Drug Decriminalization And Its Effects On America

Drug decriminalization is opposed by the majority of Americans. Leaders in drug prevention, education, treatment, and law enforcement are against it, as are many political leaders. However, pro-drug advocacy groups, who support the use of drugs, are making headlines. They are influencing legislation and having a significant impact on the national policy debate in the United States. Although, pro-advocacy groups claim decriminalization of drugs will lower incarceration rates and boost the economy, drugs must stay illegal in America, if not, more people will use, causing negative effects on health, families and communities.

In 2015, 1,488,707 people in the United States were arrested on drug charges. Nearly 84 percent of those arrest were for possession only. As one can imagine these arrest impact the American justice system greatly. Within America's prisons in 2010 more than half of all inmates were serving time based on drug related charges. The prisons within America are greatly overcrowded, and I believe that decriminalizing drug use could offer assistance in this situation.

With addiction rates rising every year, the overwhelming drug dilemma has opened the eyes of numerous governments around the world. This paper will discuss what decriminalization is and if decriminalizing drugs in the United States will lead to lower crime rates and lower incarceration rates. In addition, it will discuss the impact decriminalization will have on society, the effect it will have on the economy and finally how it influences the now addicted, should legalization occur. Currently, Portugal has decriminalized all drugs in every drug classification for recreational use. Furthermore, Colorado is the only state in the United States, to have decriminalized marijuana. In looking at the drug laws in Portugal, Colorado, Mexico, and the Netherlands this review will examine what appears to be working and not working of both decriminalizing and keeping certain drug classifications illegal. Multiple web-based articles, books, and peer-reviewed articles were the many sources used in researching this paper. Can drug decriminalization be a practical way to cut down on drug related crimes? Will it benefit society, boost the economy, and help the addict? Based on this research I have concluded at a federal level, the United States should decriminalize

Illegal drugs influence people every day of their lives. Illegal drugs affect people, whether they are users themselves, drug dealers, or victims of drug related crime. Throughout, the years many people have been going against drug legalization. Even though drugs are unhealthy and unsafe, prohibition is not the answer to the country's drug problem. The United States should consider legalizing drugs and ending drug prohibition. There are several reasons to legalize drugs in the United States.

The current policy in use by the United States concerning illegal drugs is both outdated and unfair. This so-called war on drugs is a deeply rooted campaign of prohibition and unfair sentencing that is very controversial and has been debated for many years. The war on drugs is designed so that it will never end. This current drug was has very little impact on the overall supply of prohibited drugs and its impact on demand seems non-existent. United States’ taxpayers are spending billions of dollars on this failure of policy. They are spending billions to incarcerate drug users instead offering drug treatment which could help lower demand. Legalizing illicit would lower abuse and deaths from use and could have a positive economic impact on the United States. Certain industries are making massive sums of money by capitalizing on the drug war.

The United States has been engaged in a “war” for nearly 25 years. It is a war with unclear goals; ending the war in a victory is made nearly impossible due to subjective statistics and hazy results. At the heart of this continuing struggle, the “war on drugs,” is the fundamental question: Is this a battle the United States can win? It is likely everyone will agree drugs are harmful; they have serious medical side-effects. Drugs are addictive; they can ruin a family, a job, a life. The war is continued with the goal of eradicating the drug epidemic. With that in mind, the war on drugs has had a minimal impact on drug use in the United States. Instead, it has created a military police force,

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

There is an utmost need to legalize and decriminalize recreational drug use in the US, now more than ever. The government no longer needs to intervene upon the personal rights and freedoms of adults. One should have control over the choices of his/her own life. Rather than criminalizing drug addicts they should be given a choice to rehabilitate, as it is a medical illness.

