Legalizing Drugs
Drugs: Good or Bad
Imagine a world where drugs are legal, walking down the street and seeing people on drugs everywhere. Where almost everyone is going into convenient stores buying crack, marijuana, or even heroin. What kind of world would this be, to see junkies on the side of the road and it is perfectly legal. To see more crime than ever before from people who are trying to steal, kill, and rob just to get a fix. Believe it or not, but at one point all drugs were legal. People walked around taking acid and smoking marijuana. According to the website addictions.org there was a bill passed in 1970 called The Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act. This is when the first thought of scheduling drugs …show more content…
came into mind. There are certain types of groups that watch over these schedules. That is the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services, including the Federal Drug Administration. The FDA takes care of all the arrests and watches over the drug trafficking (Trafficking drugs is the illegal distribution of drugs) that happens in or around our country. While the other two take care of what to put on the schedules. There are five different schedules starting at five and going up to one, from lowest addiction to highest addiction. The worst type of these schedules is schedule one. This schedule is the one where they put the most addictive and harmful types of drugs. Drugs like heroin, ecstasy, marijuana, and LSD are just a few of them. Now they want to legalize marijuana, this is because doctors say it has medical benefits. But Congress would also like to put a tax on the distribution of this drug. Marijuana could very well be the beginning of the legalization of drugs all together. This is because most of these other schedule one drugs were created for medicinal 2 purposes. So they too would serve a medical benefit. If they could pass the bill to legalize schedule one marijuana then what drug would be the next to be legalized? Questions like these arise everyday. I believe legalizing marijuana would wreck society, put many businesses and jobs at risk, and lead to legalization of more harmful drugs.
Let's first take a look at this quote from William J. Bennett, America's first drug czar. "A citizen in a drug-induced haze whether on his backyard deck or on a mattress in a ghetto crack house, is not what the Founding Fathers meant by the 'pursuit of happiness.' ... Helpless wrecks in treatment centers, men chained by their noses to cocainethese people are slaves," (Balkin, pg.23) this quote hits the nail on the head. Just think that these things are going on in our society today and no drug is legal. Happiness is not found in drugs or money, but in life and living it to the fullest. Society today does not need drugs to be legal, because things like this will happen and no one will be able to do a thing about it. I am not saying that drugs like crack and cocaine are going to be legal. If marijuana is legalized then what is stopping people from making drugs like crack and cocaine legal. Knowing that people will be doing nothing with their lives and tearing at the fabric of society. The fabric of what founded this country, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
If marijuana was legalized do people think that crime would go down? American government has increased the number of law enforcement substantially for the fight against drugs. This quote here shows how America has improved its law force for just drugs. " the criminal justice system has grown much larger: there are more police officers, prosecutors, judges, and prison guards then ever before. The number of arrest, 3 convictions and prisoners has increases exponentially; so has the amount of seized contraband",(Balkin, pg.25) Do people think by legalizing marijuana that crime will go down or even subside a little?
Marijuana is not the only drug that people would kill or steal for. A good example would be the Columbian Cartel. They are known for the distribution of cocaine. So the legalization of marijuana would not affect any if at all crime on American streets. Drug organizations would focus on other drugs and still kill innocent people over nothing but drugs. The American people would have to pay for it, in taxes and American lives lost every day to drugs. On top of that marijuana would be legal, so people would have to suffer knowing that others are wasting their lives away on a drug that might only benefit the people who really need …show more content…
it.
Imagine going into a restaurant, or any type of business for that matter, trying to get help from an employee who was high. People would probably never get what they needed. If marijuana became legal then things like this would happen everyday. Let's look at this quote by William J. Bennett, from his address at Harvard University in 1989. " The last thing we needed was a policy that made widely available a substance that impairs memory, concentration, and attention span " Going out to eat does not need to be any harder than it already is. Almost everyone has been given the wrong food or the order has taken too long or just is not right. This is when people are almost certain that the employees are not on drugs. Image if people could legally be on drugs to work at a restaurant, it would be absolute chaos. Businesses would lose customers because no one would want to be under that kind of service. Places would have to hire those who did not 4 use marijuana or drugs at all. Then it would come back to legal rights. All in all it would be bad for everyone, the business, the customers, and the employees.
Lastly if marijuana were to become legal then what is stopping the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services from making other drugs to become legal?
Marijuana has been somewhat proven to provide medical benefits to certain people. Other drugs such as ecstasy, cocaine, heroin, and LSD were all created to serve a medical purpose. Marijuana is a schedule one drug along with the others I just mentioned. Schedule one is proven to make people addicted to them. So if marijuana was to be legalized then why not the others, they have medical benefits. According to a book called "Buzzed: The Straight facts about the Most Used and Abused Drugs from Alcohol to Ecstasy," ecstasy was created in 1912 and used in psychotherapy; it was used to help patients have a moment of openness for insight and mutual understanding. Ecstasy serves a medical benefit so why not make it legal also? Questions like this will pop up everyday in Congress if marijuana is legalized. It would be a bad thing for
everyone.
