In the past four years alone, more than 35,000 people have been killed in violence related to Mexico’s war against the cartels that control the illegal drug market, and that is only Mexico. Consider the number of people around the world who die because of the global illegal drug market, whether they are law enforcers trying to stop it, or drug consumers trying to get more of it, or the drug sellers themselves trying to gain from it, how many do you think they must be? Thousands? Millions? A lot. Yes, a lot of 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.