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  3. The War on Drugs In the late 1960s and early 1970s, New York legislators faced a drug problem they feared was growing out of

The War on Drugs In the late 1960s and early 1970s, New York legislators faced a drug problem they feared was growing out of

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问题                         The War on Drugs
    In the late 1960s and early 1970s, New York legislators faced a drug problem they feared was growing out of control. Federal statistics showed as many as 559,000 users nationwide and state police saw a 31 percent increase in drug arrests by 1972. In response Gov. Nelson Rockefeller created the Narcotic Addiction and Control Commission in 1967, aimed at helping addicts get clean. After the program proved too costly and ineffective, New York launched the Methadone (美沙 酮) Maintenance Program, which similarly caused little reduction in drug use. But by 1973, calls for stricter penalties had grown too loud to ignore, prompting Albany to pass legislation that created required minimum sentences of 15 years to life for possession of four ounces of narcotics—about the same as a sentence for second-degree murder. The provisions became known as the Rockefeller Drug Laws—a milestone in America’s war on drugs and the subject of one of the most abrasive (粗鲁的) legal tug-of-wars in the nation. The laws almost immediately led to an increase in drug convictions, but no measurable decrease in overall crime. Meanwhile, critics argued that they made what was primarily a public health problem criminal, threw nonviolent criminals into jail who were better off in treatment, caused a jump in recidivism (惯犯) rates, and prevented judges from using discretion (酌情处理权) in sentencing. In January, during his State of the State address, New York Gov. David Pater-son told his audience: " I can’t think of a criminal justice strategy that has been more unsuccessful than the Rockefeller Drug Laws."
    The effect of the new sentencing guidelines has been dramatic. Drug offenders as a percentage of New York’s prison population surged from 11% in 1973 to a peak of 35% in 1994, according to the state’s Corrections Deportment. The surge was mostly a result of convictions for "nonviolent, low-level drug possession and drug sales", Paterson told Time, " people who were addicted and were selling to try to maintain their habits." According to Paterson, just 16% had a history of violence. In 1979, the laws were amended, reducing penalties for marijuana (大麻) possession. But despite the ongoing criticism in New York, other states began to pass laws to deal with their own drug problems.
    By the mid-1980s, the war on drugs was in full swing, as the epidemic threatened to overwhelm American cities’ criminal justice systems. Drug crimes had become increasingly violent, prompting calls for even stricter required minimum sentencing laws. In 1986, the Reagan Administration passed a law requiring federal judges to give fixed sentences to drug offenders based on variables including the amount seized and the presence of firearms.
Under what condition did Reagan Administration passed the law against drug abuse in 1986?
选项 A、The war on drugs was in full swing at the time.
B、Drug crimes had been increasingly violent.
C、Drug use had been a threat to public security.
D、Drug had reached every corner of the society.
答案B
解析 推理判断题。由题干中的Reagan Administration定位到最后一段。本段第二句说：毒品犯罪越来越有暴力倾向，促使人们不断呼吁制定更为严厉的强制性最低判决标准，第三句紧接着说里根政府于1986年出台了一项法律，由此我们可以推断促使里根政府出台新法律的因素之一就是毒品犯罪越来越暴力，故B正确。A“打击毒品的斗争如火如荼”也是毒品问题越来越严重的一个结果。而不是里根政府出台打击毒品犯罪的法律的原因，故排除；C和D在文中没有体现，排除。
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