What is a recreational drug and why it should not be legalized? Recreational drugs are chemical substances consumed for enjoyment, or leisure purposes, rather than medical reasons. In the United States, the principle substances that are prohibited include opium, heroin, cocaine, and marijuana. Since marijuana is the most common drug that has been used for a long time, it is also known as a recreational drug (Jonathan, Angela, Beau & Mark, 2012). According to drug problems and current drug policies, the legalization of marijuana has been a controversial topic in many countries including the United States. While a significant number of citizens believe that the legalization could decriminalize drugs, there are three main arguments that should …show more content…
Previously, drug policies focused on incarceration rather than drug treatment which resulted as the mass imprisonment problem (Fergusson & Horwood, 1997). However, it is obvious that legalizing marijuana and taxing it will not solve any issue at all. In Obama Administration, the government rejected economic arguments on supporting the legalization of drugs. The government explained that “tax revenue from cigarettes or tobacco are far outweighed by their social costs” (Stevenson, 2011, pp.168-175). According to the record, the heavy taxation on alcohol and drugs is not sufficient to cover the cost associated with their use. Even though the government could earn a lot of money from taxation, it is hard to afford the cost of drug usage and drug abuse. Since the government needs to take responsibility on its consequences such as health care, crime careers, and victims of drug related crime, it is predictable that the cost of legalization will never be worth the social cost (Harwood, Fountain & Livermore, 1998). Besides drug taxation, some people believed that legal marijuana could better help the government to access and control the black market. In contrast, this could encourage drug producers to expand their market to the bigger target group and approach to teenagers. To sum up, it is true that taxing marijuana could raise …show more content…
Since education is the fundamental of society, prolonged use of marijuana could affect educational success. According to the health research, drug consumption prevents the body’s ability to learn and process information. To emphasize, the chemicals in marijuana hinder the brain function to concentrate and memorize things. Besides that, the connection between drug and crime are too strong to be distinguished. Ethan (1989) claimed that “the production, sale, purchase, and possession of banned substances are crimes in and of themselves.” Therefore, without the drug prohibition law, these activities would significantly turn to be considered crimes. Another record provided that almost 40% of drug users confess that they committed crimes to afford drugs (Boyum & Kleiman, 1995). Although some scientists showed that marijuana could restrain a person’s aggressive behavior, the long-term usage may modify the nervous system in the way that promotes violence instead (Friedman, 2008, pp.49-72). Furthermore, legalization of marijuana could lead to a series of negative consequences on the community. In other words, if the drug is legal then it could be said that it is accessible and available for everyone including teenagers. This leads to the matter how the drug would be regulated and sold. Although the drug policy could limit the minimum age for drug buyers, it is a bad role model for adolescents to grow up
Legalization can lower the crime rate. Not to mention that marijuana is an affordable alternative for those seeking it for medical purposes. In the same sentiment the health benefits of marijuana have surpassed the expectations of even the most skeptical. To end, the taxing of recreational use will impact our public schools significantly in a positive way. The children of the future deserve any chance for success.
It has also been shown that marijuana contributed to the decrease in alcohol consumption, traffic fatalities and suicides (Estoup, Moise-Campbell, Varma & Stewart, 2016, p. 1881). Some also suggest that with legalization, there should be regulations which could assist with minimize the effects which may arise with daily use. These suggestions include placing taxes on marijuana products based
The previous decades saw increased the decriminalization of certain drugs, such as marijuana, as they began to be used more casually. However, the 1980s and the specifically the Reagan administration saw the “War on Drugs” start. Led by Nancy Reagan, the “Just Say No” campaign dominated the headlines as parents became concerned about their children using drugs (Goode & Ben-Yehuda, n.d.). Under new leadership, the government began to criminalize drug use to unprecedented levels.
Proponents of drug legalization, such as myself, argue that it could have a number of societal benefits. For one thing, it may help to reduce the number of weak addicts by making drugs more widely available and less valuable. As a result, employers would no longer have to worry about hiring people with drug addictions, potentially leading to a more competitive job market. Furthermore, legalization might contribute to economic growth by generating new jobs in the drug industry and money through taxes and regulations.
