Solving the drug issue by getting done with the police - Essay Example

Teacher Solving the drug issue by getting done with the police Let’s legalize drugs and be done with the police! It is because prohibiting drugs does not work! Despite the draconian measures imposed against its distribution and use, the problem on drugs is still prevalent. The most stringent law nor the broader use of the state’s police power have not deterred people from its used and this only manifests that the escalation of control and police enforcement is a wrong response. It only pushed the industry into the black market which begets another set of problems. Worst, 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! We might not want to admit it, but forbidding something actually makes it more desirable and this applies not only to drugs but also to alcohol, gambling and even prostitution. 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, government can instead tax it! Legalizing drugs actually makes sense. Experts actually have the opinion that the prohibition of drugs by the state is hinged more on speculation and fear mongering rather than empirical evidences. 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 EU. Strangely, those who have the most stringent and most punitive law against drugs have the most number of drug addicts and the violence attached to it. So let’s legalize drugs and benefit from it. The fear that legalization of drugs will make us a country of drug addicts is based on speculation because facts tell otherwise such as the case of Portugal. Portugal is not an exception to the rule because no country except for Portugal has legalized drugs yet. Thus, it would reasonable to state that the case of Portugal is in fact the norm. Once it is legalized, the problem with violence and law enforcement will diminish. US is actually just paranoid with drugs. The problem with the government is that it automatically bans anything that it does not understand. Instead of treating dependency and making its impact manageable, the government automatically turns its face the other way around and just goes about hunting those who push and uses it. As a result, law enforcement on drugs became a cat and mice chase where none can see the end of it. In other countries such as Canada and Switzerland, it is even the government that will give you the place and yes, even the fix with your drug addiction. Believe it or not, but in Canada and Switzerland, there are centers there where a drug addict can go and have a clean needle and can purchase drugs (at times it is free) where there are nurses and medical professionals around to make sure that you will not kill yourself with overdose when you do your fix. Are these countries fools? No. They are enlightened in fact. They know that no matter how they make the law strict, drug addiction will still persist (hence it is called addiction in the first place). Worst, it can go underground spawning more problems like syndication, spread of AIDS with sharing of needles and high medical cost to the state when drug addiction is not looked after in addition to violence. So what they did is provided a safe place where government can actually watch and monitor their addicts. By doing this, they solve a lot of things. First, the spread of HIV through sharing of needle is stopped, second, medical cost associated to treatment of overdose and other complications are removed and lastly, addicts no longer has to resort to other illegal activities such as robbing people just to have the money to buy their fix. If you do not have the money to buy your drugs, in Canada and Switzerland, the government will provide your drugs for free just do not rob and harm yourself. AIDS and violence is reduced as well as cost not to mention that everybody is happy. For those who want to rehabilitate themselves, there are also rehabilitation centers where dependents can go to detoxify themselves on their own freewill. In the US detox centers were demonized that drug dependents do not to go there because it can be likened to a mental asylum. Banning drugs such as marijuana also deprives us of its potential medical benefits. The fear that marijuana is destructive to health is in fact a myth. Government fear for its use but the fact remains that nobody died in the 10,000 years of known use of marijuana and yet, there were hundreds of thousands of people died from other medicines such as aspirin and other common drugs. In addition to its harmless nature to health, marijuana has a medical benefit to a lot of diseases. There are numerous studies that supports that marijuana can actually cure about 200 different medical conditions. Of those diseases that responded favorably to marijuana treatment were Alzheimer's disease, Epilepsy, Multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, arthritis, depression among the 200 diseases that it can possibly treat. Sometimes, it is difficult to understand why government is so paranoid about drugs. It even resorted to demonizing it for utter lack of solution on how to deal it. Other countries have dealt with it effectively by just being creative. I do not want to think our government to be dumb, just lacking creativity. Perhaps it is their turn to take cannabis instead because cannabis is known to enhance creativity - that after a pot or two, maybe government can think of better ways to deal with it than demonizing and banning it. Read More