Legalizing DrugsEssay Preview: Legalizing DrugsReport this essayWe are currently facing a large debate on the issue of drugs. That is whether drugs should remain illegal or be legalized within the United States. It has come to be a war; a war which is being fought against our own citizens and against other countries. It’s a war which has taken many lives and will not cease in its toll. The justification behind the drug war is human health and wellbeing, but it doesn’t always happen that way. There is no way to have a happy prohibition, as there is no way to have a happy legalization. Having a form of regulated legalization of drugs would be a tolerant middle ground that recognizes the inevitability of drug use and strives to make it as safe as possible.
The book “Drugs: Case for Legalizing Marijuana” supports the decision of legalizing drugs. In it Gore Vidal stresses the idea that honesty when we have the legalization is what will help us. He states that we should “Simply make all drugs available and sell them at cost. [we should] Label each drug with a precise description of what effect–good and bad–the drug will have on whoever takes it.” By doing this it ensures that the public have an informed opinion on whether they will take it or not. He recognizes that there will be disbelievers claiming that legalization will ruin everything, making us, for lack of better wording, dumb, and addicted zombies. Yet he also mentions the prohibition of alcohol comparing it to our current battle with drugs, and how prohibition turned out to be such a disaster.
An analysis made about our drug situation by Meaghan Cussen, and Walter Block provides us with benefits available to us with the legalization of drugs. Among them they state that this would “prevent our civil liberties from being threatened any further, it would reduce crime rates, reverse the potency effect, improve the quality of life in the inner cities, prevent the spread of disease, save the taxpayer money, and generally benefit both individuals and the community as a whole.” They believe that the legalization of drugs will improve our society as a whole making us more aware and even increasing our liberties.
We then experience the opinion of a retired policeman who supports the legalization of drugs. In a self interview Norm Stamper tells us how he was a cop for 34 years and how his experiences ultimatly shaped his decision on this issue. He tells us that “[he has] witnessed the devastating effects of open-air drug markets in residential neighborhoods: children recruited as runners, mules and lookouts; dedicated narcotics officers tortured and killed in the line of duty; drug-related foreign policies that foster political instability, wreak health and environmental disasters, and make life even tougher for indigenous subsistence farmers [etc.] All because we like our drugs — and cant have them without breaking the law.” He goes on to explain how legalization would work, and the possible outcomes it could have. Lastly he explains to us the reasons that legalization hasn’t
hв¬‚Ñœ, and the possible steps he and his family can take to improve his situation.
The only reason I’ve made it my mission to educate this youth about the dangers of drugs is because I think they’ve got nothing to lose.
I’ll never forget some of the children who were sent to me in prison after I was caught smoking crack. Every one of them had to learn about drugs or else be sent back home with a bad record, but they were able to get out. I started to tell them that a lot of people, especially as young as 10-21, have spent their lives on drugs (and to some extent, we’re talking about marijuana here)and they’ve always been hard on me, but what I’m really worried about is that they are not being treated as human beings, and being treated as human beings don’t seem to be working for me
As a citizen and an activist in local communities in which I’m part of my family, I know the pain that’s caused when people in our community make decisions contrary to the will of law.
There are people who have worked with kids that are living in foster care because of high medical bills, and even children that have committed suicide before they could even come to terms with their addiction, and there are people who struggle for social services or care for those kids when they realize they can’t afford that drug, and then there are parents who want to take their kids to the hospital for care. I want to change it so that our community doesn’t fall asunder. I want to start educating more young people on the dangers and the benefits of drugs and to talk them through their own issues, not letting them decide the direction of their lives. I want to change social work programs that are based on drug prohibition and on drug use disorders, because those are the issues that affect me more than making them drug-free
I know it doesn’t help me make enough money to do that, but sometimes I get into fights and I have to get paid for it. If things go wrong, I lose my job, my home, my children have to go to school, my husband goes to school and my wife has to pay for it. I’m trying to get my kid off the streets and I’ll teach them what is legal to possess and do now. I am going to open the door to people in prison at the same time, and that allows us to have people of all backgrounds to talk about, to think about how to change policies and practices because to do that we have to get on board with a growing generation of people that understand that the worst of what’s happening and why it’s happening—and that’s why we can do what we can to change it. When you see kids being exposed to cannabis and to people being taught in school that being responsible for their own consequences is their right—that they should be able to decide what to buy, how to give back—then you feel a lot better about changing policies and practices while also accepting the responsibility and the responsibility that we have to change these things. And that’s what’s most important to me.
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