Drugs should be legalized and/or decriminalized in the future in Washington State and the Unit-ed States. However, along with legalization should come counseling for drug abuse and should give the pros and cons to using drugs. Since smoking was legalized and more information has come out about smoking there is 50% less smokers and it is less of a public issue. And as far as the concern with there being more people using drugs and driving a car, yes we will have drivers using just as we have drivers drinking and driving. Also with legalization will come more control for the purity of drugs and users will be less like to become dependent because of this. One other issue is that more money needs to be spend on rehabilitation. Incarceration is
Drug decriminalization is opposed by the majority of Americans. Leaders in drug prevention, education, treatment, and law enforcement are against it, as are many political leaders. However, pro-drug advocacy groups, who support the use of drugs, are making headlines. They are influencing legislation and having a significant impact on the national policy debate in the United States. Although, pro-advocacy groups claim decriminalization of drugs will lower incarceration rates and boost the economy, drugs must stay illegal in America, if not, more people will use, causing negative effects on health, families and communities.
Legalizing drugs in the United States would lead to great trouble for the country affecting all citizens. Legalizing drugs will cause chaos among Americans. Edmund Harnett a deputy chief and executive officer wrote an article, “Drug legalization: why it wouldn’t work in the United States.” Harnett is also involved in the narcotics division of the New York police department. William J. Bennett the director of the national drug control policy wrote a heavy article, “Drug Policy and the Intellectuals.” James Q. Wilson has a political science degree and is the author of many crime articles including, “Against the Legalization of Drugs.” Disorder is the last thing this country needs from legalizing drugs. The legalization of drugs is undesirable because it would ruin relationships, would harm the safety of everyone, and would promote violence.
The current policy in use by the United States concerning illegal drugs is both outdated and unfair.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.
Drugs are a major influential force in our country today. The problem has gotten so out of hand that many options are being considered to control it or even solve it. Ending the drug war seems to be a bit impossible. The war on drugs seems to be accomplishing a lot but this is not true. Different options need to be considered. Legalization is an option that hasn't gotten a chance but should be given one. Although many people feel that legalizing marijuana would increase the amount of use, marijuana should be legalized because it will reduce the great amounts of money spent on enforcement and it will increase our country’s revenue. There are also many benefits that can be uncovered to help people if legalization of
The United States should decriminalize drugs because it would keep people out of jail and stop overcrowding of jails, there are people with worst crimes that should be in jail. It will also stop wasting the taxpayers money, and it could increase the economy, also some states have already legalized drugs and the banning of drugs isn’t effective.
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).
There are many major factors at one point time in society, the most controversial is drug decriminalization. When the topic of drug or drug related discussion arises, many individuals would choose to ignore the topic entirely. Why not approach the topic head on? Attack the issue at its roots and refuse to give up until proven wrong. Drug decriminalization is a topic that needs to be brought to the front of discussion with politics and legislation. State and federal laws should be readjusted and in many cases removed in regards to drug policy. As a society, we need to treat the way we handle drug users and drug cases differently. Our current approach is not working anymore, and it’s time for a change. To change, everything has to change from the start.
As a major policy issue in the United States, the War on Drugs has been one of the most monumental failures on modern record. At a cost of billions of taxpayer dollars, thousands of lives lost and many thousands of others ruined by untreated addiction or incarceration, America's policy orientation concerning drug laws is due for reconsideration. Indeed, the very philosophical orientation of the War on Drugs and of the current drug policy in the United States has been one of prosecution and imprisonment rather than one of decriminalization, treatment and rehabilitation. As our medical and scientific communities characterize addiction as a disease, the United States government continues to characterize this disease as a crime. And in doing so, it has created an unnecessary criminal class in the United States. The research, supplemental political cartoons and proposed research will set out to prove that stiffer drug laws will only have the impact of criminalizing countless drug addicts who might otherwise benefit substantially from rehabilitation and other treatment-based strategies. With a specific focus on the prohibition of marijuana even for medical use, and using the Toulmin model for putting forth and completing the argument, the research will set out to demonstrate the irrational
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.
Drug Policy in the United States began under the Presidency of Richard M. Nixon, who launched the “War on Drugs” and oversaw the creation of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). The sole purpose of both initiatives was to combat the copious amounts of drugs flowing out of our borders. Then First Lady Nancy Reagan, who will go down in history as the greatest First Lady of All Time, launched “Just Say No”. A campaign aimed towards the youth to refuse the vices of drug and alcohol abuse. These policies were perpetuated in the 1990s under the Clinton Administration who passed their own tough on crime initiatives as well. The upside, the implementation of these policies has caused the drug use rates to equal where they were 25 years ago. On the downside, the United States imprisons more people than any other industrialized nation in the world because of the drug offenses.
The American Government has passed and encouraged legislation that intentionally criminalized and incarcerated black citizens. During the 1960’s, drugs became a symbol of rebellion against society and politics. The rising epidemic of drugs plagued the country which prompted President Nixon to launch the “War on Drugs” campaign. Nixon increased the presence and funding of federal drug control agencies and enforced mandatory minimum sentencing. However in 2016, one of Nixon’s former aides, Domestic Policy Chief John Ehrlichman, revealed the war on drugs targeted blacks and hippies. He stated "The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people..we knew we couldn't make it illegal
The launching of the 1960’s brought with it a public health issue concerning the use and abuse of illegal drugs. Responding to the crisis, the US department of Justice established the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous drugs, which was designed to control illegal drugs, specifically marijuana. Building on the prohibition, in 1971 President Richard Nixon officially declared a “war on drugs”, which resulted in an increased federal role in the warfare by providing the federal government with power to institute new mandatory sentencing laws. New policies, including the passing of the Controlled Substances act, which, “superseded earlier legislation and classified cannabis as having a high potential for abuse, having zero medical use, and being unsafe for use without medical supervision,” (Barry, 2014) produced a dramatic rise in national incarceration rates, disproportionally representing those people of color. In fact, according to the FBI, in 2011 there were 750,000 marijuana arrests (the vast for majority) alone.
The issue of drug abuse is a sad reality in every community, and drug prohibition is present across the globe. Whether it is under the guise of protection of family values, or public safety, prohibition disrupts more than it maintains. Many people view drugs as a problem but they can also be viewed as a problem solver. This essay will address the socioeconomic issues with prohibition of hard drugs, and argue for their legalization.
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.