Another wider issue that the War on Drugs have failed to understand and solve is the unemployment in America which is linked with incarceration and illicit drugs Western and Bennett 1999 found that incarceration has large negative effects on ex offenders which will usually falloff after 3 4 years on release Consequently the increase of imprisonment for drug offences means that these people will be released and will inevitably be in the same situation in obtaining a drug addiction and go back to prison This is supported by Spohn and Holleran 2002 who researched the recidivism rates in the US and found that drug offenders were three times greater to reoffend than a non drug offence This proves that the deterrence factor that the War on Drugs is not working and if anything the incarceration is making matters worse The Government clearly need to fight poverty which will eventually help reduce the amount of illicit drug use in the poorer areas This can be related to the subcultural theory because many lower class people feel they have limited opportunities and get frustrated which contributes to their offending Cohen 1955 An Alternative failure is the corruption that not only involves the US police but also countries around