In the past decade, a number of movements to legalize the use of marijuana has been gaining momentum. According to the 2016 Gallup survey, a record high 60% of Americans say that marijuana should be legalized and this figure marks a 9% increase compared to 2014. Support for legalizing marijuana was 31% in 2000, 50% in 2016 before reaching 60% last year. This shows that despite government efforts to eliminate its use, marijuana is becoming more popular. It is clear that
It is astonishing to consider how a little over a century ago the use of drugs was completely legal in the United States. Prior to the implementation of Acts such as the 1914 Harrison Tax Act, the 1970 Controlled Substances Act, and the ongoing War on Drugs drug use was constitutionally protected as the extension of liberty gave citizens the right to consume any product they desired. Thus, prior to the 1914 Harrison Tax Act, any federal ban on any drugs was viewed as unconstitutional. Moreover, drugs were easily and cheaply accessible for users to purchase and even encouraged as their appearance of them in business catalogs and product advertisements boosted the economy. Groups seeking to ban particular drugs sought to establish the 1914
This is an issue in itself because as a society, we shouldn’t be justifying such actions because of drugs. The usage of drugs also affects the people around the user. “Every time a person uses drugs, she is running the risk of experiencing negative side effects, such as aggression. If a person becomes more violent from
For example, agencies have been established with the sole intent to manage drug use and distribution and technology has been exclusively developed to detect the presence of drugs. Yet, evidence has indicated that such exhaustive efforts have been relatively unsuccessful. First, it has been assumed that drugs have perpetuated violence in society and based on this rationale, it was believed that by the suppressing the pervasiveness of drugs that incidents of violence would simultaneously diminish. However, reality has failed to align with the expectations that had initially been anticipated. Research findings have suggested that the decriminalization of drugs would result in a less adversarial drug market in which conflicts have tended to arise among dealers as well as between dealers and buyers (Common Sense for Drug Policy, 2007, p. 21).
Kansas V Dank Kush Over the course of the last five years the U.S. state and federal courts have addressed a growing concern about the legalization of marijuana. The legalization of marijuana has been put into question several times causing numerous politicians to claim different sides to this issue. The 37th president of the United States (Richard M. Nixon) once said “Federal and state laws (should) be changed to no longer make it a crime to possess marijuana for private use.” At this point in time four states have legalized the sale and use of marijuana including Colorado, Alaska, Washington, and Oregon.
With the pressure to legalize marijuana rise for government officials, protesters argue that decriminalizing marijuana would help society and benefit the people living in the Unites States. In states that have already legalized marijuana, it has been documented and proven that marijuana usage has been higher than before legalization, even if the consequences were very severe (“Marijuana Decriminalization”). If people are so highly dedicated to continuingcontinue using marijuana, even with their lives and future at stake, what could stop them? Marijuana has been proven to be a “gateway” drug, therefore, if marijuana were to be legalized, eventually other harmful substances could be legalized as well causing many deaths and various forms of
Drug Legalization in America We live in a world where drugs have been a constant battle for decades. Have we come to an everlasting battle of trying to allow or prevent responsible adults from consuming or selling drugs? Drug Legalization is a worldwide phenomenon that law officials are continually trying to assess within American society. Through, examining the passages on drug policy of William J. Bennett “Drug Policy and Intellectuals”, Milton Friedman “There’s No Justice in the war on Drugs”, and Elliott Currie “Toward a Policy on Drugs”.
Today the demands are changing in different states. In States such as Colorado and Washington, marijuana has been legalized for recreational use. This move raised several questions as far as decriminalization of marijuana is concerned. Besides portraying the US in a bad light, legalization of marijuana for recreation increases the risk of developing mental problems, increases government expenditure on public health, jeopardizes the future of children, and is a gateway to other dangerous drugs. Increased health problems and public health expenditure-
While there are many ongoing topics in the United States, the legalization of drugs is one of the most largely debated in the United States. The common argument of this debate is whether drugs should be legalized or kept illegal. Within this debate, some writers agree that there is a potential profit from taxation, how the war on drugs has been a failure, but disagree on that the legalization of drugs would create a safer country. The first point of agreement among those who agree about legalization of drugs is that there is a large potential profit from the legalization of drugs. For instance Elliott Morse, who is pro-legalization, makes the point that legalization could net in $70 billion (paragraph 29) in taxes annually which he then compares
This paper will aim to present the opposite and include several arguments about why illicit drugs should not be legalized. Economy The country is undoubtedly in the midst of one of the most devastating drug abuse eras that the United States has ever seen.
Then you will need the people who will be responsible for retrieving/making the resources needed to produce the drugs. Finally, you will have the brick and mortar stores as well as online stores that will be selling thus stimulating the real estate market. If we are to look at drugs from a sociological perspective we can see that legalization is a beneficial alternative to The War on Drugs. First, criminalizing drugs when it should be treated as a health issue creates more problems than it solves. By giving someone a permanent record for possession of a drug their life is being ruined more so because of the government consequence versus the actual health consequences of the drug.