Legalizing Drugs as the Only Rational Solution - Essay Example

Legalize it! The Only Rational Solution Several countries throughout the world are working to decriminalize or legalize less harmful drugs such as marijuana, currently classified as a Class C drug, as a means of addressing the growing problem of the war on drugs. Rather than providing the United States and other countries with the elimination of undesirable drugs as was anticipated, the war on drugs has instead served to heighten violence, contribute to the development of organized crime, fill the prison system past capacity, consume large amounts of capital and has still had very little effect on the availability of these drugs or the numbers of individuals who use them. It has been suggested, and in some cases demonstrated, that legalizing or at least decriminalizing less harmful drugs, such as marijuana, can help to reduce the violence, significantly decrease the numbers of people incarcerated for drug use, allow more individuals to remain a contributing member of society and free up funds and manpower to combat against more harmful substances. It was believed by the economists that such a discussion would bring out the obvious factors that will lead to the legalization, regulation and taxation on marijuana, bringing out the benefits of each side and, at the least, justifies the reasons for maintaining the prohibition against the substance. This group of economists was also joined by Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman who argued that there is no logical basis for the prohibition against marijuana. (Friedman, 2005) The vast majority (85%) of America’s teenagers report that marijuana is easy to get every year, indicating that the sales have not been reduced by the laws and enforcement endeavors, leading many government officials to begin wondering whether we are simply throwing away billions of tax dollars to no effect. Over half of the prisoners in jail are there for drug ‘crimes.’ This causes overcrowding which results in the early release of dangerous, violent criminals. This creates more of a public safety problem than does drug use. It is illogical from a societal view and inhumane to individuals who are marked as a criminal for life for activity that causes no harm to others. Those who are addicted receive little or no therapeutic help in prison. Instead of imprisoning people that need help, rehabilitation programs are a much more effective method to treat the problem but a rehabilitation system will not succeed if drugs continue to be illegal.  Drug abusers will hardly seek help from the same government that tosses them in jail for the same thing. The hypocrisy of the drug war is apparent to even very young children. All illegal drugs combined account for about 4,500 deaths in this country per year while tobacco is responsible for murdering 400,000 people annually and alcohol ends 80,000 people’s lives every year. Legislators will not ban smoking because they indicate regulation regarding what adults do in privacy including what they can put into their bodies is clearly unconstitutional and an infringement on personal liberties.  Our code of law is founded upon a principle of presumptive rationality.  Rational adults should be allowed to make personal choices as long as those actions cause no harm to others.  The U.S. government is unequivocally unjustified in choosing this particular personal freedom to ignore at such colossal cost to society. (Fu, 2006) Currently, many of the developed nations of the world are debating the merits regarding the regulation and criminalization of drugs. The most frequent debate is about what is generally deemed the least harmful of illegal drugs, cannabis. People are progressively coming to the opinion that though the government has the right to regulate any consumable including cannabis, “it has no right to seek to prevent its use, either because it is not harmful in any significant way, or because any harm it does cause is not of a kind that is properly the business of the criminal law” (Currie, 1993). Most European nations separate cannabis from the harder drugs in its laws and discussions but the United States generally does not. The U.S. continues to be heavily engaged in its ‘war on drugs’, which began in the 1970’s and was accelerated by President Reagan in the 1980’s. The prohibition of marijuana makes little sense and disallowing the medicinal use to cancer patients living every day with agonizing pain and glaucoma patients who depend on marijuana to see better, for example, should be unthinkable in a civilized society. Marijuana is characterized as being simply a drug much the same as heroine or crack cocaine. It is not. The majority of people who use marijuana, both adult and youth, do not become habitual, daily users nor are they involved in criminal behaviors that are related with the use of drugs. Following their assessment of various studies, Chaiken and Chaiken (1989: 216) concluded that “among youths who engage in both predatory crime and substance use, the onset of crime most often comes first.” This assessment in effect eliminates the likelihood that drug use leads teenagers to criminal activity. Alcohol use by young teenagers was, however, an indicator of violent behavior later in life. Marijuana use was unrelated to violent activities. It is a fallacy to suggest that teenagers commit crimes at a higher rate simply to support a cannabis habit. It is not physically addicting. At most it has a psychological draw but this has yet to be conclusively demonstrated. Using Marijuana is not a societal problem. Abusing harder drugs is. The problem is too large for citizens alone to alleviate the situation. It will require governments to take a proactive role in altering legislation regarding the criminalization of drugs and by supplying treatment centers that are open to those that need it most. However, the political debate regarding drugs is usually based on emotion provoking rhetoric and not the facts or realistic solutions. Politicians understand that ‘tough talk’ on drugs gains votes by tapping into the parents’ natural instincts to protect their children. A politician’s promise to eradicate drugs is a popular sentiment amongst parents who wish to shield their kids from drugs. It is interesting that the debate on drug policies in most countries is simply that, drug policies, without distinction for the different types but youths certainly realize that there is a difference. This is evidenced by the fact that the great majority of youths who use illegal drugs choose the least harmful. The debate combines heroin with cannabis when attempting to find a solution to the problem but different drugs include widely different issues which require widely different solutions. People of the world differ on many issues but most all can agree that parents do not want their children to use drugs and that the current policies of their particular nation are not effective. Many argue that legalizing drugs is tantamount to endorsing their use therefore encouraging children to partake in mind-altering substances. The truth, which is seldom a component of drug policy debates, is that decriminalization is a reasonable solution that protects civil liberties and will ultimately reduce the number of children who use. This approach, in conjunction with effective treatment programmers, is the only proven method of combating the violent, debilitating, financially draining and socially harmful global drug problem. The war on drugs is policy based on morals, not on public health, and is taking a grave toll on the economics and civil liberties of that country’s society. “The U.S. government is spending an enormous amount of money to wage this war – a figure that has exploded in the last two decades. In 1981, the federal drug control budget stood at $1.5 billion. By 1991, it was $11 billion. Today, it is $17 billion” (“Sane Drug Policy”, 1999). A reasonable proposal may be to make drugs such as cannabis legal under restricted circumstances, but not as controlled as it is now. Secondly, sound reasoning should prevail in substance abuse policies. The third aspect is to manage our tax money more wisely and discontinue wasting billions of dollars on criminal law enforcement techniques. Instead, these funds should be diverted into treatment and abuse prevention. References Chaiken, J. & Chaiken, M. (1989). “Drug Use and Predatory Crime.” Drugs and Crime – Crime and Justice: An Annual Review of Research. J.Q. Wilson & M. Tonry (Eds.). Vol. 13. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Currie. E. (1993). Reckoning: Drugs, The Cities And The American Future. New York, Hill and Wang. Fu, Edward. (March 8, 2006). “Should Drugs be Legalized?” Drug Policy News. Drug Policy Alliance. Available February 9, 2009 from “(A) Sane Drug Policy.” (October, 1999). The Progressive. V. 63, I. 10, p. 8. Available February 9, 2009 from Read More