every three being involved in the drug trade (Woods, 2015) . The problem of overpopulated prison was addressed in California in 2011. The state spends over 5 billion dollars every year jailing and caring for the growing number of inmates. There is no rehabilitation due to financial situation (Pfaff, 2015) . It was ruled by the United States Supreme Court that this violates the United States Constitution because there is no enough money allocated for building more prisons. There was a concern raised to reduce prison population so that inmates are not housed in a way that violates their rights.
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According to Pfaff (2015), minority prisoners in the states have also increased in number. The Bureau of Justice calculated that between 1990 and 1996, 82 percent of the prisoner increase in the federal system involved black offenders who were sentenced for drug offenses. This increase is because street enforcement of drug laws was focused on open trafficking in the suburbs and most of the drugs trading criminals are addicts supporting their drug habits. For women, 75 percent of female prisoners convicted of drug charges are mothers. Their imprisonment leads to family separation (Woods, 2015) . They lose contact to their children who need foster care. Nurseries are provided in some few prisons for pregnant inmates to facilitate bonding of mothers and infants. Another common source of complaints about female inmates is medical care. The issue results from addiction to prescription drugs and boredom of prison life.
Woods (2015) maintains that the overcrowding of addicted prisoners has also resulted in the rising rate of infection with HIV in prison. In 1995, out of the inmates that were tested in the states, 2.4 percent of them were tested positive (Pfaff, 2015) . In the New York state, the proportion reached 13.9 percent with the rate of women being more than that of men. Many of them do not know that they are affected, and they unknowingly affect others, mostly by sharing needles and sexual contacts (Pfaff, 2015) . The estimation calls for expensive medication costs from the community. To their advantage, prison physicians prescribe costly drug combinations that have greatly reduced deaths among imprisoned AIDS patients.
In conclusion, it is notable that not only in the United States is this war a major problem but also across the other global nations. Therefore, there is a need to focus on winning the war by banning the trading on these substances and initiating rehabilitation programs. Besides, a strong campaign against drug and system abuse should also be conducted globally to raise concern about the vice.
References
Pfaff, J. F. (2015). The war on drugs and prison growth: limited importance, limited legislative options. Harv. J. on Legis. , 52 , 173.
Woods, C. S. (2015). Addressing Prison Overcrowding in Latin America: A Comparative Analysis of the Necessary Precursors to Reform. ILSA J. Int'l & Comp. L. , 22 , 533.
