A Great Injustice

4 Pages 913 Words

A Great Injustice

The United States government has been on a wild goose chase for the better part of the last century. They have been engaged in an actual declared “War on Drugs.” This never ending, impossible battle has cost the tax payers of this nation billions, not to mention the countless rights infringements that are allowed due to the “eminent threat” of these drugs to our way of life. Drug policymakers have long forgotten that their primary responsibility is to serve the people. Their focus is on one thing and one thing only: The eradication of drugs by any means necessary. This has caused many on capital hill to ignore the idea that forceful drug eradication may not be the best thing for the people. They have turned a blind eye to the damage that their policies cause.
On of the most obvious and easily remedied unjust policies is the addition of the drug provision added to the Higher Education Act (HEA) in 2000. Under this provision, those who have been convicted of drug offences could be denied access to federal aid money for school. This law has negatively effected over 160,500 students. This provision is unjust for a few reasons.
Under this provision, those convicted of an offence are punished twice. This policy infers that the already steep punishments for minor drug offenses are not sufficient. In addition, Judges already have the ability to deny federal money to offenders if they feel that these measures are appropriate. If the denial of school money is to be practiced at all, it should be done on an individual basis by judges.
This is a policy that only effects low-income students. Students with higher incomes don’t have to worry about financial aid. Everyone agrees that the key to success in the world, today, is education. Anytime Congress passes legislation that has negative effects on exclusively the lower class they are waging class warfare. This is just one more way that the rich st...