Some say drugs are a nuisance, some say they are a gift sent from above, so which one are they? Scientifically, drugs are chemical substances that affect the central nervous system; they can be used to affect perception, consciousness, personality, and behaviour. Drugs can be classified into many different categories: there are legal drugs, and illegal drugs, there are recreational drugs, and medical drugs, and there are soft drugs, and hard drugs. Usually the lines between these categories is blurry, and what one person perceives as a soft drug, another can consider it a hard one; take alcohol for example: it’s legal, but it is a hard drug that is stronger than marijuana and many other illegal ones. Because it is legal, people can’t have enough of it, thinking that being legal makes it a soft drug. Consuming drugs have become the norm nowadays, and though they are a heckled of fun, they can be pretty harmful, and that is why most countries have prohibited most drug consumption, and have spent millions on it, but have people stopped? Obviously, they have not; in 2009, between 149 million and 271 million people worldwide used an illicit drug at least once. This shows that even though illegal drug consumption can be decreased, it cannot be stopped. So, is it worth it?
The USA spends nearly 50 billion dollars a year to eradicate drug use. There are around 1.6 million arrests a year for drug-related crimes, 82% of which were for possession alone. It costs around $ 26,000 to incarcerate a federal prisoner for one year. American teens say that obtaining illegal marijuana is easier than obtaining legal, but age-regulated, alcohol. Since illegal drugs can’t exactly be bought at the nearest pharmacy to one’s place, one goes to an illegal drug distributor. Since all illegal drug sales are not legal, obviously, it is hard to put them into facts and figures, however; the profits of one drug selling organization have been calculated at nearly half a billion dollars a year, and that is just one of many illegal drug trade organizations. Estimates say that legalizing and regulating drugs could boost the U.S. economy by $88 billion a year in law enforcement savings and new tax revenue. This shows that if drugs were legalized, monetary profits will rise through the roof, not only because drug sales will be legal and the revenue will go to the country at hand, but also because costs of banning drugs will decline sizeably. So, is it worth it?
In Holland, soft drugs are legal. The policy of the government in legalizing the drugs is to allow young adults to try the drug experience without going through the underground motion that young adults have to go through in other countries to obtain drugs. Ever since this law has been made the amount of drug users has decreased drastically; in the year 1994 the percentage of lifetime use of cannabis by older teens in America was 38%, in Holland it hadn’t reached over 31%. The money spent by the U.S on drug law enforcement was more than twice the money spent by Holland. So, is it worth it?
people die of overdoses too, but why? Well, most of them die because the drugs they take, the illegal ones, are contaminated. The quality of drugs in the black market is unregulated, and since it is difficult and expensive to purify drugs, most drug sellers don’t do it, in fact; rarely any of them do. Another reason why drug overdoses occur is the mixing of these drugs; mixing different types of drugs like alcohol and Xanax greatly increases the risk of overdosing as they work together and put too much strain on the body. The third reason behind drug overdoses is the obvious one, over consumption. If drugs were legalized, production would be regulated and the drugs would be purified, thus decreasing the amount of drug overdoses profoundly. If drugs were legalized, the number of deaths that occur due to illegal drug trafficking would decline promptly. If drugs were legalized and awareness campaigns about the dangers of mixing drugs were spread, drug overdoses due to drug mixing will decrease rapidly. If drugs were legalized, and their use was regulated and examined, drug overdoses due to drug over consumption would dwindle swiftly. So, is it worth it?
People want what they can’t have, and once something becomes easy to obtain, they want it less. It is called the thrill of the chase. So what if drugs were easier to obtain? Teenagers in Holland have decreased their use of cannabis drastically when it was legalized, so why not legalize it if it’s going to cause a decrease in consumption anyway? If drugs were to be legalized, drug consumption around the world would fall intensely. After legalization people’s intake of drugs will increase at first, but eventually, and with the help of awareness campaigns, their consumption will decrease, just like the Dutch’s did. So, is it worth it?
No it is not. 23.5 million Americans are in need of substance abuse treatment, but only one in 10 receive it. Rather than spending their money on eliminating drug abuse, governments should use that money on people with drug problems, and creating a way with which people can consume drugs without destroying their lives and others’ in the process. If drugs were legalized they will be distributed legally, obliterating crime related drugs. If drugs were legalized, it would help governments decrease their costs and increase their revenues, creating large profits. If drugs were legalized, drug consumption will be clean and regulated, considerably decreasing drug overdoses. If drugs were legalized, their consumption would increase immensely, meeting the goal of the war against drugs. So, should drugs be legalized? Of course. But, “how do we legalize drugs?” is the question.