Just Say No.” This phrase was uttered in 1982 by Nancy Reagan, the first lady of the United States, in response to a schoolgirl’s question of what she should do if offered drugs (Weinraub A5). These words became the slogan for a nationwide substance abuse prevention program that followed the then recently enacted drug policies intended to discourage the manufacture, sale, and use of illicit drugs in the United States. These zero tolerance policies carried harsh penalties and strict enforcement for all drug related offenses. Almost four decades later, these policies are still in effect, as is their focus on criminalization as a means to reduce the availability and usage of drugs. Their ineffectiveness is evidenced by the facts that drug use rates have remained steady over the past four decades and incarceration rates have exponentially rose during that same period. I believe that a new course of action should be taken, and a bold new drug policy should be enacted. Decriminalization would result in a substantial decrease of the prison population, relieve the unnecessary burden that has been placed on our criminal justice system, shift the paradigm from drug enforcement to drug treatment, reduce the health risk of HIV, AIDS, and heroin related deaths; and provide unprecedented benefits from the regulation of the manufacturing and sales of substances that are currently illegal.
In order to understand why drugs should be decriminalized in this country, it is important to know
In the United States’ experience, decriminalization arguments are typically employed as a rhetorical and political tool by advocates attempting to pry open the door to full legalization. Both decriminalization and legalization of illicit drugs would increase their use, along with their associated health and social costs. Unless advocates of decriminalization, or of outright legalization can establish that more drug use is a net good for society, both arguments are
The legal prohibition on most psychoactive drugs has been in place in this country for the better part of a century. This policy of prohibition, however, has never been based on reason or careful consideration, but on the paranoia of a small segment of society and the indifferent willingness of the majority to accept this vocal minority’s claims without question. Outlawing any use of a particular drug is a violation of the basic freedom of individuals to act as they please in their private lives. However, even if one does not accept this belief, an objective analysis of the United States’ history of prohibition clearly shows that attempts to enforce this policy have done far more harm than good,
My dear parents: I know we have many different political beliefs. Somewhere in the gap between the 2012 election and this one, I turned into what you may call “a raging liberal.” Now whether it is due to my homeschool econ classes, or just what I’ve deemed acceptable I do still tend to lean conservative on economic issues, but social issues? That’s where you and I go two very different directions. Hot topic evangelical “social issues” aside, one area I hope we may eventually find common ground on is Marijuana legalization or even just decriminalization.
Since there are over 16 million injection users and million others who use a variety of addictive drugs, I support the idea that there should be a global decriminalization of drug use; possibly not in the next five years since it seems a near future, but probably around ten years would be a more optimistic time frame. Numerous American citizens are against drug legalization due to its complexity, however there are some states now that are allowing marijuana to be used for medical purposes. Drug legalization eliminates any criminal penalties for consuming, selling or producing drugs, however drug decriminalization removes prison time for drug users, but maintains criminal penalties for those who produce or sell drugs. Moreover, there are some argues in the United
The main goal of this article is to provide the moral and economical arguments for legalizing all drugs in the United States. The article begins by suggesting there is a cultural shift moving throughout the United States regarding the use of marijuana however, also reveals that the majority of people still do not support legalization of harder drugs such as heroin or cocaine. The author cites two polls which compare the 58 percent of Americans that support marijuana legalization to the only 10 percent that favor legalization of heroin or cocaine. The author then proceeds to explain that if the ultimate goal is to minimize harm to users of drugs, then the right approach is to legalize them all. The article contains statistics for the amount
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
Drug users are not bad people regardless of the resions for their affliction. It’s time the world starts seeing drug use for what it is, a medical issue and not a criminal one. As off today the war on drugs has not only failed at everything it set out to accomplish but in fact as done the complete opposite. Nobody benefits from the current laws except the those selling the drugs, criminals are making more money than they know what to do with whale’s non-violent offenders flood our prisons no different than rapists and murders. Even those who entirely opposed to all drug use and feels it brings nothing but pain should want it legalised. Prohibition dosnt work and only serves to make things worse.
How many drugs can you think of? Most people don't know the difference between two white powders. One of them is great at making your cake rise, while the other is extremely deadly. Heroin, which is very addictive opiod drug, a modified version of morphine, is one of many illegal drugs in Canada. Many of them are extremely harmful and toxic to the body. Do you really believe that possession these dangerous drugs should result in a small penalty? Drugs that could be illegally used but not get penalized for it?. So think about it, do you genuinely think substances like this, should be allowed to the general public? So why don't we all get high?
A Roswell college student with a 3.7 grade-point average blows her tuition on drugs and is arrested for forging prescriptions. Drug-free: 390 days. An Alpharetta mom so amped up on meth she spent eight hours cleaning her oven with Q-tips. Now drug-free: 311 days. An Atlanta man so fixated on his next hit that he "literally walked over a dead body one day to get to the dope man's porch." Drug- free: 290 days. The reason I chose this topic, is because these 3 people have been clear of drugs for AT LEAST 290 days. Now the reasoning is because there is now drug rehabs helping people stop taking drugs. But the problem is, there’s not enough, I want to make sure as I'm growing up i’m surrounded by responsible people (Not saying I don’t want to live a perfect little life with NO mistakes, because mistakes happen, I just want it to be a mistake that doesn’t repeat itself). And the thing is, these people aren’t bad at all, they’re just addicted, and I want to help solve what we can do to help. Why do people take drugs? How easy is it to be addicted to drugs? What can we as a society solve drug addictions? This problem can be solved, it’s very simple actually. All we have to do is keep making drugs Illegal and keep making more and more rehabs, I mean above is evidence that it actually WORKS so all we need to do is make sure there is plenty of room to keep solving the issue.
