Do Drugs Benefit American Society

In sociology, the definition of a drug is “any chemical substance that has a direct affect on the user’s physical, psychological, and/or intellectual functioning” (“Drugs” 3). According to this definition, many people may argue that the United States is a pro-drug society because of its legalization of alcohol, tobacco, and pharmaceuticals, however I believe that the United States is an anti-drug society. Although the United States has legalized tobacco, alcohol, and pharmaceuticals, there are many drugs that are still illegal. It can be assume that these illegal drugs they are dangerous and somehow poses a threat to society, but its illegalization has more to do with economics and power more than anything else. According to the film, “A Marijuana

Drugs affect nearly everybody on this planet. Drugs increase the crime rate in almost any area once introduced and can lead to poverty for some individuals. Drugs can tear communities and families apart, which many of us are oblivious to. Drugs also have many dangerous health risks for users as well as people who indirectly come in contact some drugs.

Finally, the main reason millions of Americans want marijuana decriminalized is the positive effects it could have on our despicable economy. First off, decriminalizing marijuana will prevent users from going to prison which will save all us tax payers a whole lot of money. In California alone, the cost of marijuana enforcement can be estimated at over $200 million per year (Gieringer). The money is being spent on state prison, jail costs, court and probation, felony arrests, misdemeanor

That’s an average of 440,000 people per year just for possession. With each possession charge there costs that go into arresting, prosecuting, and imprisoning the individual being charged. Multiply those costs by 440,000, and that is a staggering amount of money spent each year just on minor possession charges. There are arrests that happen for non-possession charges as well. These are typically violent crimes due to drug related disputes that break out during a drug deal. 4 states have legalized marijuana for recreational use, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. If all states legalized marijuana for recreational use they would produce an estimated $2.4 billion annually if marijuana were taxed like normal goods, and $6.2 billion annually if marijuana were taxed at the same rates we tax alcohol and tobacco (Miron). With legalizing marijuana, the government expenditure would decrease, and the overall tax revenue would increase. There are ways to even chip away at the unemployment rate if marijuana were legalized. With the legalization of marijuana, the estimated number of farmers employed to grow marijuana on their farms in a large quantity would be around 15,000 due to the amount of space needed to grow a substantial amount of marijuana (Caulkins). In addition to the 15,000 farmers, there would need to be workers to cultivate the plant, transport the plant

The War on Drugs has been an ongoing effect ever since the Civil War introduced the drug morphine to the world. In the years since people have been coming up with drugs more lethal than morphine such as cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, and so on and so forth. The War on Drugs is dangerous and leads to many deaths throughout the years. America has set up agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and other drug task force teams throughout the United States. Even though we may not be able to catch all the drug dealers the United States drug teams has put a tiny dent into this ongoing black market run by cartels and even the smaller drug dealers. In this essay, we will see the effect it has on the United States, the way we are trying to prevent, and overall what the drugs have done to America since the Civil War.

The War on Drugs had its official start during the Nixon administration when the president declared that drug abuse was now “public enemy number one.” Since then, over one trillion dollars have been spent on various programs to combat drug abuse. Ultimately, however, the War on Drugs did not limit national daily drug use. Instead, the War on Drugs had a greater impact on the United States’ justice, education, and healthcare systems than it did to limit citizen drug use.

What lead to the failure of the War on Drug? To answer that we need to know about the War on

Children and teenagers also face dangers when they use drugs, often beginning to experiment with drugs in grade school. According to a recent USA Today article, children between the ages of 12 and 17 who use marijuana, tobacco, and alcohol are 266 times more likely to use cocaine than those who do not use those three substances. Children who use drugs learn less, are absent from school more often, quit school more frequently,

On average, Americans spend about 5 billion dollars on marijuana every year. Thats about how much the country contributes to the purchase of alcohol! The only problem is that the money made from people selling marijuana illegally mostly goes into the pockets of mafias because they contain the largest portion of distribution in the marijuana chain. On average each state spends right at about 1 billion dollars to make sure the marijuana laws are enforced. Asa Hutchinson, the former DEA director mentioned in a CNBC interview that "The cost to fight marijuana is worth it and the people should not mind the cost, but instead look into the benefits it would bring to the country." However, its difficult to see what the benefits really are, because the law enforcement says that criminalizing marijuana will reduce the number of accidents associated with people under the influence of marijuana, reduce violence caused by the intoxication of the drug, and reduce the number of drug dependents. But these arguments to criminalize the use of marijuana are completely unproven. Alcohol also intoxicates the drinker, which obviously causes vehicle accidents. Tobacco poses health risk to smokers after years of continuous use, but they are still considered legal? Therefore, the reasons given to criminalize marijuana aren't very accurate and unproven. It is ironic that the given effects of marijuana are almost the same that made it illegal and are the same

