In the article entitled “Would Legalized Drugs Produce a Zombie Nation?”(Cederblorn and Paulsen, 332 - 334) written by Stephen Chapman. The author (Stephen Chapman) provides a clear details and analogy of the drug use and abuse in the American society. The article gave a picture of a theoretical view where the use of banned drugs is legitimized by the United States government. The unbelievable situation of having a legitimate way of circulating the proscribed drugs would create a lot of chaos in the communities and society in general.…
In my writings I am going to be discussing the beliefs of James Q. Wilson and Douglas N. Husak. They both have very different views on drugs, Wilson is more of the conservative who believes drugs should be banned altogether, as opposed to Husak, who believes the use of drugs should be a personal choice. First, I am going to talk about James Q. Wilson and his views against the legalization of drugs. One of Wilsons claims is that the lack of availability would lead to less drug use and addiction. Wilson believes that if drugs were to be legalized then it will be easier for addicts to recruit other people into trying new drugs.…
Sullum, Jacob "Hep-Cats, Narcs, and Pipe Dreams: A History of America 's Romance with Illegal…
When it comes to importance of public liberty and privacy it must be easily said that they are right that using drugs have relations our desires and human…
As Rolles so accurately points out, "the criminalisation of drugs has historically been presented as an emergency response to an imminent threat, rather than an evidence based health or social policy intervention". What the criminal justice system fails to take into account is that by enforcing punitive drug policies the issue at hand is merely subdued. This high level policy environment routinely ignores critical scientific engagement and is uniquely divorced from most public health and social policy norms, such as interventions using established indicators of health and wellbeing. Porter reminds us that the notion of 'drugs' as we understand it today is a relatively new invention, therefore classifying drugs as 'illegal' and punishing those…
The Case for Decriminalizing Drugs, he takes a different approach to regarding the War on Drugs. While he feels that current drug policies have failed, his book focuses on the injustice of punitive drug laws and believes we should stop punishing people for using illicit drugs. “A law whose purpose is deterrence must always be backed by a demonstration that the law is just.” (ix) His book is presented in three chapters. Chapter one describes our present drug policies and laws and raises questions to answer whether these are just or unjust and offers his position of decriminalization as a more ethical approach to drug use. Chapter two reviews the most frequent arguments used in favor of punishing drug users and Husak believes that none of these are convincing enough to warrant enacting laws on a person’s behavior. Chapter three declares that punishing drug users is counterproductive and damaging to us…
my first instinct about decriminalizing drugs is absolutely not, but if you really think about it, it could work. You know when your parents take your phone away, you just really want it? Or in general, you can’t get something you really want. It’s a struggle. But when you do have it, it’s not as much of a priority anymore in your head. It becomes less relevant. I believe that by decriminalizing drugs, it would create a similar reaction. We would work to make these drugs less potent. The drugs wouldn’t be promoted worldwide, instead, be filled with warnings. Then you find the drugs that are more potent, and you take caution with them. Doctors would oversee the dosage and use, while also looking to the addicts. Legalizing these drugs draws out…
Giving people freedom to do what they want but not promoting the use of possible harmful drugs. “Decriminalization may be a useful first step towards a saner approach to drugs”. (The Economist.“The difference between legalization and decriminalization”). In this day and age people are going to do illegal substances regardless of what their government deems proper. While legalization indicates a free for all on drugs, decriminalization limits and restricts while giving citizens the freedom of choice we all have as a human…
Gaylord and Harold H. Traver provide descriptions of different drug policies in various countries. By doing this they are able to broaden the readers knowledge of how the world views the use and distribution of drugs and other substances.…
Trying to locate the source of the drug problem, maybe an inner city problem, poverty, could be racism or some other social decline in our society. Bennett’s opinion on the intellectual consensus that the drug problem in America is absurdly simple, and easily solved; and that the drug problem in America is a lost cause, is that it’s a contradictory proposition and is false. If drugs were legalized Bennett thinks many matters in our society will be worse off. If drugs were sold at a local convenient store would they be taxed, if they were then a black market would always come into play. If they were sold really cheap, then drugs could be bought with the allowance of a middle school kid. Crime would not be eliminated by legalizing drugs with the research that most drug criminals were into crime well before they were into any drugs. Crime would still continue, to pay for everyday living needs of…
So far this is good. However, Wilson also claims that keeping heroin and cocaine illegal contains the number of users, and so prevents a great number of harm. This is where I disagree. In Douglas Husak's, "Why we should decriminalize drug use", he argues against Wilson's claims. If frequency of drug use is a function of cost, then use will go up when as the cost goes down. and it is also true that economic models claim that cost will drop after decriminalization and would have an increase in use. But the predictions of cost and use after decriminalization assume that nothing else will change. However, many other things will change that could raise the price, reduce the use, and reduce the amount of harm that results from use. Therefore, the prediction of soaring use and harm is unsupported.…
9. Argument about it helping the economy can be counter argued by the fact that drug dealers will just under cut the retail price of…
A major drug policy issue concerning Canadians today is the legalization of cannabis. Undeterred by nearly a century of prohibition, millions of Canadians consume cannabis regularly. While the ban of cannabis creates billions of dollars in expenses, which are exhausted on ineffective anti-drug efforts and has caused criminal activities such as gang violence and weapons smuggling. This in turn has placed a tremendous financial burden on our society. By legalizing cannabis, organized crime will take a financial blow, thereby reducing the opportunity for youth to join gangs, potentially lowering crime rates and creating safer neighborhoods.…
In “Against the Legalization of Drugs,” by Peter de Marneffe, the argument that the use and possession of drugs needs to be decriminalized is made, because of the belief that the criminalization of drug use and possession violates the rights of citizens. In this paper, I will defend de Marneffe’s position by refuting a possible objection. Contrarians may claim that decriminalizing drugs will inevitably lead individuals to try harder and more dangerous drugs.…
There is a large majority of people arguing good points on either side of this drug war, in which they are opposed with one another, in which one side says, “Drug enforcement is engaged in controlling the spread and remedying the effects of drug abuse.” There are also those that state that these laws and programs are designed to help decrease America’s dependence on illicit substances. The people from the another side of this argument begs to differ, as they claim that the drug war is an utter failure, ex-presidential candidate Ron Paul explains, “This war on drugs has been a detriment to personal liberty and it 's been a real abuse of liberty." In another section Ron mentions that, “Our prisons are full with people who have used drugs who should be treated as patients -- and they 're non-violent. Someday we 're going to awaken and find out that the prohibition we are following right now with drugs is no more successful, maybe a lot less successful, than…