How Harmful Is The Legalization Of Drugs?

With availability, still rampant in neighborhoods, drugs are still ruining lives. "Further, prohibition has been ineffective and has failed to demonstrate any significant reduction in drug usage, drug supply, or drug harm" (Buchanan, 2015, p. 1). The only thing that the "War on Drugs" is documented as doing is increasing mass incarceration numbers but did little to combat the issue. Making a substance illegal, can create an appeal to that drug, making it more desirable. The illicit drug market is extremely violent, to begin with, but with enforcement comes more violence. For example, "Disrupting the once steady market by removing a key business leader makes this underground market more volatile, and turf wars become more likely. When a business is forced to operate underground, there are no legitimate means of resolving disputes between producers, suppliers or users" (Buchanan, 2015, p.

One of the worst side effects of the drug war has been the extreme violence that inevitably comes with illegal drugs. Because they are illegal, sellers can put any price on their product that they want, and addicts will often pay whatever it takes to get their next fix. This makes the illegal drugs highly profitable. According to Norm Stamper, a retired Seattle police chief, a pound of marijuana costs about $75 to produce, and sells for around $6,000 depending on quality. Because of the potential profit, gangs will fight over control of certain areas that will make them more money. Normal businesses will compete with each other by making a better product, but drug gangs don’t operate on the same level. They will resort to violence to ensure that their product is the one that people are buying, and not their competition’s. We as a nation should have learned from the notorious Prohibition era that banning substances just does not work. The prohibition of alcohol gave rise to organized crime gangs like the Mafia. The untaxed alcohol was a money making machine, much like the drug trade today. The Mafia wasn’t renowned for their kindness, and would kill to keep their position as a trafficking giant. Once the 21st Amendment repealed Prohibition, thousands of jobs were created in the alcohol industry, and millions of dollars

Every property crime committed by a drug user is potentially a violent crime. Many victims are beaten, severely injured, and murdered each year. A New York City crack user murdered five people in an eight-day period to get the money to buy drugs. The user survived the crack, but his victims did not. So in actuality, the act of prohibiting drugs is to blame for so called “drug-related violence.” Legal drugs like morphine, alcohol, and a pack of smokes are more detrimental to the user and those around the user than one joint smoked a week. Plus, if pot were to be legalized, it would be regulated, and DUIs could be given to those who drive while high.

An overview of the facts as they stand has yielded increasing credibility to the idea that Prohibition not only does not decrease crime frequency, but it actually leads to an increase in illegal activity. This is immediately visible in the fact that smuggling and the crime syndicates that carry out these schemes are direct benefactors of laws that ban drugs. This has come to pass to such a disturbing level that these crime organizations can even rival governments for control over entire regions of the certain countries. Drugs often also became more potent because more of it can be stored in a smaller space, reducing transportation costs and increasing profit. When production was halted in America, the source ended up coming from their immediate geographic neighbor, Mexico. The issues surrounding illegal smuggling over the US-Mexico border still heavily affects top-level political discourse. The corruption in law enforcement that is predominant in the Mexican political scene also has shown to be capable of leaking into American politics and law enforcement through border smuggling phenomenon. Another aspect of an increase in crime because of prohibition is the fact that reducing the supply of a product (through law enforcement) without reducing the demand first (since there will still be people who are addicted to drugs) creates higher drug prices. This is a considerable problem because it means that individuals need more money to finance their drug addictions which leads people to drug-related crime - that is the incidence of crime as a direct consequence of requiring money or products with value to finance the acquisition of drug. This complicates the issue by tapping into other forms of crime, such as prostitution and human trafficking, the predominance of which also directly

The long federal experiment in prohibition of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and other drugs has given us unprecedented crime and corruption combined with a manifest failure to stop the use of drugs or reduce their availability to children. The factor that determines the amount of violence created by prohibition is the level of enforcement. There are two main reasons for this. One, black markets only form when the enforcement is very strict and, two, increasingly strict enforcement leads to violence both in making arrests and as competing suppliers seek to capture market share. The violence not only impacts those

Drug legalization would lead to a major decrease in crime rates because it would be the end of the drug black market. The drug black market is led by demand and millions of people are willing to get their hands on illegal drugs no matter the cost. Making the production, supply and use of some drugs that are illegal creates a leeway for crime to slowly increase in the black market. The profits are worth billions of pounds. Legalization forces organized crime from the drugs trade, starves them of income and enables us to regulate and control the market. Legalization would enable us to regulate the market, determine a much lower price and remove users need to raise funds through crime. Our legal system would be freed up and our prison population dramatically reduced, saving billions. “…Because of the low price, cigarette smokers do not have to steal to support their habits” (Dr. Cox). There is also no violence associated with the legal tobacco market. Legalizing drugs would be killing the ability of drug cartels to bribe officials, violate human rights, and cripple the rule of law would be undermined if they suddenly lost their ability to profit

Marijuana is a drug that people love and may hate. Weed produces a pleasurable feeling too many people and to others it produces relief.

