Legalizing Drugs Essays - Drug Culture, Drug Control Law

Legalizing Drugs Lindsey Greene English 102 September 23, 2001 Drugs- something and often an illegal substance that causes addiction, habituation, or a marked change in consciousness. - Merriam-Webster Dictionary Just close your eyes for a minute and picture what the world would be like if drugs were legal. Would you be for it or against it? Just think, you could get drugs anywhere you wanted. You would not have to worry about getting in trouble with the law. You could get as many as you wanted and have a supply and variety of whatever you wished for. Would this be a good thing or a bad thing? The three sources: Traffic, Legalizing Drugs Make Matters Worse, and Legalization Madness all has the same thing in common. They all lean to the side that drugs are a problem and legalizing them would only make things worse. There are people that argue that the best way to solve the problem of drugs is simply by making drugs legal. There are many problems that would be associated with legalization of drugs that is discussed in these three sources. Drug users would increase dramatically, crime would raise higher than it has been before, and the unemployment rate will go up due to the fact that the increase of users has also increased the number of people who have to support their drug habit by illegal actions (Inciardi & Saum 82). Wilson as well as Incardi and Saum take a look at the different sides or possibilities of affects that legalizing drugs could have on society. Incardi and Saum make three points that the other side is making. In their article it includes that legalizing drugs will force the quality of drugs to go up, decrease the search to find drugs, and also increase the amount that drug users consume (79). The drug quality will have to go up just because there will probably end up being restrictions on the drugs and they will be monitored to make sure they are real. Before people would buy the drugs not knowing for sure what exactly they were getting. Now they would be guaranteed quality. They also wouldnt have to go out searching for someone who has drugs or someone who knows how that person could get some. People would no longer have to sneak around trying to get their drugs. Lastly, people would increase the amount of drugs they intake because they will be cheaper. Their bodies will get used to the dosage that they are taking and have to take more to have the same effect. Since it will be cheaper it will just be an excuse to do it more often (Wilson 1). If we were to legalize drugs the number of users would increase dramatically (Wilson 1). According to Incardi and Saum, one of the biggest reasons for not using drugs is due to the fact that they are illegal. By making drugs legal it would entice people to go out and try them, which would make it more likely that they would become addicted (81). Wilson states that crime rates have fallen in this country and if we want them to rise up again the way we can do that is by legalizing drugs. If we reduce drugs among criminals it would help the crime rates instead of just letting them have all the supplies they wanted (3). It doesnt matter if it is the hard drugs or the soft drugs. You can become addicted to any drug and the users dont stop at the soft drugs but keep moving up to the hard stuff. Marijuana only increases the likeliness that someone will resort to stronger substances. Legalizing drugs would lower the prices of drugs but would increase the number of users (Wilson 7). Although the drug prices would fall this would make it even easier for people to get them and use them on a regular basis. This would increase the number of addicts and the crime would not decrease. In fact, Wilson suggests that crime would actually increase. We would have all these new users who are now no longer able to hold a job because of their driving habit that forces them to resort to criminal activity.