To What Extent Should Drugs Be Legal - Assignment Example

Positions Papers Name Institution Name Date Question 10: To what extent should drugs be legal? Drugs are an important component of the society. A drug is any product or substance apart from food that when consumed, smoked, injected, inhaled, absorbed via skin or dissolved under the tongue results in the body’s physiological. Some of the drugs are prescribed by physicians and pharmacists while others can be termed as lifestyle drugs such as alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, cocaine, and heroin. The decisions to criminalize some drugs and authorize others creates a negative or questionable perspective about the reasons behind the decision. The aim of the paper is to analyze to what extent drugs should be legal. Drugs can be viewed from two perspectives which are prescribed drugs and lifestyle drugs. The prescribed drugs are targeted in treating or addressing a health problem. The prescriber such as the physician or pharmacists have the experiences and skills to give the right dosage including other supportive information. The lifestyle drugs such as cocaine and alcohol lack the qualified background because the basis of the decision to use alcohol or cigarettes depends on age. It means alcohol is legalized, but the wider consequences of alcohol such as driving under the influence and negative impact on the socio-economic development are not extensively addressed. The argument is to allow continuous use of prescribed drugs because of qualified diagnosis and prescription while the “lifestyle” drugs should have tougher legal framework even if licensing is acceptable. The overall approach of criminalizing all drugs result in an increase in drug-related crimes. An assumption can be stated that legalizing the drugs may result in a decrease in crimes. The drugs such as cocaine and heroin are expensive in the black market meaning legalizing will decrease the prices of the drugs, and the people will not be forced to participate in criminal activities to acquire the drugs. Legalizing the drugs also means the black market is closed eliminating the need for the black market because the drugs are available. The decision to use drugs will depend on an individual rather the aim to break or negative the legal system. However, the permission to legalize the drugs should come numerous conditions, which can be used to mitigate any negative consequences. It may include effective licensing regime, the creation of awareness, educating and training different personnel on the threats of extensive use of drugs. It ensures the entire drug system is legalized, but clarity on distribution and consumption of drugs is clarified. The current approach of criminalizing drugs results in social and health problems. Some of the problems associated with illegalization of drugs are overcrowding on the prison system and overdosing. Since the persons using drugs employ any strategy to acquire the expensive drugs including the operations in the black market, more people are arrested and jailed. In addition, reports of overdosing and increase in druggies are common in the current situation. It has been shown that if people wants drugs, these people employ different strategies to acquire the drugs. The dilution of the drugs creates problems when it comes to purity of the drug, which affects the consumption level. The alternative is legalizing the drugs similar ways as other health-related drugs such as cough syrups but the consumption is clarified. It will ensure pure or unadulterated drugs are not supplied reducing social and health problems. The urge to acquire the drugs may also decrease because the criminal aspect of the drugs industry forces people to continue abusing the drugs. Thus, the preference to engage in dangerous activities to address the urge for the drugs is decreased and may contribute to sustainable drug management systems. In conclusion, some of the drugs are legalized while others are illegalized. The solution is the legalization of all drugs but conditions and caveats in place to monitor usage, distribution, and other structures to ensure the entire system is managed appropriately. It avoids problems such as drug abuse, social and health concerns, economic problems, and overcrowding and other discrimination problems in the criminal legal system. It is imperative to note the importance of controls and distribution networks including other quality assurance requirements to ensure greater control is imposed on the distribution and use of drugs. Question 16: How endangered is the global environment today? What measures need to be taken? The term “global environment” refers to the general environment of the earth. Numerous environmental issues affect the national and local areas. Other issues affect the entire planet and may be attributed to numerous factors. The global environment is changing because of the industrialization and other negative practices that affect the climate. For example, more industries are developed, and the use of fossil fuel contributes to the problem. The continued demand from humans and the poor implementation of environmentally sustainable measures affect the overall unsustainable global environment. The aim of the essay is to discuss how endangered the global environment today and measures to address the problem. The needs and requirements of people keep charging, and more productions are required to satisfy the needs of the people. The increase in world human population also means more people are in the world requiring food and other resources. The energy requirements also mean more fossils and coal are burned to produce the energy. These different processes result in an increase in carbon in the air and other greenhouse gasses, which affects the environment. The greenhouse gasses affects the ozone layer resulting in an increase in world temperatures. The role of the ozone layer is to control the sun rays reducing the amount of sunlight entering the world. However, the depletion of the ozone layer has increased the earth temperature resulting in additional complications. The depletion has also contributed to additional problems in need of creating and supporting a sustainable environment. The high temperatures result in ice melting affecting the animals in these regions. It has also contributed to global warming where the climate is affected. Changing the climate has a huge impact on the environment such as changing the weather, the emergency of different weeds and pests, affecting the growing of plants and animals, and overall negative consequences to human development and associated operations. It means that measures have to be incorporated to address the endangered global environment. In addition, the global warming associated with high temperatures has intensified heat waves, accelerated seas level rise, and loss of sea ice. These changes have a wider negative impact directly to the humans such as flooding and on plants and animals such as extinction because of environment and niche changes. Championing sustainable measures is the only strategy to address the endangered environment. Sustainable measures come in different forms ranging from creating awareness to practicing development activities that focus on the environment. For example, disposing wastes appropriately is one of the strategies rather than littering the environment. It requires engagement and creating awareness to the public on measures to reduce wastes including recycling products. The use of alternative sources of energy such as solar power may reduce the negative impact on the environment. It also means further research should be done to employ sustainable energy such as wind power. Hotels and other living environments have to appreciate recycling and use of alternatives services mechanisms. The service mechanism means reducing the reliance on paper and technological approaches used in accomplishing the hospitality requirements, reducing the amount of water that can be flushed in the toilets and using sensors in the lighting system to control the overall light requirements. The buildings have to be constructed that are environmentally friendly such as designing large windows to allow natural light and other ventilation requirements. Thus, numerous strategies and opportunities exist, which can be employed in ensuring the environment becomes sustainability, and it requires collaboration and cooperation among different stakeholders. In conclusion, the human behavior negates the environment which creates a chain of negative reactions. For example, the urge to address the lifestyle requirements creates negative effective on the ozone layer increasing the amount of sunlight entering the world. Other activities such as industrialization, use of certain makes of cars, poor disposal and waste management strategies, and lack of awareness in sustaining the environment are some of the major issues. The solution is to encourage environmental sustainability through creating awareness and changing human behavior focused on sustainability. For instance, recycling and effective waste management system reduce the effect on the environment. Realigning the industrial activities, seeking alternative and renewable source of energy, and wider ideological shift improves the world through addressing the requirements of global warming and environmental sustainability. Read More