Pros And Cons Of Legalization Of Drugs

Now is the time to correct the mistakes from the damaging, “War on Drugs” policies,

Recreational marijuana legalization in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska have, technically, broken federal law. As long as the federal government does not do anything about the state’s blatant disregard for higher law they can do what they want. I think that because state and federal law contradict at the moment there should be clarification. States should only be able to pass a law such as this if it is also legal on a federal level, but if there are no repercussions for violating federal law where does it end? Recreational marijuana is a state issue, in my opinion. If it is to be legalized in America at a federal level then each state should be allowed to choose their side. At this point, federal government is showing its cracks. 4 of our states are currently not obeying the Constitution; federal law trumps state law. Our government needs to pull itself together and start paying attention to what the states are doing.

The war on drugs is ineffective and outdated. It costs America to much money, and does little to stop users.

The War on Drugs is hugely and largely ineffective. In 2005, the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) seized a

Drug policy in America has not changed much over the past two decades, but according to Sacco (2014) “over the last decade, the United States has shifted its stated drug control policy toward a comprehensive approach; one that focuses on prevention, treatment and enforcement (p.1). One approach to this is allotting billions of dollars to the Federal Drug Control Budget. As of 2014, the majority of funding for this budget went into supply reduction (59.9%), demand reduction (40.1%), and domestic law enforcement (36.8%). Only 35 percent of the funding was provided for treatment of drug abuse, and 5.1 percent for drug abuse prevention (Sacco, 2014, p.16). These numbers have not changed since 2005, when they were within a 5 percent difference

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 use of illegal drugs is most often perceived by society as purely negative. As in, individuals who partake in the illegal activity and are caught deserve to be punished and serve their time in jail. Now, this solution may aid in keeping criminals away from society for the time they are serving but it does not help dramatically reduce the likelihood that these individuals will relapse into their drug addiction once they are out. Drug and substance abuse should be perceived as public health and safety crisis rather than a moral dilemma. Therefore, the criminal justice system needs to implement a treatment program that goes along with a drug user’s jail time to increase the chances that they will become actual functioning and contributing members of society.

However, before the specific outcomes of Congressional influence and policy impact can be evaluated it becomes important to first review the general history and current situation of drugs today. Our present drug laws were first enacted at the beginning of the century. At the time, recreational use of narcotics was not a major social issue. The first regulatory legislation was for the purpose of standardizing the manufacturing and purity of pharmaceutical products. Shortly after, the first criminal laws were enacted which addressed opium products and cocaine. Although some states had prohibited the recreational use of marijuana, there was no federal criminal legislation until 1937. By

The use of drugs has been used by individuals for centuries. It wasn't until the late 60's and the early 70's that drugs begin to be banned in the United States. In 1971 Nixon declared a war on drugs, which is truly a war on minorities. “The war on drugs is a multibillion dollar public private venture that inflates the value of illegal drugs and its used to criminalize the poor people of color trapping them in a vicious cycle of addiction, unemployment, and incarceration.” (Seventhe general) The documentary explains that the war on rugs has never focused on taking out the drug lord leader and violent offenders. Instead the drug war focuses on the number of minority street arrest. "80% of people arrested between 1980-90 were arrested for possession of marijuana.” (Seventhegeneral) During an interview in the documentary a men stated "we don't control the pipeline of drugs and guns in our community." (Seventhegeneral) In other words, their is someone supplying the citizens with drugs and guns to sell. We have to question why this isn’t being looked at. If you truly wanted drugs off the street wouldn't your goal be to find the source? We know that in the 80's the CIA was smuggling cocaine in to U.S. neighborhoods. Which help lead to the crack epidemic and stricter more punitive laws against drugs. Clinton tough on crime policy lead to more Americans being incarcerated than any other presidential candidate has seen in

Elected officials should be concerned and working towards fixing the issues. Riddled with drug problems President Nixon and his administration started this "War on Drugs". The World is losing the war on drugs and enforcement, not the answer. In U.S. politics

My position in this debate panel is to legalize the possession of marijuana. The liberal’s stance is that they want to legalize, regulate and restrict the access of marijuana. To many young Canadians end up with criminal records for possessing small amounts of drugs ,which then is costly to the criminal justice system and the young offender is caught in the criminal system for minor, nonviolent crimes. They want to focus on keeping this drug out of the hands of children by implementing specific locations to distribute this drug.

Cannabis is becoming increasingly widespread and increasingly common in modern-day society for both recreational use and for medication. The article by Craig Reinarman, ‘Criminalisation, legalisation and the mixed blessing of medicalisation in the USA’ generates many controversial issues of cannabis.

With the onslaught of states slowly legalizing the commercialization and use of marijuana after the passing of sanctioning initiatives led by Colorado and Washington in 2012, societal attitudes have begun to support this movement in the decriminalization of marijuana for personal use. Based on the 2014 midterms, momentum for this change has been shown in different parts of the U.S., with states such as Oregon, Alaska, and Washington D.C. joining this cause. It is safe to assume that several other states will soon follow suit, with ballot initiatives set for 2016 in states such as: Massachusetts, California, Missouri, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, and Arizona (Becker, 2014). However, the long standing debate still stands, is this change for the better? In a world with less restrictions on illegal drugs such as marijuana, would the pros outweigh the cons? Although the answer may not be clear cut, considering the arguments made by both the supporting side and the opposing side of marijuana legalization for public consumption will help us create an opinion on what values should be taken priority on when it comes to the consequences related to advocating this movement.

The war on drugs is costing us over 100 billion dollars to fight each year, and we’re only fighting a monster which we are making bigger with each punch. It’s not drugs, but drug laws themselves that have created this monster.

Many policies have come to the governments attention within the past decade concerning drug use and prison reform. One policy that correlates to crime and drug use that has brought attention across the nation is the legalization of marijuana. Marijuana has been consumed in the United States for numerous years and has grown in popularity culminating in multiple states legalizing the drug. There is large debate concerning whether nationwide legalization is worth the cost. Of course, with any controversial decision, there are always going to be pros and cons. Those who oppose legalization make claims that marijuana is a gateway drug, impairs judgment, and is addictive. Although those points are true to an extent there are also many benefits. Of the many benefits, the most noteworthy ones are that marijuana can bring a lot of money to the government and economy, it helps treat sickness and diseases, and it can be a safer alternative than opioid-based medications. The legalization of marijuana would also highly impact the criminal justice system by making law enforcement more accessible to other areas where they are needed which can save the government a lot of money. In this instance, legalizing marijuana would bring many benefits to society such as stimulating the economy, treating sicknesses, providing government relief, and lowering opioid use.