The Unintended Consequences of Drug Legalization - Essay Example

? Unintended Consequences of Legalizing Illicit Drugs Unintended Consequences of Legalizing Illicit Drugs Introduction The term illicit drugs are used to refer to those drugs that are considered as illegal in a particular nation. There are several illicit drugs in the region of United States of America, including: marijuana, cocaine, heroin and many others. For years there has been continuous debate regarding the legalization of several of these illicit drugs, especially marijuana (cannabis). Over the years the negative attitude towards these drugs have changed and people have started accepting these drugs in their society and are raising their voice in the favor of legalization of these drugs. For example: Pew research figured out that people in the favor of legalization of illicit drugs such as marijuana have exceeded the number of people who are against the legalization of such drugs (PEW, 2013, p.1). This research was conducted through a survey during the period of 2013. Due to the increase in the number of people who are in favor of such drugs, certain states such as Colorado and Washington have accepted marijuana as a legal drug. There is heavy support for the legalization of such drugs due to the several benefits that can be attained through legalization. These benefits may include: decrease in issues related to accessibility of such drugs, decrease in crimes that are conducted by individuals to obtain these drugs, the medical benefits of these drugs and various other reasons. What these people have ignored is that the legalization of such drugs that can result in consequences that are unknown and unintended. The legalization of illicit drugs in the region of United States of America can lead to unintended negative effects including: increase in consumption by those who could not previously afford such drugs, crimes that are severe in nature may increase loss of ability to make rational choices, development of other diseases while being used to help cancer patients. Body It is a common rule of demand and supply that when any good or service is recognized as illegal, its supply through legal methods decreases and this causes shortages and due to the shortage of supply, the prices of goods and services elevates as demand exceeds supply and people are ready to pay any price for certain goods such as goods that are addictive in nature. One of the reason due to which there have been an increase in the support for the legalization of illicit drugs is that if these drugs are made legal, the supply of such drugs will increase as legal ways of supplying such drugs will increase and the supply will exceed demand which will result in decrease in prices of these drugs. The problem with this benefit of legalization of illicit drugs is that the drug will become affordable to those individuals who could not previously attain these drugs due to higher prices. Wealthy individuals in a society have the ability to pay higher prices for such drugs but those who earn low and those who are dependent on pocket money from their parents can hardly purchase such drugs if they are illegal because illegal drugs are sold at higher prices. This means that consumption of such drugs will elevate and number of addicts will elevate. Another issue is that consumption of such drugs will become affordable for school and college going students who live on small amount of pocket money provided by parents (Zimring, 1995, p.104). Due to this, students start experiencing psychological issues associated with abuse of illegal drugs and if an individual develops an addiction at an early age, he/she may conduct with that addiction during adulthood. Individuals even support the legalization of illicit drugs because they believe that legalization of drugs will result in decrease in rate of criminal activity associated with it and will even decrease the amount of money spend by the criminal justice system to deal with drug related criminals and crimes. Drugs are considered illegal, due to which deals and buyers both tend to sell and purchase drugs in a secretive manner and are mostly caught and put behind bars. Individuals who cannot afford illegal drugs tend to commit crimes such as stealing money in order to gain funds for their addiction. All these criminals are kept behind bars for committing petty crimes and the resources of the police force including the cops are more diverted towards dealing with such petty crimes instead of dealing with crimes that are severe in nature. As a solution to this problem, legalization seems to be a good option. But the problem is that if illicit drugs are legalized and access of such drugs will increase criminal activity that is much severe in nature might even increase. Issues such as driving under influence will increase, road accidents caused due to driving under influence will increase and death rate due to driving accidents will increase (Garland, 2003, p.510). Individuals tend to lose their ability to think straight while they are under the influence of drugs and due to this they might commit crimes such as murder and rape. According to rational choice theory, an individual is capable of making rational decision after analyzing the costs and benefits of that particular decision. By recognized illicit drugs as illegal, the government takes the right of an individual to make his/her own choices. Therefore, supporters of legalization of illicit drugs believe that it is against the individual right of freedom of choice if the government tries to restrict an individual from consuming illicit drugs. Supporters who want drugs to be legalized tend to forget the fact that drugs impact the thinking ability of the abuser and thus he/she fails to make a rational decision because of his/her inability to think straight. Due to an individual’s inability to make rational decisions, he/she may end up committing activities that may harm others (UN, 2007, p.216). Legalization of illicit drugs such as marijuana (cannabis) is even supported because it has proven to help in the field of medicine. Marijuana is a great pain reliever and has been beneficial for individuals suffering from deadly diseases such as cancer (Yeung,2009, p.98). Marijuana has helped in relieving the severe amount of pain experienced by patients and it has even helped in coping with nausea that is experienced by patients as a result of chemotherapy and even helps in increase the desire to have food among those individual who lose this desire as a result of their illness. The problem with only legalizing medical marijuana is that it has become easily accessible and the addiction of this drug is increasing as any individual has the ability to obtain medical marijuana by simply creating a fake medical prescription. Marijuana may be helping individuals suffering from cancer but once an individual starts abusing it, they find it very difficult to stop even after their health issues have been cured and they develop other health issues associated with the consumption of marijuana. Conclusion There are several benefits associated with legalization of marijuana, but these benefits are countered by consequences that are already known and consequences that are unknown and unintended. The unintended consequences associated with legalization of marijuana includes: increase in consumption by those who were previously not able to access them, increase in number of severe crimes, failure to make rational decisions and development of other diseases while being used to help cancer patients. While policy makers decide regarding whether or not illicit drugs such as marijuana should be legalized, they should not only take into consideration the consequences that are overt in nature, they should even consider consequences that are covert. References Garland, N. M. (2003). Criminal law for the criminal justice professional. New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill. Majority Now Supports Legalizing Marijuana | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. (2013, April 4). Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. Retrieved April 24, 2013, from http://www.people-press.org/2013/04/04/majority-now-supports-legalizing-marijuana World youth report, 2007: young people's transition to adulthood : progress and challenges. (2007). New York: United Nations, Dept. of Economic and Social Affairs. Yeung, S., Escalante, C. P., & Gagel, R. F. (2009). Medical care of cancer patients. Shelton, Conn.: People's Medical Publishing House :. Zimring, F. E., & Hawkins, G. (19951992). The search for rational drug control. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Read More