Drug Legalization
4/27/97
Ethics
Essay
Drugs Should NOT Be Legalized
I remember when I was in High School over fifteen students got suspended or arrested for drug related incidents. Students were charged with possession, selling, or caught using drugs. Many students often used to show up to class high waiting to get caught. Do to the fact that so many students were getting caught in our school, the senior class decided to have a pro drug rally in the cafeteria. Over three hundred students showed up to support the issue. They were basically trying to legalize Marijuana. The students did make strong positive statements about the drug. They said it is used to treat cancer and AIDS patients. They felt that since it was natural and came from the Earth it was all right. However they did not talk about the negative effects on the drug. This event even made are local paper as well. This rally was talked about for months but they were obviously not successful in doing so. They felt that they did educate their audience very well.
In issue number twelve the argument about if drugs should be legalized is at hand. Ethan A. Nadelman argues that drugs should be legalized for many reasons. He feels that if drugs were legalized it would drastically cut the crime rate in our society. Jails would be less crowded as well. He relates drugs to the prohibition of alcohol. He feels that if we do legalize drugs crime would decrease, and there would be a new market created to consumers. This would also create money for the government through taxes. This could drastically change our economy.
I on the other hand agree with David T. Courtwright and feel that drugs should not be legalized. Just imagine if everyone had access to drugs, people would be on a constant high. The world would not function properly like this. The overall drug abuse rate would be at a all time high and hospitals would be filled with overdose patients. This would also cause health insurance to increase as well. There would be more babies born with birth defects also. The main reason why drugs can not be legalized because people in our society would abuse the right, and overdose death would be extremely common.
I strongly feel that drugs should remain illegal. Although the people who argue for the legalization of drugs have many strong points and facts, when you look at the big picture society would fall apart if drugs were legal.
In William J. Bennett’s address entitled “Drug Policy and the Intellectuals,” Bennett maintains that the drug problem in America can be ultimately solved. In my opinion, the drug problem in America is one that cannot be completely resolved to the point where drug use no longer exists in America, but drug abuse can be alleviated. One effective way to do this would be to legalize the personal use of drugs that are more common and less potent (like marijuana), and to stop wasting time and tax dollars punishing minor offenders.
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Ever since marijuana’s introduction to the United States of America in 1611, controversy of the use and legalization of the claimed-to-be Schedule I drug spread around the nation. While few selective states currently allow marijuana’s production and distribution, the remaining states still skepticize the harmlessness and usefulness of this particular drug; therefore, it remains illegal in the majority of the nation. The government officials and citizens of the opposing states believe the drug creates a threat to citizens due to its “overly-harmful” effects mentally and physically and offers no alternate purposes but creating troublesome addicts hazardous to society; however, they are rather misinformed about marijuana’s abilities. While marijuana has a small amount of negligible effects to its users, the herbal drug more importantly has remarkable health benefits, and legalizing one of the oldest and most commonly known drugs would redirect America’s future with the advantages outweighing the disadvantages.
Many feel today we are loosing the war on drugs. People consider legalization unnecessary. They feel that it will increase the amount of drug use throughout the world. They state that in many cases, drug users who have quit quit because of trouble with the law. Legalization would eliminate the legal forces that discourage the users from using or selling drugs. They also say that by making drugs legal, the people who have never tried drugs for fear of getting caught by the law will have no reason to be afraid anymore and will become users (Potter 1998).
Drug legalization is an end to government-enforced prohibition of certain substances. It has sparked a great debate in the U.S. over the past couple of years. With two states, Colorado and Washington, already completely eliminating the illegalization of marijuana, should the rest of the country legalize the use of marijuana and other drugs too? There are many advantages and disadvantages of legalizing marijuana, but other drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, ecstasy, etc., should they be legalized? Are the health issues too much of a risk? The question is; which will outweigh each other? In my own opinion, I think the only drug that should be legalized is marijuana. Although only legalizing it to an extent with boundaries and restrictions. Many people in this world have disorders that can be treated with the use of medicinal marijuana. Would the people using it for recreational purposes overthrow the opportunity for future medicinal marijuana users? Above all, the profit from legalizing it would help solve other problems far more important than arresting drug abusers.
The arguments that I have just laid out are not perfect and they have some apparent flaws that some philosophers would strongly disagree with, while there are other arguments that some of the great philosophers would agree with. I will critique the arguments that I have just laid out using the perspective of three different philosophers who all have their own ideas of how the state should function and the role of the citizen. The three philosophers that I will use in this critique will be Karl Marx, John Stewart Mill, and John Locke. The reason why I picked these three philosophers is because they all agree with some aspects of my writing, while disagreeing with others. One will disagree with the role of the state and the citizens, but agree with legalizing recreational drug use, while the other two will agree with the role of the state and citizens, but disagree with legalizing drug use.
