Hard Drugs Should Not be Legalized

Drugs, drugs they are everywhere. Gore Vidal, famous writer wrote the article “Drugs”. This is an article stating why Vidal believes all drugs should become legalized. The famous writer Theodore Dalrymple wrote an article called “Don’t Legalize Drugs”? This article is about why Dalrymple believes drugs should not be legalized. Katrina Heuvel, (a famous writer) wrote the article “Why it’s Always Been Time to Legalize Marijuana”. This article is about why Heuvel believes that Marijuana should have been legalized a long time ago. Drugs have been used for many years now, for medical, mental, physical, and personal issues.

“Should Drugs Be Legalized” by William Bennett The war on drugs has been an endless fight in the United States and in other countries. It has created overcrowding in prisons and bloodthirsty drug war. Billions and billions of U.S dollars are spending every year trying control something that is unstoppable. Illegal drugs influence affect people every day of their lives.

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).”

Within the last 50 years, drug legalization has been a very hotly debated topic in the United States society. It almost seems that every "street drug" was once legal, but banned soon after its introduction in society. Illegal substances that one sees today were once synthesized and created by chemist such as LSD, ecstasy, methamphetamine, cocaine, and etc., and at some point used for medical reasons, however during many circumstances were deemed illegal by the government due to detrimental effects after prolonged usage. William Bennett's "Drugs: Should Their Sale and Use Be Legalized" targets the general American public into understanding the societal importance of upholding the nations

For many people, the thought of making drugs easily accessible for consumption by the masses may be frightening. After all, we have drug laws in place because they have the potential to be harmful. It also may not be difficult to imagine that it could very well be subject to failure due to a numerous amount negative externalities that may occur. Our nation has been engaged in a war on drugs for several decades now. The effectiveness of this war, however, is a topic that has continuously been debated. Some argue that universal legalization of drugs, an alternative that has never been tried, may have a greater benefits when compared to the present state of the war on drugs. On the other hand, the opposition believes that legalization would only pave the way for a vast amount of crime and many wasted resources.

As a nation we face a serious enemy that is not on foreign soil but here at home. The drug problem in this country has truly affected many lives and families. This enemy has no limits and affects our domestic tranquility. All drugs should not be legalized because they have the ability to impair judgment and do much bodily harm. Drugs have been a dark shadow lingering over our country for many years. In recent years, the heroine epidemic has spread throughout the nation; it has taken many lives and hurt many families along the way.

The war on drugs in our culture is a continuous action that is swiftly lessening our society. This has been going on for roughly 10-15 years and has yet to slow down in any way. Drugs continue to be a problem for the obvious reason that certain people abuse them in a way that can lead to ultimate harm on such a person. These drugs do not just consist of street drugs (marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy), but prescription medications as well. Although there are some instances where drugs are being used by subjects excessively, there has been medical research to prove that some of these drugs have made a successful impact on certain disorders and diseases.

Throughout time, United States drug policy has shifted dramatically. From all drugs being legal to Prohibition and the War on Drugs, the US has had conflicting ideas about what is best for society and American citizens when it comes to drugs. The current War on Drugs has resulted in countless arrests and years served in prison, and has disproportionately hurt minority communities, only to result in largely unchanged use and death rates for illicit substances. Marijuana, Heroin, and Cocaine have all become cheaper and more pure

Throughout the United States, the use and abuse of legal and illegal drugs is very common. As Rosenberg states in “In Drugs We Trust: Why Do Americans Make War on Some Drugs and Build Fortunes on Others?” if something is called a drug, people will “nod their heads, understanding what you mean: You’re deeply attached to it and you can’t live without it, even though you suspect that there’s something wrong with it” (pg.2). The legality of various drugs has changed over time. The definition of a drug, is any substance that has the ability to influence one’s behavior. This could be done by altering one’s mood, feelings, and/or mental state. Although many people believe the use of illegal drugs is more common, the use of legal drugs is actually more common. Legal drugs include drugs such as alcohol and tobacco. As Rosenberg states in the 17th and 18th century, coffee was considered a big drug problem, however now caffeine and coffee is legal. For, legal drugs can cause both social and economic problems just as much as illegal drugs, such as with alcohol and drunk driving. As a result of increased drug use, the United States has created a “War on Drugs,” where it spends billions of dollars to try to “stop” the use and abuse of illegal drugs. However, this “war” is not getting at the root of the problem, for the war does not deal with the root cause of the issue. Instead, this war focuses on dealing with the surface problems, such as the distribution and possession. It does not

The issue of legalization of drugs is among the most polarizing debates in modern history. It is commonplace to use the term ‘epidemic’ for the level of drug abuse prevalent in the country today. Yet, the proponents and opponents of legalization of drugs passionately defend their arguments and find logical fallacies with the arguments of the opposing camps. Both sides, however, generally agree that the current ‘war on drugs’ is not working as expected and there is significant room for improvement because the cost of such a war often exceeds its benefits.

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.

If the United States is serious about winning the war on drugs, it will have to face some hard facts about the failure of its drug policy to date. Since Reagan introduced the war on drugs in the early 1980s, the focus of anti-drug legislation has been on incarceration and eradication, not on drug education and treatment. Drug use is viewed as a crimethe same way that burglary and murder are viewed as crimeswithout examining the social and economic causes behind drug use. This categorization of drug use as criminal misrepresents the nature of addiction. Drug addicts do not abuse drugs because they are deviant or even because they consciously desire to cause harm to themselves or to those around them, they abuse drugs because they are

Drug legalization is an enduring question that presently faces our scholars. This issue embraces two positions: drugs should not be legalized and drugs should be legalized. These two positions contain an array of angles that supports each issue. This brief of the issues enables one to consider the strengths and weakness of each argument, become aware of the grounds of disagreement and agreement and ultimately form an opinion based upon the positions stated within the articles. In the article “Against the Legalization of Drugs”, by James Q. Wilson, the current status of drugs is supported. Wilson believes if a drug such as heroin were legalized there would be no financial or medical reason to avoid heroin usage;

I, like the vast majority of people, disagree with proposition that drugs should be legalised. Accepting this act would be the same like taking money from people for killing them. We don‘t need legalisation, we need to fight against it, try to save people who are standing on the edge of a precipice, not to push them from it.

Drugs are a very strong controversy and people have such strong opinions about whether or not they should be legal or not. I don’t have a strong opinion on this topic, I am easily swayed to either side. For the most part though, I think that they should be legalized because people already do them anyways and will continue to do them. If they were legal then the government could regulate their usage and sale then the government was receiving the profits rather that the drug dealers.