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 …show more content…
In An Open Letter To Bill Bennett, Friedman is pleading with Bennett to rethink the system of the War on Drugs and consider how effective it has truly been when observing the persistent drug issue not only in America but also how the illegality of drugs has influenced the devastation of other countries within the drug supply. In this letter, Friedman agrees with Bennett on the importance of drug regulation and understands the moral, health, and safety dilemmas that drug use places on society. However, Friedman believes that the way that America is addressing the drug problem is not the correct method and is instead a large source of the increasing drug issue in America. In the letter, Friedman discusses the demand for drugs having to operate through restricted and illegal channels only causes more harm through violent crime, increased arrests and incarceration rates for non-violent drug users, and takes the efforts and focus of law enforcement away from other serious crimes. Further, Friedman pleads with Bennett to address the issues plaguing the prohibition of drugs by appealing to the restrictions of human liberty and individual freedom that are supposed to be guaranteed and offers a solution that focuses on rehabilitation instead of punishment of drug users. Overall, Friedman makes an effective argument for the legalization of drugs through the use of appealing to liberty, addressing …show more content…
As evident from the arguments above, great harm is occurring with the current system of prohibiting drugs and the subsequent War on Drugs. First, a harm to American society as we feverishly punish those who are guilty of drug use and abuse. Second, harm to the individual as they are restricted from personal liberty to choose to engage in particular activities, more likely to engage in dangerous activities as the drug is criminalized, and suffer from a higher likelihood of abusing or getting an addiction to the drug than if it were legalized. In my overall stance, legalizing drugs would benefit America by offering a more compassionate method of treating those who engage in drug activity and decreasing crime and violence associated with the illegality of drugs. Furthermore, one country that has had great success with legalizing drugs has been Portugal. In July 2001, Portugal decriminalized the personal use and possession of all illicit drugs. The video “How Portugal Successfully Tackled Its Drug Crisis'' is an informative look into how America could potentially address the drug crisis here. Portugal's system emphasizes harm reduction, treatment, and rehabilitation and at the center of it focuses on drug use as a health problem and not a crime. While drug traffickers are still prosecuted, personal use of illicit drugs is allowed and people dealing with
In a 1970 article about drugs, narcotics, and the government, “Drugs: Case for Legalizing Marijuana”, Gore Vidal explores how the illegalization of marijuana has created the opposite effect of what the legislation has intended to do. Vidal’s explanation and reasoning behind this idea is not entirely associated with drug users and the population in general, but also has a strong link to monetary gains in government bureaus and large-scale mafias. These financial motive claims are supported by logical appeal and evidence.1 To begin, Vidal points out that, “both the Bureau of Narcotics and the Mafia want strong laws against the sale and use of drugs because if drugs are sold at cost there would be no money in it for anyone” (par. 10). This statement
Bachman and Kenneth E. Sharpe thoroughly analyze the possible ripple effects that could potentially come from the War on Drugs. Written in 1990, they had not yet seen the full effect of the War on Drugs, as it was still relatively new. However, because there were so many indicators of what may come, their predictions remained valid. Bachman and Sharpe portrayed the War on Drugs as threat to American people and fundamentals, for it would only do more harm than good and violate many aspects of the constitution. In their examination of the War on Drugs, they had different sections of points that the reader could differentiate between, filling their paragraphs with plenty of facts, statistics and quotes.
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.
In 1970, President Richard Nixon, in response to the drug use coupled with the hippie counterculture of the late 1960s, signed the Controlled Substance Act (CSA) which enacted a method of classifying drugs by categorizing them into five schedules, schedule one considered to be the most dangerous. Shortly following this act, in June of 1971, Nixon declared “The War On Drugs”, famously naming drugs and drug abuse “Public enemy number one”. (History.com, 2016). Following Nixon’s presidency, many presidents and administrations, including Reagan, Bush, and Clinton, have continued the support for The War on Drugs, but where are the results? It seems today that the abuse of drugs is worse than ever before.