Drug use has been an ongoing problem in our country for decades. The use of drugs has been the topic of many political controversies throughout many years. There has been arguments that are for legalizing drugs and the benefits associated with legalization. Also, there are some who are opposed to legalizing drugs and fear that it will create more problems than solve them. Conservatives and liberals often have different opinions for controversial topics such as “the war on drugs,” but it is necessary to analyze both sides in order to gain a full understanding of their beliefs and to decide in a change in policy is in order.
The argument over drug reform and the current prohibition has been going on for years. It seems to be an argument between a wise parent and a young teenager, but as generations change more and more of the parents seem to switch sides. While prohibitionists say the mainstream drugs like cocaine, heroin, LSD, and marijuana are harmful and immoral, legalizers argue the opposite (Rachels 223). While they are both valid and interesting arguments the drugs named above still remain illegal. Many organizations and respected citizens have come to America’s attention in their support for drug reform or complete legalization of certain drugs. These people range from normal citizens who support the recreational use of marijuana to judges and ex- law enforcement agents who say the war on drugs has been a failure. The drug issue in the United States of America has been going on for years with the counterculture of the sixties up until the more recent medicinal marijuana debates today, and it seems that it is not going to go away anytime soon.
Legalization of marijuana has become an increasingly popular topic for debate in society with “sentiment in favor of legalization [increasing] by 20 [percentage] points in just over a decade,” bringing support for legalization to 52% (Dionne and Galston). The most common arguments for reforming current legislation are the following: enforcement wastes public resources, taxation can provide a new source of revenue, and enforcement of current laws is discriminatory (Dionne and Galston). It is necessary to look at the impact on the primary stakeholders by analyzing the various harms and benefits through application of the ethical theories of utilitarianism and deontology, in order to determine the solution that will result in the best possible outcome.
The business of buying and selling drugs comes with high transactions costs. The dealer cannot risk being caught or scammed so he buys a gun to defend himself from the police and other dealers. The buyer of the drugs does not to be killed for his money if the dealer gets greedy so he buys a gun for himself. Now we have two people that if it came down to it, would kill for their crack rocks. Also, if a buyer got a bad crack rock or got less than he paid for, he cannot go the police or file a complaint. He must take matters into his own hands resulting in violence. If drugs were legalized, they would be safer in the sense that the crack-head that needs his daily crack rock would not have to deal directly with dangerous drug dealers and criminals and risk getting shot for his money. Instead, he can go down to the local “drug store” and get his drugs safely.
Almost every person in the United States has their own opinion on drug legalization. There are many different pros and cons to the legalization of the drug. Drug legalization is also an ethical and moral issue. Should drugs be legalized or not? While I think drugs should be legalized, many others disagree.
Recreational drug use has been controversial for years. Government has deemed the use of certain drugs to be dangerous, addictive, costly, and fatal. Governmental agencies have passed laws to make drugs illegal and then have focused a great deal of attention and money trying to prohibit the use of these drugs, and many people support these sanctions because they view the illegality of drugs to be the main protection against the destruction of our society (Trebach, n.d.). Restricting behavior doesn’t generally stop people from engaging in that behavior; prohibition tends to result in people finding more creative ways to obtain and use drugs. However, just knowing that trying to control people’s behavior by criminalizing drug use does not work still leaves us looking for a solution, so what other options exist? This paper will discuss the pros and cons about one option: decriminalizing drugs.
Against Marijuana Legalization Should Marijuana Be Legalized? In society today, many people look for a feeling of freedom. Many people go on vacation and spend money. The most common escape for people is drugs. Our American society is facing a tremendous drug problem.
Legalizing recreational drugs does not mean making drugs accesible to all people. The drugs that are legal today, alcohol and tobacco (nicotene) aren’t available to just everyone; they are regulated. Only certain people are allowed to buy them. Since the drug trade is unregulated, drugs are sold anywhere they can be (e.g. schools), allowing children to have access to them. If these drugs were illegal, than that trade would stagnate, and children wouldn’t have such easy access to them. It makes sense… do you ever see people in schools selling beer or cigarrettes? Also, the usual cause of drug overdose is the fact that a person cannot know the potency of the drug he/she is taking. There are no standards because the trade of drugs is illegal in the first place. If they were legal, there would be a standard of quality for all drugs, regulated by the FDA.
Drugs Should Not Be Legalized. " Greenhaven Press. 65-92 Riga, Peter J. " " Legalization Would Help Solve The Nation's Drug Problems.