The war on drugs has maintained an accumulation of prohibitions on illegal drugs and mandatory minimum sentencing strategies for drug offenders. Incarceration rates have also increased due to tougher laws against illegal drugs. In Eugene Jarecki's film The House I Live In, Jarecki states that the penalties imposed on crack users were harsher than those imposed on regular cocaine users. This suggests that sanctions are more of a theory of double standards. Rather, the “war on drugs” is a failure that imposes restrictions and prohibitions on drug offenders and has not necessarily demonstrated a sense of equal stability; which leads to erroneous sentences, misinterpretations of the true objective of this initiative and overcrowding of prisons. These sentencing strategies are more disproportionate when it comes to different drugs. For example, crack and regular white cocaine. “These guidelines imposed disproportionately long sentences for drug offenders for 20 years and required significantly longer sentences for drug offenders than for white powder (Radosh, 2008). White powder cocaine is no different from crack cocaine, except that it is different in its structure, shape, and the way the drug is consumed. This just shows one of the main weaknesses in the way these measures are approached. The main intention when President Richard Nixon first used the term "war on drugs" in 1971 was to insinuate the seriousness of the situation in the United States. This meant that a comprehensive initiative against drugs, drug trafficking, drug trade, sale, consumption, etc., would be carried out without any sense of indulgence. What most people did not anticipate about this "war on drugs" was that the opposite would happen. Different circumstances...... middle of paper...... overcrowded, and it doesn't seem to stop at any point. The sentences are more of a theory of double standards when it comes to the amount of crack one person possesses versus the amount of cocaine the other possesses. Simply introducing the term “war on drugs” will not truly rid the United States of drugs. As was said in The House I Live In, drugs will never go away and they will always be there. Works CitedRadosh, PF (2008) RESEARCH ARTICLE. War on drugs: gender and racial inequalities in crime-fighting strategies. Criminal Justice Studies, 2, 167-178. doi:10.1080/14786010802159830Schoenfeld, H. (2012). The War on Drugs, the Politics of Crime, and Mass Incarceration in the United States. The Gender Journal; Alliance for Racial and Judicial Drug Policy. (nd). Retrieved from http://www.drugpolicy.org/new-solutions-drug-policy/brief-history-drug-war