Legalizing Drugs

Personally, I think the topic of drugs is a major problem in the US. People are concerned about how they are getting it into the US and whether or not it should be legal. To me, I see benefits in using these drugs. They were first introduced to the US during wars when they were used to ease the pain of soldiers. The sad part was, no one knew how addicting the drugs could be. But they also seemed to do a good job of erasing the soldiers' pain. If the drugs were being used for medical purposes and it is known that the drugs can improve a person's survival rate or cure some diseases, I think they should be legal for that kind of use.

I know that in California, it is legal for cancer patients as well as others to go a vending machine containing Marinol, the legal form of marijuana. Marinol is not actually the kind of marijuana you buy on a street corner and smoke; it is a prescription drug formed by the isolated and active ingredient, THC, of marijuana. Now, you may be asking yourself, well doesn't that mean anyone can go and get ahold of marijuana? Actually, the patient must scan an ID, and the patients are limited to certain doses of marijuana each week. But what if the patients do find a way to abuse the drugs?

In reality, the legalized marijuana in CA is used for the following illnesses...
40% Chronic Pain
22% AIDS-Related
15% Mood Disorders
(23% All other categories).

I personally think that making drugs in general legal only causes more problems. New laws and legislations will create more gray areas. If it is illegal now, isn't that saying something? Why should it all of a suddenly be legal? Even if we said people under twenty-one years of age are not allowed to buy it, they will still be able to use their fake IDs for alcohol and drugs. Now, not only will drinking and driving be a problem, we have to worry more about driving under the influence. Right now in its illegal stage, not many people abuse the drug everyday meaning there aren't that many people while driving under the influence. Yet, if we made the drugs legal, more people will be saying, "Oh, they are selling it so it must be okay to smoke/inhale/inject this and drive or operate machinery." In reality, drugs pose serious dangers, both short-term and long-term. That's kind of why these drugs are illegal in the US. Just because Europe is a little more flexible with drug use, does not mean we have to be like them.

Also, the fear of increase in violence and crime would come with the legialization of drug use. Like we learned in class, drug use causes a person to lose their judgement and inhibitions. They begin to lie and change who they are because of the drugs. Drug users no longer care about what they used to do, and they become people they are not. "Six times as many homicides are committed by people under the influence of drugs, as by those who are looking for money to buy drugs." It is hard to believe, but it is true. Think of how many more homicides would occur if people were able to just go to the tobacco shop and buy some coke or weed.

We cannot give up our fight against drug use!! In the past twenty years, the use of drugs has gone down by a third! The use of cocaine has gone down by a good 70%!! We should not just abandon our efforts and successes now! We need to take the 95% of Americans who do not use drugs and make it 100% of Americans who do not use drugs. I understand that Marinol, the safe and legal 'marijuana,' is helpful for patients suffering from illnesses, but that is most definitely not the same thing as the illegal version of marijuana we are worried about. I personally don't see a problem in people using Marinol as long as doctors still prescribe it and it is used for serious cases. If we made drug use legal, the drug dealers of the US, Mexico, Colombia, South America, and everywhere else will become even more powerful than they already are. Drugs are illegal for a reason, and we should keep it that way.

http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/demand/speakout/index.html
http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/ongoing/calimarijuana.html