After 30 years of marijuana use being subject to such harsh penalties and unreasonable consequences, the world has not yet to agree on the truth about marijuana. I feel that it is a very controversial issue in this day and age with very strong and supportive arguments on both sides of this issue. The issue has caused a lot of political feuds, and it also has increased conflicts between many state governments and the federal governments. I feel marijuana is here to stay, and it is about time the government learns that also. It is one of America’s largest imports, it is extremely valuable (for example, an ounce of marijuana is worth more than an ounce of gold), but of course, it is highly illegal. In this paper, I will try to teach you why

Over the years, I think there has been misconception that drug use is the common cause for crime, as we are lead to believe that drug are bad and that they turned people into crazy criminals. While it might be true to some extents, I think the relationship between drug use and crime is rather complex and dynamic. As a community, we tend to blame drugs for every problem in our society, but the reality is that there are other important factors that we need to take into account, including unemployment, socio economic inequality and poor mental health before we could say that drug use really caused crime. As pointed out in The Sociology of American Drug Use, research provides ‘’no conclusive evidence about any single relationship between drug use

Popular belief holds that consumption of drugs and alcohol encourages violence and that the appropriate response is prohibition of these goods. However, a different viewpoint is that prohibition creates illegal underground markets, which require violence and crime to remedy in-house disputes. This paper examines the relationship between prohibition and violence using the historical data and behavior following previous U.S. drug and alcohol laws, regulations, and enforcement on indicators of violence, e.g. homicide rates, and government enforcement expenditures. The results show that an increase in enforcement of drug and alcohol prohibition laws have been positively associated with increases in the homicide rate. Furthermore, supplementary evidence suggests this strong positive correlation prohibition enforcement on violence and the overall crime rate.

When it comes to looking at the link between drug use and crime, I think statistically they are inter-related. However, I think this only applies when someone is using drugs improperly. An example being if someone over doses on a haulucengicenic and then results in thinking they can rob a bank.

trafficking is one of the most severe cross-border crimes affecting the world today. Drug trafficking involves both the narcotic and the non-narcotic substances like marijuana. The criminalization of drugs has made the elements gain significant values in the global market. The United States of America (U.S.A) is one of the largest markets of global narcotic drugs and related substances. Mexico has proved to be the most significant distribution channel and a significant source of drugs and associated materials. Mexico is the home of the most dangerous cartels or drug trafficking organizations specialized in the trade. The consequences of drug trafficking are the reasons for the increased global campaign against the products. The effects of drugs

In 2006, a study was performed by King and Mauer regarding the War on Drugs, focusing on the effects of the war on marijuana. Their study included some startling statistics and conclusions. “The results of this study suggest that law enforcement resources are not being effectively allocated to offenses which are most costly to society.

One the many controversies in our country today, regards the prohibition of illegal narcotics. Deemed unhealthy, hazardous, and even fatal by the authorities that be; the U.S. government has declared to wage a "war on drugs." It has been roughly fifteen years since this initiative has begun, and each year the government shuffles more money into the unjust cause of drug prohibition. Even after all of this, the problem of drugs that the government sees still exists. The prohibition of drugs is a constitutional anomaly. There are many aspects and sides to look at the issue from, but the glaring inefficiency current laws exude is that any human should have the right to ingest anything he or she desires. The antagonist on the other end believes

There are always a positive to every situation; however, a con to the legalization of all forms of drugs is that legalizing can increase the rate of crimes. The book “Drugs and Society” says that, “If these drugs were legal…the black market and criminal activity associated with drugs would be eliminated (pg.119).” Crimes committed that are often related to drug use are theft, arson, assault, homicide, rape, and many other. If all forms of drugs were to happen crimes will still exist. “Drug users are more likely to commit crimes, a high percentage of arrestees are often under the influence of a drug while committing crimes, and a high percentage of drug users arrested for drug use and violence are more likely to be under the influence (pg. 44).” The availability of the drug would be easy access and crimes would still occur.