Decriminalization brings moral observations up in the US household setting too, obviously. In the event that we did approval and sidetrack assets, what might happen to the customers of drugs? But rather the examination appears to show that regarding drug issues as general wellbeing issues as opposed to wrongdoings urges individuals to look for treatment and minimizes the social harm of opiate utilization. This is something analysts appear to have known for some time: Back in 1999, a National Institutes of Health study noticed that current drug strategy urged clients to refrain from looking for help until the circumstance was sufficiently critical to be life threating. The creator presumes that a rise in crisis area visits, overdose passing’s,

The country was split during the Nixon administration over the topic of drugs. Nixon claimed a “War on Drugs” during his administration. This controversial topic is still being discussed today. Although no one party has a set, fool proof plan on how to handle the situation, there have been two obvious propositions. From a utilitarian standpoint, the goal is to maximize happiness. Some people believe that to maximize happiness, the government must legalize all drugs. The opposing side believes that there should be more action taken to stop the distribution and use of hard drugs in society. As difficult as this topic is, prohibition of drugs would ultimately maximize utility. Prohibition is the best option for society, because it will help save potential and current users, it would save addicts and their families, and it would stop the increase of the criminalization around drugs. In order to save the portion of society who are involved in the drug game, the government must take some action to help society.

In researching the topic of drug legalization, one thing quickly became apparent to this reader, that both sides have very passionate beliefs in regard to the issue of legalization of drugs. Those against drug legalization believe without regulations our society will become engulf by drug dealers, develop out of control crime rates, and the future of society would be in danger. Those for drug legalization believe the free production of drugs would put drug dealers out of business, offer economic relief to society, and society would benefit from additional monies for education and substance drug treatment centers.

A multibillion dollar industry, with a consumer population of about 125 to 203 million people; the drug industry affects lives of all racial, ethnic, economic , social background, including participants in the drug industry, addicts, teenagers, parents, families, and officers of the law. Many people have encountered an experience with drugs and or drug education; the shared experience regarding the discussion of this topic or illegal experience brings importance to this current issue and validates the proposal for change. How much change, what change and how long will the change take place. Although this issue has many perspectives and opinions on how the war on drugs could be “won”, I will focus on two perspectives: drug criminalization and drug legalization. In a Human Rights lens, I will discuss the limitations and strengths of both methods. In the opinion of some and with hindsight the status quo regarding drugs requires reform in order to reverse the unintended consequences of drug prohibition. In the opinion of others criminalizing participants in the drug trade should be penalized under the law.

It’s easy to lose track of the chaos that happens in the world on a day to day basis when your main priority is deciding what to eat for lunch tomorrow, or even dreading your next shift; yet we can turn on the news and hear about the most recent overdose and not even blink an eye. The blatant disregard for drug addicts today is at an ultimate high. In the past two years alone, more people have died from opiate addiction than they have in the entire Vietnam War. The fact that drug users are seen as lower class members of society as only aided in the increase of addiction and death, killing more Americans than HIV/AIDS did at its peak. Though the epidemic did not occur overnight, it has recently become one of America’s biggest health confrontations. Although there is no absolute solution, in order to decelerate the prevailing wave of usage and overdose/death, decriminalization in correlation to government funded programs could give ease to the definition of the word “epidemic”.

In Portugal, drugs are not a problem when it comes to addiction and crime rates. In comparison to other countries, Portugal one of the lowest rates of HIV and AIDS and it actually has dropped 95% due to Portugal implementing laws and decriminalizing the use of drugs. The program Portugal has changed the region from diseases transmitted by needles, overdose rates, crime rates, death rates and even has a lower percentage of drug addicts. This treatment and not punishment is very affective from getting the addicts to not go back to narcotics.

Drugs, it is a big issue among many countries across the world. Many countries have tried everything to stop the spread of drug cartels, drug smuggling, the use of drugs. The United States have tried improving our borders to stop the importing of drugs and have stopped many deals going on among cities and neighborhoods. Some states, like Colorado, have legalized the use of marijuana. But one country has taken another route and it is very unexpected. The country of Portugal has legalized all types of drugs. The number of drug use and overdoses have dropped by huge numbers in the country. Maybe legalizing drugs could be the key to end drugs among many countries, cities and small towns in the United States.