Going towards the Legalization of Narcotics

I hope you all can agree that a better idea would go after the source of the drugs or even the treatment of the people using them and hopefully in time the number of people using narcotics drops dramatically. But realistically what happens is people using and distributing narcotics are entered into a never ending life of crime because the government punishes the criminal offenders’ absurd amounts that the government knows they cannot afford. So once released from prison or jail these criminals have debts that they have to repay and no way to pay them. So what is the answer? Crime is the answer. That is where the cynical cycle starts all over again and these released inmates find themselves in a familiar situation; trying to make money for reasons that don’t benefit themselves. But, unfortunately, the only way these people know how to make money is deemed deviant by society.

Proponents on the legalization of drugs believe if drugs were to become legal; the black market worth billions of dollars would become extinct, drug gangsters would disappear, addicts would stop committing crimes to support their habit and the prison system would not be overwhelmed with a problem they cannot defeat. The decriminalization of drugs will only make illegal drugs cheaper, easier to get and more acceptable to use. “The U.S. has 20 million alcoholics and alcohol misusers, but only around 6 million illegal drug addicts. If illegal drugs were easier to obtain, this figure would rise”(Should Drugs be decriminalized? No.November 09, 2007 Califano Joseph A, Jr).”

Even the U.S. is considering loosening up on drugs right now, over half of americans support marijuana for its recreational and medicinal purposes, it’s already been legalized in two states so far, setting up legalization for more states in the future (Huey). Huey also claims- “Drug reformers nationwide continue to argue that legalization will free up more resources to fight harder drugs, deny traffickers billions of dollars in profit, and generate tax revenues for prevention and treatment through state-controlled marijuana sales” (Huey). If there are more resources to fight harder drugs than funds used only to punish minor drug felons, there would be a lot less problems with the prison system and inmate

Also, many scientific studies support the connection between drug use and crime. One study investigated state prisoners who had five or more convictions. It was found that four out of every five of them used drugs on a regular basis. With that being said legalizing drugs would definitely increase crime and social problems.

We should decriminalize drugs in the U.S. instead of legalizing them. Decriminalization refers to the lessening of criminal penalties of certain acts. According to De Marneffe, “… the legalization of drugs … [is] the removal of criminal penalties for the manufacture, sale, and possession of large quantities of recretational drugs, such as marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine” (346).

All the drug related charges are forcing the prison population into overwhelming numbers. Were drug usage decriminalized this could relieve some of the stress on the penal system. Baird states in her piece that the prison population would diminish greatly with legalization and all the money saved can then be used for many more beneficial things “…like treatment for addiction, health, and prevention.” Walter, standing on the

Substance abuse costs tax payers’ enormous amounts of money because rather than treating the problem, substance abusers are arrested and put into prisons where they are not taught strategies to help with their addiction and the realities of their disease. The “war on Drugs” has officially been lost and it’s time to look at decriminalizing drugs and treating it as an illness. While some argue the complete decriminalization of drugs with no legal consequences, others support decriminalization with legal consequences such as drug courts and citations that would be similar to a traffic ticket. Due to the massive social ramifications of substance abuse I would side with the latter position of drug courts and citations.

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.

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

Some of the arguments for legalizing the sale and possession of drugs have been made on purely economic grounds. Staggeringly large sums of money are being generated through the illegal drug trade. All of this money escapes direct taxation. If an excise tax, like those placed on alcohol and cigarettes, billions of dollars would become available for public projects. The U.S. department of Health and Human Services’ agency SAMHSA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health

The war on drugs has been a failure. The war on drugs has failed because the government spends millions of dollars on trying to stop people from using drugs but the government has not stopped them from using them. The government has spent 1 trillion since Nixon declared war on drugs and 51 billion dollars each year from incarcerating people. A total of 2.3 million people are in prison for drug related crimes. This is more than anywhere else in the planet. Drug use and overdoses are still the same. Many people say that if drugs were to be legalized, drug use would increase dramatically. This was not the case in Portugal. Portugal decided to decriminalize all drugs in 2001. Many people feared that this would collapse the country, but in fact the opposite happened. Prisons were not overrun anymore. It is safer for the government to decriminalize all drugs because this way all the drugs are not in the hands of the drug dealers, they are in the hands of the government. This is safer and better because now the government knows who is buying the drugs and how much that individual is using. The consumer also knows what he or she is consuming. This is not the case with the drug dealers where an individual does not know what he or she is getting. Many people say it is not fair for people to go to jail for nonviolent crimes such as

Alex Kreit states in the article “The Drug Decriminalization Option” that drug prohibition expenditures stand at around $30 billion overall, with marijuana law enforcement being $10 billion alone annually, federal expenditures stand at about $15 billion annually (Kreit, 2010). In an argument defending the criminalization of drugs, whatever data you use to backup your statements, it is impossible to deny the fact that drug enforcement spending consumes a significant percentage of the countries corrections and law enforcements resources. According to the article, there are studies which have found that increases in spending for drug enforcement lead to reductions in the budget for enforcement in non drug related crimes such as robberies. The money and taxes spent does not all have to go to law enforcement related expenses, the money could have been invested in education. Despite all the government spending on drug prohibition, there is not much evidence that these efforts have had an effect on the availability or drug use rates. According to the article, nearly half of high school seniors have used an illegal drug by the time they graduate, some say it is easier to obtain than legal substances such as alcohol. There is no reason for the

One thing that must be made obvious is that the government makes money regardless of the results that they produce. A good majority of the criminal justice system is paid with this budgeted drug money. There has been a historical increase in judges, lawyers, police officers and the creation of entire government organizations that directly make money as a result of the prohibition. It is not only law enforcement side that would like to see prohibition remain intact; it is also the drug dealers that would like the policies to remain as they are. (Harvey) Prohibition causes the handling of drugs to become a risky business and, therefore, drives the prices up astronomically allowing for a business that has a profit in the thousands of percent with no tax. Ricky Ross, the most infamous crack-cocaine dealer in Los Angeles, while being interviewed in jail told the interviewer, “I became addicted to the money and also the power too I believe” (Booth). These people will have the opportunity to make extraordinary amounts of money so long as current prohibition stays intact. There is clearly something wrong if both the government and drug dealers would both like to see prohibition perpetuated.

Drug use is part of human nature, but the unimaginable wealth involved leads to the corruption of the police, judges, and elected officials. There is no reason to have the government regulating what goes into an individual’s body. An extreme case of what we’re letting the government do is letting them take away our own self, an individual’s ownership over his own body. I think it’s in everyone’s interest to legalize all drugs, since this war is going nowhere, letting

Believe it or not if the government where to legalize drugs, the amount of money they would save is tremendous. In fact pot legalization could save the United States $13.7 billion per year- according to 300 economists on huffpost.com. The United States spends about 40 billion dollars on enforcing drug prohibition per year. Money spent on law enforcement. Violence that deals with drug trade, decreases economic development and keeps millions in poverty. Nobel Prize winning economist Gary Becker speculates that drug prohibition increases addiction because it makes users reluctant to seek out treatment- according to Quartz Media. As research shows a lot of people are all for the legalization due to the increase of money the government would be savings and receiving, money that could be going to states. As we all know prohibition was set into place during the 20th century because woman felt as if men were getting out of control, spending all of their money on