Legalize Drugs! I know what youre thinking, are you crazy!The debate over the legalization of drugs continues to disturb the American public. Such an issue stirs up moral and religious beliefs, beliefs that are contrary to what Americans should believe. I ask all of you to please keep an open mind and hear me out on this very controversial subject.
All of us have in some way or another been affected by drug, whether it is a family member or the economic burden on society. Americans often take at face value the assumptions that drugs cause addiction, which leads to crime. This is true but abundant evidence exists to support the view that legalizing illicit drugs can help solve the drug problem in America. There is not a way to stop drug use, however there are two ways to combat the problem, like we have been or to legalize them, the legalization of drugs would help the United States in the areas of crime, increase revenue, elevate over-crowed prisons and decelerate the use of drugs in American society. There is one fact society agrees on: drugs are everywhere in America. The so-called War on drugs has taken over the streets, back alleys, and the suburbs of America.
It has caused a problem that mirrors the prohibition days of the 1920s and early 1930s. A Fact that alcohol prohibition did fail and the prohibition on drugs is not only doomed to fail but it has already failed miserably. It has created more of a social cost than if there was never a War on drugs. The anit-drug policies have created an underground drug-trade, in which modern drug-dealers have taken the place of the bootleggers of the prohibition age.
The fabled “War on Drugs” has not made even a dent in the problem, even though we arrest people and we stuff them into prisons as fast as we can build them. If one thinks otherwise, just look in newspapers and you will see that this war has failed miserably. To understand why prohibitions are doomed to fail one must look at the main reason: money. As long as there is someone out there that wants a product and is willing to any price for that product, there will always be someone to supply the product, for the right price of course, we call him or her the Pusher.
And there is where the problem lies, it does not matter if the product is legal or illegal there is money to be made and someone is going to make it. Who would not take advantage of this opportunity to make a few thousand dollars supplying drugs to the addicts that are already out there? Why would an inner-city youth degrade themselves by working for five dollars an hour at McDonalds? While some of his peers are standing on a corner, selling drugs for a couple of hundred dollars an hour. So you risk going to jail. Unfortunately jail for some people is better than living in the conditions, which they live in now. The slick young pushers are the new role models for todays youth.
They are wearing designer clothes and are driving the new $50,000 cars. They are being seen everyday with a smug smile that tells the younger children that drugs pay. One way to combat the problem is to go after the pusher: arrest them and toss them in jail. This is the approach we use today but it is not an effective one. This is because people will do anything and use all their intellect to avoid arrest.
A lot of Americans have sufficient talent to get away with illegal crimes. As we attempt to crack down on the violence and drug trafficking, we find that our justice and prison systems are ill equipped to handle the problem to the magnitude as we see now. Who is going to pay the billions of dollars required to build the prisons, hire the judges, train the police men for the load already on hand, let alone the huge one yet to come if we ever get serous about arresting dealers and the users. There has got to be a better way. Every day, police officers face ruthless drug dealers, who would rather shoot an office than spend twenty-five years in prison. The other way to combat the problem is to take the profit away: legalize the drugs and sell them freely and cheaply.
Undermining the black-market incentives to produce and sell drugs, legalization could remove, or at least significantly reduce the very problem that causes the greatest public concern: the crime, corruption, and violence that attend the operation of illicit drug markets. Should the American government have the right to spend billions of taxpayers dollars, annually fighting this hopeless war? Not at all, that is why, a civil body of government rather than a criminal one should regulate drug use. It is a social problem not a criminal one. The justification of the 21st amendment that repealed the 18th amendment, the prohibition amendment should also have legalized drugs. The person who engages in drug use should not have their civil rights taken away. The fact that drug use by citizens is illegal, and contributes to crime and violence in the U.
S. today. There are shootouts between drug pushers every day in which innocent bystanders are being killed. Drug prohibition accounts for much of the quantity of handguns.
Pushers must protect their business and provide protection from the competition. The pushers today are animals; they do not care about anyone but themselves, and the money they make. Packing a gun, like fancy clothing or gold jewelry, has become a status symbol among many adolescents. Keep in mind these kids would not think twice about shooting any one for their drugs. Kids caring guns leads to more murders, robberies, and many other crimes. If drugs are legal they would eliminate the monopoly of the organized crime, and drug lord have and the free enterprise system could control the market lead by restrictions by the government.
The day after legalization, the honest kids will have the last laugh. The pushers will be out of a job, unemployed. What could be done is instead of giving the pusher the profit; we can put the money into the hands of the government. Let the government put it into education for drugs or in to well needed social programs. The government would increase revenue in many ways. The first way would be that the majority of inmates are drug offenders; an inmate costs the government approximately 20,000 (Fedral burea of proison facts, internet).
There would be a lot of money being saved by the government, there would be no more Drug Enforcement Agencies, which cost the government a lot of money to train, but also the equipment and wages, not to mention the state and local departments. There would be no more lives wasted on trying to fight the drug war. One might ask if drugs were legalized, would that lead to more addicts? There is a chance, especially at first. Though some say it would be like the forbidden fruit theory, if it were legal it would take the thrill out of getting them, so that could discourage drug use. But it is important to understand that we have so many addicts today because pushers are doing their jobs quite well: pushing drugs on people who otherwise would not likely use them. They glamorize the drugs, give them away free, show people a good time, and hook a significant percentage of their customers.
Without the financial incentives, pushers will be a thing of the past. Without pushers, society has a better chance of helping people through drug addiction. It can also minimize the financial hazards of drug addiction. The reasons why drugs are so expensive is because it is a great risk to manufacture, smuggle, and sell them, so the price in turn goes up.
If drugs were legal they could be produced by big manufactures. Like Miller Corporation produces alcohol after the repeal of the prohibition. The manufactures could produce them at a very low price. Just like alcohol the government would tax the drugs and have money for education about them. Addicts would not have to rob, mug or kill to get drugs.
Like alcohol, you do not hear of an alcoholic killing someone over a beer. This would cause drug related crimes to decrease rapidly. Of course if drugs were legal there would have to be restrictions on them. It would presumably also diminish the damage caused by the absents of quality controls on illicit drugs and slow the spread of infectious diseases due to needle sharing and other unhygienic practices. We would only be allowed to use them in certain designated areas, and a minor would not be allowed to use them, just like alcohol. The government would have to make up the restrictions.
Places of employment would restrict them if they choose too. In conclusion Americans have a difficult decision to make. We all know that there is no way to stop drug use. There are two ways to combat the problem; one like we have been doing and failing or two to legalize them. We have to ask if it is ones right to use drugs if he or she wants to? Americans today are facing the same problem with drugs as the Americans of the 1920s and 1930s faced with alcohol.
Until Drugs are legalized we will still have the pusher. We are losing many people to falsified war on drugs. There is not a way to stop drug use, it has crated an underground trade, and people are dieing for it every day, the legalization of drugs would help the United States in revenue, elevate over-crowed prisons and reduce the drug problem that is present in our society. But in America today people will continue to die of drug related crime because of the people that take the issues at face value.
They do not look into the problem at hand they only look at the notion that drugs are bad for you. But is not it true that alcohol and cigarettes are bad for you? The government leaves that choice up to you, whether to engage in that legal activity. If an American wants to do something that has heath risk, is it not his or her choice to do so set forth by the constitution? The reason why this country is like it is today is because of freedom, freedom to do and choose anything we want to do, as long as it doesnt infringe on the rights of others. Should not we as Americans have the right to choose what we want to do? All I ask is that you please keep an open mind about this issue do your own reach and then make your decision.Words/ Pages : 1,991 / 24