The government believes that legalizing marijuana would be helpful because then they could tax it and control it better. Look at this quote, "The report estimates that legalizing marijuana would save $7.7 billion per year in government expenditure on enforcement of prohibition." (Miron, pg.45). That much money to the economy today is an unbelievable amount. It could be put back into schools and cities to help rebuild and make things a lot better. Also from the same report, " marijuana legalization would yield tax revenue of $2.4 billion annually if marijuana were taxed like all other goods and $6.2 billion annually if marijuana were taxed at rates comparable to those on
5 alcohol and tobacco."(Miron, pg.47) That much money could definitely help out the United States in many different ways. But of course nothing comes with out a price to pay. Take a look at this quote from the same report as above, "Whether marijuana legalization is a desirable policy depends on many factors other than the budgetary impacts discussed "(Miron, pg.48) Even with all the money because of marijuana think about all the money that would be spent on reducing crime, repairing damages from people who are high and did not know better. Most of all think about the price to pay from people who were killed from the result of people being high. These are things we need to take into consideration, not money. The legalization of marijuana is a very serious and real discussion, probably going on this very second in congress. When thinking about this subject remember, that marijuana can hurt the society more than help. It could ruin businesses, and be the potential start of the legalization of more harmful drugs. Even though the money from legalizing and taxing marijuana can be beneficial, it would be a bigger price to pay for all the lives lost.
Balkin, Karen. "Drug Legalization." Opposing Viewpoints. (Fall 2006): Thomson Gale. Jefferson Community College. 7 Nov. 2006. http://find.galegroup.com
Bennett, William. "Drug Policy and the Intellectuals." Current Issues and Enduring Questions. (7th ed.) Ed. Sylvan and Barnet Hugo Bedau. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005. 611 18.
Drug Schedules. 1 Dec, 2006. www.addictions.org/schedules
Kuhn, Cynthia, Scott Swartzwelder, and Wilkie Wilson. Buzzed: The Straight Facts
About the most Used and Abused Drugs from Alcohol to Ecstasy. New York: W. W. Norton and Company.
The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition. Ed. Jeffrey A. Miron. June 2005. Harvard University. 11 November 2006 http://www.prohibitioncosts.org/mironreport.htm
Imagine a world where drugs are legal, walking down the street and seeing people on drugs everywhere. Where almost everyone is going into convenient stores buying crack, marijuana, or even heroin. What kind of world would this be, to see junkies on the side of the road and it is perfectly legal. To see more crime than ever before from people who are trying to steal, kill, and rob just to get a fix. Believe it or not, but at one point all drugs were legal. People walked around taking acid and smoking marijuana. According to the website addictions.org there was a bill passed in 1970 called The Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act. This is when the first thought of scheduling drugs …show more content…
came into mind. There are certain types of groups that watch over these schedules. That is the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services, including the Federal Drug Administration. The FDA takes care of all the arrests and watches over the drug trafficking (Trafficking drugs is the illegal distribution of drugs) that happens in or around our country. While the other two take care of what to put on the schedules. There are five different schedules starting at five and going up to one, from lowest addiction to highest addiction. The worst type of these schedules is schedule one. This schedule is the one where they put the most addictive and harmful types of drugs. Drugs like heroin, ecstasy, marijuana, and LSD are just a few of them. Now they want to legalize marijuana, this is because doctors say it has medical benefits. But Congress would also like to put a tax on the distribution of this drug. Marijuana could very well be the beginning of the legalization of drugs all together. This is because most of these other schedule one drugs were created for medicinal 2 purposes. So they too would serve a medical benefit. If they could pass the bill to legalize schedule one marijuana then what drug would be the next to be legalized? Questions like these arise everyday. I believe legalizing marijuana would wreck society, put many businesses and jobs at risk, and lead to legalization of more harmful drugs.
Let's first take a look at this quote from William J. Bennett, America's first drug czar. "A citizen in a drug-induced haze whether on his backyard deck or on a mattress in a ghetto crack house, is not what the Founding Fathers meant by the 'pursuit of happiness.' ... Helpless wrecks in treatment centers, men chained by their noses to cocainethese people are slaves," (Balkin, pg.23) this quote hits the nail on the head. Just think that these things are going on in our society today and no drug is legal. Happiness is not found in drugs or money, but in life and living it to the fullest. Society today does not need drugs to be legal, because things like this will happen and no one will be able to do a thing about it. I am not saying that drugs like crack and cocaine are going to be legal. If marijuana is legalized then what is stopping people from making drugs like crack and cocaine legal. Knowing that people will be doing nothing with their lives and tearing at the fabric of society. The fabric of what founded this country, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
If marijuana was legalized do people think that crime would go down? American government has increased the number of law enforcement substantially for the fight against drugs. This quote here shows how America has improved its law force for just drugs. " the criminal justice system has grown much larger: there are more police officers, prosecutors, judges, and prison guards then ever before. The number of arrest, 3 convictions and prisoners has increases exponentially; so has the amount of seized contraband",(Balkin, pg.25) Do people think by legalizing marijuana that crime will go down or even subside a little?
