Drug Laws in the United States - Research Paper Example

There are different types of drugs, some of them which are quite complicated to be handled by the laws. However, one must consider few beneficial ones like Marijuana and Hemp. In this paper, let us analyse the drug laws of USA, while keeping this perspective in our mind. Drug Problem in USA: For almost a century now, US have been fighting against the problem of drugs. Billions of dollars are been spent in this effort; almost fifty billion dollars are spent yearly for controlling drugs. Sadly “Drug abusers continue to fill our courts, hospitals, and prisons” (History of the US Drugs Policy par.1). Drug laws and penalizations are all helpful methods which are used in controlling the abuse of drugs; but these methods are quite limited in order to completely eradicate the root of all such problems.

Economy, Prison system and Decriminalization of drugs: If we see the feasibility of decriminalization in USA, we must first see that almost 45 million people have tried drugs in one way or the other. Now the question is, how many of them can be imprisoned? If the focus turns to rehabilitation and education, then one can use the help of both rehabilitation and education effectively against drugs. . tober, 2000, Portugal had taken a step which is yielded as one of the successful and significant landmarks in this arena and it made one to think quite differently.

A decade ago, Portugal was struck with severe drug problems just like US is facing today. But Portugal acted quite differently by taking away all the criminal regulations from the drugs, including the top rated ones like cocaine, heroin etc. As a result, it led to a widespread fear that this act by Portugal would create horrible mess. But in adversely, it turned out to be quite helpful to those who are caught with drugs. As they were helped with treatment and also this new focus of the government wonderfully brought down the usage rate of drugs.

Also wherever the drugs increased, the increment was found quite less. Apart from that all diseases related to drugs decreased in its statistics (Greenwald p.). As a result addiction rate dropped down “Five years later, the number of deaths from street drug overdose dropped from around 400 to 290 annually” (Vastag par.2). Actually the philosophy behind all this is that, decriminalizing broke the walls between the citizens and government, and room was created for education and treatment. This tactic paid off well for Portugal and it would surely help United States a lot.

The Issue of Marijuana in the US: Marijuana is perhaps the most commonly used drug in US after alcohol and tobacco. And the United States government have been running long behind the regulations of marijuana. But thus, far the results are not satisfactory. In US from 1965 onwards, around 20 million marijuana offences have been recorded. Today it is more problematic than ever because more than a hundred million Americans are using it (Real World Ramifications of Cannabis Legalization and