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Drug Dependency And Drug Related Crime

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Executive Summary Efforts to decrease drug dependency and drug-related crime in the United States have had the opposite effect, introducing increasing levels of crime and drug use within its population. The war on drugs has been lost as more drugs continue to be smuggled across the borders, increasing number of people are using drugs illegally, and violence in the streets continues to climb. A number of arguments have been made in favor of legalizing some less harmful drugs, such as marijuana, as a means of addressing this crisis. Legalization makes economic sense as it would save a net $14 billion/year in saved or redirected enforcement costs and taxes on the product which can be used toward treatment/reform programs and prevention. At…show more content…
While studies do directly link alcohol with violence and narcotics with property crime, they only succeed in suggesting marijuana users are not any more or less likely to engage in crime when on the drug than non-users. The current ‘solution’ is unsustainable and ineffective. Examples from England, Holland and several states in the U.S. such as Colorado suggest that legalization can achieve many positive effects over prohibition. By legalizing marijuana, it is possible to provide users of the drug with a safe, legal means of purchasing it, keeping them away from the criminal culture and reducing risks of violence. This discourages them from escalating into harder drugs as they won’t encounter dealers attempting to push them onto more expensive and addictive substances and keeps them in productive society. It also takes the drug lords out of the business, transferring their profits into taxes that can be applied to prevention and reform programs and reducing territory wars, which comprise the greatest portion of drug-related violence. Finally, it takes the burden of enforcement off of the law enforcement departments currently failing to keep the product from moving around
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