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 1970, President Richard Nixon, in response to the drug use coupled with the hippie counterculture of the late 1960s, signed the Controlled Substance Act (CSA) which enacted a method of classifying drugs by categorizing them into five schedules, schedule one considered to be the most dangerous. Shortly following this act, in June of 1971, Nixon declared “The War On Drugs”, famously naming drugs and drug abuse “Public enemy number one”. (History.com, 2016). Following Nixon’s presidency, many presidents and administrations, including Reagan, Bush, and Clinton, have continued the support for The War on Drugs, but where are the results? It seems today that the abuse of drugs is worse than ever before.
Randy E. Bartnett claims that “drug laws cause more harm to addicts and society than drugs themselves.” According to Bartnett, “Drug prohibition makes drugs so expensive, the addicts trying to crime in order to obtain money to buy them. Furthermore, drug prohibition is unfair in that it punishes users for committing a “crime” that has no victim.” Some people might agree with the idea that legalizing drugs would benefit addicts because then they would not be able to obtain drugs so easily.
The main issue when it comes to drugs in the United States is the inefficient policies and sentencing laws that have been created. Also, the injustices within these policies pertaining primarily to race. Once the “war on drugs” was claimed the only way the government and law enforcement saw fit to handling this skyrocketing issue was to incarcerate offenders. Although this solution worked for a while, other alternatives needed to be made. However, these alternatives were not made and this left the drug policies, sentencing laws, and injustices at a standstill.
It has led to mass incarceration in the U.S., corruption, political destabilization and violence in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. It negatively affected the lives of millions of people all of this while America wastes billions of dollars every year only to create and fuel powerful drug cartels while the goal of the war on drugs seems less achievable than ever. Let us dive into the facts. According to the article “U.S. Prison Population Dwarfs
The legalization of drugs has been at the center of interminable debate. Drugs have widely been perceived as a dominant threat to the moral fabric of society. Drug use has been attributed as the source responsible for a myriad of key issues. For instance, it is believed that drugs have exacerbated the already weak status of mental health in the United States in which some individuals suffering from mental illness administer illicit substances such as heroin or cocaine in an attempt to self-medicate. Moreover, drugs are blamed for turning auspicious members of the community into worthless degenerates.
Today many countries try to regulate the numbers of drugs users as many as they can by using the scary promotions and commercials to attract the attention from people, albeit ineffective. Rather than using the outmoded methods, legitimacy should be announced for all drugs in order that the regulation will process more ease for the government. In this procedure, the government can legislate the limitations for drugs consumption and people will be able to understand drug disadvantages profoundly. Therefore, allowing drugs as ordinary substances will abate the drug consumption. The aforementioned issue, in brief, the drugs is a too danger to leave it as it is so it should be legalized.
The use of narcotics like cocaine, claimed many lives and earned widespread coverage by media and news. Following this Nancy Reagan began the “War on Drugs”, a campaign to combat pre-existing drug usage and prevent future
Since marijuana was legalized there have been dramatic results. States that allow the use of marijuana have increased the public’s awareness of the drug’s effects. After an increase in public awarness, many people are setting the drug aside due to long-term effects. If other drugs were made legal in the United States and their long-term and short-term effects were taught, it is very likely that there would be a decrease in their use. People are less inclined to get hooked onto drugs when they realize it could kill them.
Would the decriminalisation and / Legalisation of controlled substances improve or hinder the economic, health and social circumstances of drugs users, their families, communities and society? This essay will briefly outline the current policies on drugs in Ireland and will examine the policies and substance misuse from a European and international perspective; then it will discuss how decriminalisation of drugs and substances can improve or hinder the economic, health and social circumstances of drug users, their families, communities and society in general. Examples of controlled substances in Ireland include cocaine, heroin, methadone, cannabis (full list of controlled substances found in the schedule Misuse of Drugs Act 1977).
As of recent, the war on drugs has been a very often discussed topic due to many controversial issues. Some people believe the War on Drugs has been quite successful due to the amount of drugs seized and the amount of drug kingpins arrested. I believe this to be the wrong mindset when it comes to the war on drugs. The war on drugs isn’t a winnable one so we must do all that is possible to assist those who struggle with drug addiction and decriminalize small amounts of drugs. These minor changes in the way we combat drugs will create significant change and have lasting effects.