Marijuana is not the only drug that people would kill or steal for. A good example would be the Columbian Cartel. They are known for the distribution of cocaine. So the legalization of marijuana would not affect any if at all crime on American streets. Drug organizations would focus on other drugs and still kill innocent people over nothing but drugs. The American people would have to pay for it, in taxes and American lives lost every day to drugs. On top of that marijuana would be legal, so people would have to suffer knowing that others are wasting their lives away on a drug that might only benefit the people who really need …show more content…
it.
Imagine going into a restaurant, or any type of business for that matter, trying to get help from an employee who was high. People would probably never get what they needed. If marijuana became legal then things like this would happen everyday. Let's look at this quote by William J. Bennett, from his address at Harvard University in 1989. " The last thing we needed was a policy that made widely available a substance that impairs memory, concentration, and attention span " Going out to eat does not need to be any harder than it already is. Almost everyone has been given the wrong food or the order has taken too long or just is not right. This is when people are almost certain that the employees are not on drugs. Image if people could legally be on drugs to work at a restaurant, it would be absolute chaos. Businesses would lose customers because no one would want to be under that kind of service. Places would have to hire those who did not 4 use marijuana or drugs at all. Then it would come back to legal rights. All in all it would be bad for everyone, the business, the customers, and the employees.
Lastly if marijuana were to become legal then what is stopping the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services from making other drugs to become legal?
Marijuana has been somewhat proven to provide medical benefits to certain people. Other drugs such as ecstasy, cocaine, heroin, and LSD were all created to serve a medical purpose. Marijuana is a schedule one drug along with the others I just mentioned. Schedule one is proven to make people addicted to them. So if marijuana was to be legalized then why not the others, they have medical benefits. According to a book called "Buzzed: The Straight facts about the Most Used and Abused Drugs from Alcohol to Ecstasy," ecstasy was created in 1912 and used in psychotherapy; it was used to help patients have a moment of openness for insight and mutual understanding. Ecstasy serves a medical benefit so why not make it legal also? Questions like this will pop up everyday in Congress if marijuana is legalized. It would be a bad thing for
everyone.
The government believes that legalizing marijuana would be helpful because then they could tax it and control it better. Look at this quote, "The report estimates that legalizing marijuana would save $7.7 billion per year in government expenditure on enforcement of prohibition." (Miron, pg.45). That much money to the economy today is an unbelievable amount. It could be put back into schools and cities to help rebuild and make things a lot better. Also from the same report, " marijuana legalization would yield tax revenue of $2.4 billion annually if marijuana were taxed like all other goods and $6.2 billion annually if marijuana were taxed at rates comparable to those on
5 alcohol and tobacco."(Miron, pg.47) That much money could definitely help out the United States in many different ways. But of course nothing comes with out a price to pay. Take a look at this quote from the same report as above, "Whether marijuana legalization is a desirable policy depends on many factors other than the budgetary impacts discussed "(Miron, pg.48) Even with all the money because of marijuana think about all the money that would be spent on reducing crime, repairing damages from people who are high and did not know better. Most of all think about the price to pay from people who were killed from the result of people being high. These are things we need to take into consideration, not money. The legalization of marijuana is a very serious and real discussion, probably going on this very second in congress. When thinking about this subject remember, that marijuana can hurt the society more than help. It could ruin businesses, and be the potential start of the legalization of more harmful drugs. Even though the money from legalizing and taxing marijuana can be beneficial, it would be a bigger price to pay for all the lives lost.
Balkin, Karen. "Drug Legalization." Opposing Viewpoints. (Fall 2006): Thomson Gale. Jefferson Community College. 7 Nov. 2006. http://find.galegroup.com
Bennett, William. "Drug Policy and the Intellectuals." Current Issues and Enduring Questions. (7th ed.) Ed. Sylvan and Barnet Hugo Bedau. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005. 611 18.
Drug Schedules. 1 Dec, 2006. www.addictions.org/schedules
Kuhn, Cynthia, Scott Swartzwelder, and Wilkie Wilson. Buzzed: The Straight Facts
About the most Used and Abused Drugs from Alcohol to Ecstasy. New York: W. W. Norton and Company.
The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition. Ed. Jeffrey A. Miron. June 2005. Harvard University. 11 November 2006 http://www.prohibitioncosts.org/mironreport.htm