A lot of families across the United States are faced with the issue of having a drug abuser in the family. According to national figures, a little over 10% of Americans regularly use illegal drugs – which equates to 22 million people. This means that a lot of people are either related to a drug user, know them intimately or could be friendly with them. So as someone who cares for that person’s well being, you would naturally be thinking to yourself, should I be stepping in? Could I be doing more to help their situation? The answer is yes, however delicate the topic may be, and attempting to hold an intervention and start them on the path to sobriety is the best thing you can do.
A kid from your high school offers you some drugs. You know that you should not do drugs because you know the consultancies, but you're not the most popular kid in your grade. Most of all the cool kids do drugs, so you think you'll become one of the popular kids. You take the drugs and two years later you became a drug addict and had a overdose on drugs and died later that day. As a kid, we know the cons of drugs. So parents want to find ways to avoid us getting into drugs. Everyone knows about how drugs affect you in many different ways. Our parents don’t want use losing our lives like in a similar way as the story of the kid who died from a overdose of drugs. When I researched about drug addiction. I wanted to find a few many pieces to form my driving question. Why do people do drugs and how can we prevent people from using drugs? After all the research I did, there is a way to help people to stop taking drugs and don’t have people start drugs.
There was a man who got caught selling drugs by a school pick up line in kentucky. He was arrested and taken to jail. He saw the cops then threw the drugs in the parking lot that was near by. These man is convicted with trafficking in a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a school, first-degree possession of a controlled substance and second-degree wanton endangerment. There many people that are like this man who make the bad decision which choose to sell and do drugs. According to CBBC Newsround drugs can’’ Illegal drugs can cause things like hallucinations (seeing strange things), sickness, depression, liver and kidney problems and fits. Some illegal drugs can kill the first time the person takes them. Taking too much of any drug is called an overdose. A serious overdose of almost any drug can kill you.’’
In the twenty-first century, we hear a lot about how smoking cigarettes can kill you, and that the secondhand smoke can involuntarily kill those around you, or how the drinking and driving combination killed people in an accident. Scales, charts, commercials, and yearly stats are all put on display to let people know how dangerous these things are, but what about the illegal drug, weed? There has never been a headline on somebody dying of a marijuana overdose, or studies done to prove all the severely harmful effects of smoking weed. This may simply be because the drug is illegal, but studies have been abundant on drugs like cocaine, heroin, or Ecstasy to find the harmful effects of those drugs. Without the research and evidence to prove weed should be an illegal drug, we must rely on what government agencies have given us. Many cases involved with marijuana are mostly terrible situations that happened because the consumer of the weed had no knowledge of the drug. With such harmful substances already legally sold and consumed daily at the free will of the people, weed should be legalized and added to these substances. Tobacco, barley, and hemp/cannabis are all plants that were completely useless until some person decided to give them recreational uses; tobacco and marijuana were dried up and stuffed into pipes to be burned and inhaled, but barley was fermented and turned into a drinkable substance. All three substances came from the earth and use by humans for recreational
Throughout life, whether in a workplace, associated with athletes, or in a school district, chances are one may be asked to take a drug test. In the United States, approximately fifty thousand people die each year as a result of taking drugs. To make this number decline, something has to happen. No one can make decisions for an individual, but there can be an emphasis with trying to stop drug users, by drug-testing randomly and efficiently. The brain is a powerful source, taking over the society with drugs, telling the addicts they need the drug. A drug causes our bodies to change, depending on the reaction of the drug. The interaction with drugs and, “Other complex social, psychological, and pharmacological factors [have an] influence [on] the behavior of abusing individuals. Some drugs cause hallucinations, sickness, depression, liver and kidney problems, and fits. Stimulants the drug gives off usually cause the user to be more alert and have energy. The reason why, “Society in general has been unable to understand the dimensions of drug abuse, find a cure, and set up effective prevention measures” is still to be determined. In general, most addicts cannot afford drugs, “So they raise the `money through crime,” making it unsafe for the environment and the people surrounding. The amount of, “People trying to get money for drugs committed one-third of all burglaries, street robberies, and thefts in 2015.” Imagine a life without drugs. How would it be different in the
The War on Drugs is a term typically used in the United States to describe a campaign that's purpose is to decrease the amount of drug trafficking and prohibit illegal drug usage, it was started by Richard Nixon in 1971. Surprisingly, the United States has spent billions of dollars in the effort to ban all illegal drugs, but for some reason remains an issue at hand. At the time, the concept of the War on Drugs was thought to be quite simple, no drugs means no problems, it makes perfect sense though that was one step in the wrong direction. In all effort, is the War on Drugs actually succeeding by benefiting the United States and its people? Well, if it were possible to observe every significant detail in the history of this campaign, the answer may be very clear. In a brief response, the War on Drugs campaign is actually counter-beneficial to the United States. Instead of fixing the issue, it actually causes many more problems for the United States and its population.