Effects Of Decriminalization Of Drugs

Portugal's success would be the ideal model for Canada to base decriminalization of illicit drugs. Although Canada does not have as much of a drug epidemic that Portugal had before decriminalization, statistics show the country has rising rates of both heroin and meth use. Treating this evident problem with a different approach has been gathering heavy support over the years. Support behind this legal movement in Canada includes the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition and the Green Party of Canada. Not only were drugs decriminalized in Portugal, the entire system was reconstructed to aid those addicted. Both the reduce in law enforcement towards illicit drugs and the increase in funding towards treatment paid off greatly for Portugal. Overdose death went down by 72% while the spread of HIV went down by 94%. Canada has prioritized the war on drugs, although the method being followed does not prove effective. It might prove better to abandon this current war in favour for public health, following Portugal's lead in providing harm reduction treatment and treating the addiction as the public health crisis that it

For many years, a real push has been looming on the idea of legalizing now illegal drugs. This has become a hot debate throughout nations all over the world, from all walks of life. The dispute over the idea of decriminalizing illegal drugs is and will continue on as an ongoing conflict. In 2001, Drug decriminalization in all drugs, including cocaine and heroin, became a nationwide law in Portugal (Greenwald). Ethan Nadelman, essayist of “Think again: Drugs,” states his side of the story on the continuing criminalization of hard drugs, in which he stand to oppose. Whether it is for the good of human rights or not, decriminalizing drugs may be a good head start for a new beginning.

The dispute over the legalization of cannabis sativa, more commonly known as marijuana, is one of the most controversial issues ever to take place in the United States. Its use as a medicine has existed for thousands of years in many countries across the globe. Legalization should be considered despite efforts made by groups who say marijuana is a harmful drug that will increase crime rates and lead users to other more dangerous substances. The legalization of marijuana can improve our society by helping with our economy, freeing legal resources, and benefiting the overall health of the nation though medical uses.

Legalization of marijuana is an important issue; most people recognize it as “harmful and addictive,” from the essay “Marijuana Should Not Be Legalized,” while others regard the ban on marijuana as ineffective, expensive, and unjust (1). According to Senator Bernie Sanders, “too many Americans have seen their lives destroyed because they have criminal records as a result of marijuana use. That’s wrong.” The ban is unjust for Americans because it is a complete waste of our tax dollars to continue criminalizing citizens for marijuana use. Legalization of marijuana in every state will be beneficial; for our economy, medical value and breakthroughs, lowering crime rate, aiding people who are victims of drug abuse, and more. The following paragraphs will explain further.

Currently, drugs continue to be extremely high on the lists of concerns Americans have and it is a serious problem that we need to take charge of. To a lot of people drugs aren’t really a big issue because they aren’t users, but actually they impact everyone – users and non-users alike. I believe that if the entirety of the United States adopted a policy towards the decriminalization of marijuana then the negative demeanor that is often associated with drugs would be diminished. The drug policy we have now -- sucks. Drug laws have only inspired illegal activity, whether it be illegal trafficking, sale, use, development, growth, and MANY people have been killed because of

There are many major factors at one point time in society, the most controversial is drug decriminalization. When the topic of drug or drug related discussion arises, many individuals would choose to ignore the topic entirely. Why not approach the topic head on? Attack the issue at its roots and refuse to give up until proven wrong. Drug decriminalization is a topic that needs to be brought to the front of discussion with politics and legislation. State and federal laws should be readjusted and in many cases removed in regards to drug policy. As a society, we need to treat the way we handle drug users and drug cases differently. Our current approach is not working anymore, and it’s time for a change. To change, everything has to change from the start.

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.

The United States of America is losing a major war: the war on drugs. And it is time for us, as a nation, to admit our country’s drug laws are doing more harm than good. The fight against drugs is not as effective as it was originally envisioned. Both the federal government and states have taken extreme measures and enforced strict laws to keep our cities and neighborhoods free of drugs. However, it is time for a change. And I believe this change should start by settling the conflict between federal and state drug laws. The federal government should decide all drug laws nationwide and give less say to the individual states. With that being said, I think the federal government should legalize recreational marijuana use nationwide and lessen the harsh policies enforced and severe punishment for recreational use of other drugs.

In conclusion, the decriminalization of marijuana has many benefits. Marijuana is useful for many people who have medical conditions. It helps with diseases such as glaucoma and Alzheimer’s, controls epileptic seizures, decreases anxiety and reduces pain. Marijuana can generate revenue for the government, as the potential market is extremely large. If marijuana is decriminalized, there will be less drug charges, so this will help to free up the courts. Using marijuana

should legalize drugs, so that the health issue such as drug addiction, could be treated as such: a health issue. There are numerous health benefits to nationwide drug legalization: regulation, realistic drug education, and public rehabilitation or addiction treatment centers. Regulation would greatly improve the safety of drugs because the user would know, with 100% certainty, that they were ingesting the drugs they intended to take, rather than taking a chance with a black market product. A revamped drug education system would also greatly improve the safety of drug consumption. Similar to the issue of sex ed in high school, an abstinence only policy for drugs and sex alike seems unrealistic- in fact, states with abstinence only public school sex ed are also states with the highest teen pregnancy rates. Public rehabilitation centers would be necessary assets in the transitional years of drug legalization. Though some argue that these centers would be too expensive, at the high end, total rehabilitation would be a one time cost of $20,000 per addict- stacked up against the annual $31,000 per year for inmates, this process would save the U.S. money. Nations with legalized drugs also face less overdose deaths per year. Portugal, a country which has legalized nearly all drugs face 3 deaths from overdose per 1,000,000 people, compared to the U.S. which faces an average of 14 deaths from overdose per 100,000

Legalizing drugs would also increase countries revenue. During prohibition, alcohol use was still rampant. People were still drinking, only because it was illegal. In the US, the 21st amendment annulled prohibition and alcohol taxes were increased. The same thing should be done with marijuana and other illegal drugs today. The drugs should be heavily taxed to increase revenue. The drugs could be made by the same companies who make such things as aspirin, so the quality would be assured- - no poisons or adulterants. Sterile hypodermic needles could be readily available at drug stores, thus curbing the spread of diseases such as AIDS, and hepatitis. These could be taxed densely because the user will be guaranteed of getting ‘clean drugs’. Legalizing alcohol did not

Decriminalization is not the same as legalization. All the drugs in Portugal were decriminalized since 2001. That does not mean that drug

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,

I’m going to be blunt; the war on drugs is a failure. Prohibition of alcohol didn’t work in the 1920s and the prohibition of marijuana isn’t working now. People are still acquiring and consuming it and facing jail time for it as well. If the government were to legalize marijuana crime rates would go down and the economy would boom. Don’t believe me? Well just look at the stats.

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.