Should Drugs Be Legalized
Should Drugs Be Legalized
In his essay “Drugs”, Gore Vidal calls into question the legalization of drugs for three main reasons: not everyone will become addicted to drugs, crime will decrease with said legalization, and man has the right to make his own decisions, and do what he thinks is best for his life. Although Vidal wrote his essay in the 1970s, drug legalization is still a highly debated topic of today. Vidal wants his audience to agree with his logic, that drugs should be legalized, sold at cost, and properly labeled with side effects. The overall question here is whether or not the audience is convinced, the answer is no. Although Vidal makes many valid points, he fails to incorporate enough evidence to support his ideas.
Vidal claims that drugs should be legalized because not everyone will become addicted. He uses his own experiences as evidence, stating that he has tried all drugs and became addicted to none. By saying ‘all’ he included a large scope of drugs, none of which he reveals to us. Vidal also makes a generalization by saying that not everyone will become addicted because he is one person and can’t speak on behalf of everyone. Altogether, Vidal’s statements lack enough valid evidence to fully support his claim.
Another claim that Vidal makes is that the crime rate will decrease once drugs are legalized because addicts would be able to get their fix in a legal way. Vidal’s claim was weakened by his lack of statistics and relevant evidence. Despite that fact, Vidal does reference the prohibiton, stating that once alcohol was forbidden, the crime increased. This seemed like a valid point; however, the analogy contained a few flaws. Alcohol was legal, then became illegal which is why crime increased because people were upset by a right that they had taken from them. Drugs, on the other hand, have never been legal. I believe that in order to strengthen this claim, Vidal could have included some statistics about crime and drug use. Even if drugs
In his essay “Drugs”, Gore Vidal calls into question the legalization of drugs for three main reasons: not everyone will become addicted to drugs, crime will decrease with said legalization, and man has the right to make his own decisions, and do what he thinks is best for his life. Although Vidal wrote his essay in the 1970s, drug legalization is still a highly debated topic of today. Vidal wants his audience to agree with his logic, that drugs should be legalized, sold at cost, and properly labeled with side effects. The overall question here is whether or not the audience is convinced, the answer is no. Although Vidal makes many valid points, he fails to incorporate enough evidence to support his ideas.
Vidal claims that drugs should be legalized because not everyone will become addicted. He uses his own experiences as evidence, stating that he has tried all drugs and became addicted to none. By saying ‘all’ he included a large scope of drugs, none of which he reveals to us. Vidal also makes a generalization by saying that not everyone will become addicted because he is one person and can’t speak on behalf of everyone. Altogether, Vidal’s statements lack enough valid evidence to fully support his claim.
Another claim that Vidal makes is that the crime rate will decrease once drugs are legalized because addicts would be able to get their fix in a legal way. Vidal’s claim was weakened by his lack of statistics and relevant evidence. Despite that fact, Vidal does reference the prohibiton, stating that once alcohol was forbidden, the crime increased. This seemed like a valid point; however, the analogy contained a few flaws. Alcohol was legal, then became illegal which is why crime increased because people were upset by a right that they had taken from them. Drugs, on the other hand, have never been legal. I believe that in order to strengthen this claim, Vidal could have included some statistics about crime and drug use. Even if drugs