Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Miscellaneous Why Drugs Should be Made Legal Why Drugs Should be Made Legal During the 1920's, laws prohibiting alcohol sales and consumption did very little to stop people form getting their hands on a bottle of rum. Instead, the streets became the battlegrounds for organized criminals. Innocent people were being killed and public officials corrupted. Prohibition was a mistake and hopefully we are wise enough as a society not to try to repeat the same mistake. However, we are making the same mistake by trying to fight the war on drugs. Today, drug laws are doing very little to stop people from consuming illegal drugs. Like Prohibition, the war on drugs has been a failure. It is time to re-legalize drugs. By doing so, we would be able to regulate it, increase revenue for the government, and reduce crime. Regulation is the control of a product. The government should regulate who can use drugs, how one can get it, and who produces it. Drugs should be regulated in the same way as alcohol. There should be an age restriction of 21 on all drugs that are deemed illegal today. Like alcohol, drugs should be made available for purchase at liquor stores. And as for who would produce these legal drugs? As it stands today, individuals produce drugs. Whether it is the cartels in South America or your neighbor in his garage, quality control cannot be imposed upon them. This is very similar to the days of Prohibition. As the production of alcohol moved away from the corporation and into the hands of the individual, the product became more lethal. Alcohol killed thousands of people during the twenties because it was made improperly. Like wise drugs, like heroin, are doing the same today. If we moved the production of drugs out of the individual's hands and into the professional chemist's and pharmaceutical company's hands we would be increasing the purity of these drugs, making it safer to use. The drugs would also be cleaner and measured out properly. People will use drugs, it is inevitable. However, I would much rather they were taking a drug produced correctly from an industry than one that was made in Joe Blow's garage with only one intent on permanently hooking his clients. In our current situation, our federal government has a deficit of many trillions of dollars and growing every day. They are currently cutting programs like NASA, welfare, the military, education, student financial aid, and many others to afford the war on drugs. Every state is doing the same thing. States are spending money on many things every year that can be related to the war on drugs. Prisons is one of the biggest examples. California is building new prisons every year so that we can hold the increased number of criminals the war on drugs in handing us. Each one of these prisoners costs thousands of taxpayer dollars. Another benefit from re-legalizing drugs would be the increased revenue due to taxation. Just like alcohol, drugs would be taxed. Drugs like marijuana, which have little or no harmful qualities, would have a smaller tax than drugs like heroin and cocaine. This would persuade users to try and move their way down to lighter drugs. If we legalized drugs and then taxed them appropriately the money could be used to provide drug rehab and education. The additional funds from the decreased spending in law enforcement, prison building, and legal services could be used for programs like deficit reduction, health care, military, NASA, or education. Illegal drug use and distribution is one of the leading causes of crime in our nation. One of the primary goals of the drug war has been to reduce the supply of a drug so that according to the laws of supply and demand, the price will rise so that the users could not afford them. This is a policy that is just asking for crime. An addict is just that, an addict. They must have their drugs and they will do anything and every thing they can to get them. As we raise the price of these drugs higher and higher the result is that we are forcing these addicts to find another way to obtain the money. They commit crimes such as mugging, robbery, theft, and extortion to obtain the money they need. When these methods do not work they move to higher ground such as murder. Dealers are very attracted to this field due to the high price of drugs. The higher the price of drugs the more lucrative it is to sell and thus the more dealers there will be. Dealers will also do anything and everything to push their product and territory, including murder. Many times we find that a hit on a drug dealer will often fail and in most circumstances an innocent bystander is caught in the crossfire. The solution is simple. If we were to legalize drugs we could put these dealers out of business. The legalization of drugs would drop the prices of those drugs drastically. A user would no longer have to steal to support his habit. As for the dealer side of crime, that would completely be eliminated because the profits would be minimal. This could only happen if all drugs were legalized and put into an environment where all adults could afford them and obtain them. As long as there is a restriction on the distribution of these drugs there will be a black market. In review, we understand that the drug war is not working. It is failing most miserably. We must take a look of the benefits of legalization and weigh the results. We can not continue on a path, which has proven itself to not work. We must try something new what ever it is. One thing for certain is should we legalize drugs we could regulate them, increase revenue for the government, and reduce crime dramatically. Bibliography: Word Count: 984
Copyright © 2005 College Term Papers, INC All Rights Reserved.