Should Drugs Be Legalized or Not - Essay Example

The medical benefit of the regulated use of drugs is foregone by banning it as illegal.  So let’s get done with it and legalize it!

The violence that resulted in the prohibition of drugs is not new.  It is usually the case when something is banned.  The same was the case when alcohol was still prohibited.  The more you ban it, the more people will want it!  When alcohol was legalized, violence associated with alcohol consumption become virtually non-existent.  Violence becomes a natural consequence of a prohibitive policy because it creates black markets where the law cannot supervise where shady characters make money from it.  Instead of spending too much money stopping it which government cannot do, the government can instead tax it!

Legalizing drugs actually makes sense. Cato Institute reported in its study in April this year that policies that prohibit the use of drugs are usually “based on speculation and fear-mongering rather than empirical evidence on the effects of more lenient drug policies” (Szalavitz).  The fear that legalizing illicit drugs will only exacerbate the drug problem did not actually happen such as in the case of Portugal and it is just all in the mind.  Portugal in fact “had the lowest rate of lifetime drug use in people over 15 in the E.U” (Slavis).  So let’s legalize drugs and benefit from them.

1. Counter argument

Legalize drugs if you want a country of drug addicts.  Legalize it and this country will be reduced to drug dependents who cannot even think straight.  It creates dependency and addiction that is not only unhealthy but also kills.  Substances such as shabu or Methamphetamine literally “fries” the mind that it deteriorates cognitive thinking.   Other drugs have also the same destructive effect on the mind and body that they are too long to mention.

The trouble with drugs is that it is not only unhealthy to the body, but to the society as well.  Due to their addiction and unhealthy state of mind and body, drug dependents no longer are productive or have minimal productivity.  And those who can no longer afford to sustain their vice resort to selling their things.  And if there is nothing to be sold, they resort to borrowing (of which they do not have the capacity or beyond their capacity to pay) until finally, they will steal; first from family members until they steal from other people.  And that is where the big problem sets in because criminality will rise.

The Portugal experience is just an exception and not entirely true.  and the drug they mentioned is largely marijuana or cannabis which has also medical benefits if properly administered by a physician.  They still have problems containing heavy drugs such as heroin and cocaine and such, it cannot be conclusively said that legalizing illicit drugs will solve the drug problem. 

You cannot legalize something that destroys.  Illegal drugs should continue to be prohibited and banned.