Everyone will agree that the drug issue in America is prominent. After so many drug related crimes, deaths, and federal spending, debates spur with opposing views in the political arena on how to rectify the problem. One view on solving the problem according to Judge James P. Gray's proposal is to legalize drugs or as legalization advocates call it "harm reduction." This approach believes that drugs use is inevitable and the only way to solve the drug problem is through the legalization of harmful and habit forming drugs such as, cocaine, heroine, and marijuana. Through Legalization, James P. Gray believes drug use and drug related crime rates will decrease. After so many drug related deaths and crimes, America has come too far with the successful War on Drugs to consider surrendering to legalization and committing national suicide.
If James P Gray's Proposal's purpose is to stabilize the drug problem in America, it will fail because drug use will increase. As written in James P Gray's proposal to sell drugs in licensed pharmacies, drug stores will sell drugs lower than street price which will only promote use because of its easy accessibility, cheap price, and having not to be worried of getting caught. Between 1973 and 1979 eleven states legalized marijuana. According to the former director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy Barry R. McCaffrey, during this period marijuana use increased form 14 to 31 percent in adolescents, 48 percents to 68 percent in young adults, and 7 percent to 20 percent among adults over twenty-six. In a more recent event of drug policy leniency Mayor Kurt Schmoke of Baltimore reduced drug enforcement, distributed clean needles to addicts, and emphasized on "harm reduction." Since Schmoke's actions Baltimore is the most abundant in addicts in one year having 342 cocaine related emergency-room cases per 100,000 and 346 heroine related emergency-room cases per 100,000. Under James P. Gray's