According to Mike Moffat, the legislature has attempted to use criminal punishments to avert the use of marijuana for more than seventy-five years : but then marijuana is presently used by more than 25 million individuals every year, cannabis is now the biggest trade crop in the United State's, and marijuana is developed everywhere throughout the planet. If marijuana legitimized, it would decrease the stream of money from the American economy to global criminal groups. Marijuana’s immortality makes outside development and pirating to the United States greatly beneficial, sending billions of dollars abroad in a private economy while redirecting capital from gainful monetary improvement. Not only will legalizing marijuana help the economy, but it will also help the justice system save money. According to the article, “The Top Ten Reasons Marijuana Should Be Legal”, Marijuana is excessively costly for our justice system and should rather be assessed to bolster helpful government programs. Law enforcement incarcerates 750,000 people a year for marijuana ownership. The justice has to pay for discarding the various cases. According to the article, “Why Marijuana Should Be Legal. Logical Arguments for Students Writing Essays.”, The nation could spare billions of dollars consistently if they quit misusing money

It could ruin kids’ lives. It makes them want to kill others. They could spend their whole lives in prison and ruin their lives. In some countries they get drugged so they can make it through war. Taking drugs is not good for little kids. I think this is horrible to do to a child. It makes them want to take drugs. “Kids would be drugged to make it through the day because it was too much.”They will never grow up and have a normal life. It will make the kids mean. No one wants to play with a bully.

Legal cannabis can benefit the U.S in many ways but most importantly is the financial support this plant could provide.According to MerryJane.com in 2016 If all states legalized marijuana it would generate an estimated $28 billion dollars in tax revenue. That’s $28 billion that would be reinvested in programs such as medicare,medicaid and social security. Not only will cannabis drive down pharmaceutical premiums for many cancer patients it will also generate money to be put into healthcare and retirement plans creating a stronger more financially sound America. In addition to this, Legalizing Marijuana in all states would create jobs all over the country from legal Growers to front desk “Budtenders”.America can legalize a plant that would create economic growth and jobs but they choose to keep overcharging people for outdated pharmaceutical prescriptions and letting those big companies affect elections and influence politicians.Forbes writer Debra Borchardt states that The legal cannabis market was worth an estimated $7.2 billion in 2016 and is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of

Legalizing recreational marijuana will help the United Sates economy by combating the war on drugs. Regulation of the drug will bring money into the state and to the nation as well. Moreover, Clare Howard in his article, Why legalize recreational marijuana states, “America has lost the war on marijuana. The cost to taxpayers has been $1 trillion and has resulted in 40 million arrests. The war on marijuana needs to end like Prohibition ended in 1933 with the country recognizing failed public policy and formulating another plan with reasonable regulations and restrictions… perhaps regulating marijuana like alcohol and keeping it illegal for

According to the article, “Gender Differences in Social Support and Depression among Injection Drug Users in Houston, Texas”, written by the authors Jan Rousser, Alice Cates, Hafees, Reman and William Risser in 2010, there are many injection drug users in Houston Texas. Injection drug users are frequently exposed to sexually transmitted diseases and also many different kinds of drugs. Injection drug users are also exposed to many sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV and AIDS due to their risky behaviors in shooting galleries in Houston Texas. In 2007, there has been a ten percent increase in new HIV diagnosis. Many men and women engage in risky sexual behaviors while they are under the influence o heroin, cocaine, or

Along with that legal marijuana can be a big help with financial things like taxes and law enforcement funding. “In the past decade, police made more than 7 million marijuana arrests, 88 percent of them for possession alone… that’s a lot of cops and time wasted” (“5 reasons why cops want to legalize marijuana”). That quote from the rolling stone shows that cops are spending so much time on arresting people with the possession of weed, but those people only had it in possession so it does not mean they were high when arrested. When cops spend their time making bust on almost harmless things they could be busting people for using deadlier