Societal Benefits of Legalizing the Use of Drugs
Societal Benefits of Legalizing the Use of Drugs
I have always been told to fight the fight that I can win. I was taught to pray for the strength to change the things I can and for the strength to live with the things I cannot. As I look at the United States today, I see America fighting a fight it cannot win and not attempting to gain the strength needed to live with the things it cannot change. In 1981, America declared war on drugs. Since then, billions of dollars have been spent in an unsuccessful attempt to banish drugs from its borders. Illegal drugs are more available now than they have ever been. Common sense would make one believe that if you are continually eaten by the sharks in the moat while trying to get into the castle, then perhaps one should look for an alternative route into the castle or make friends with the sharks. I do not deny that the use of illegal drugs has an adverse affect on the user nor do I condone the use of them, but many of the wide range of negative results thought to be occurring from drug use can in all actuality be attributed to the current legal treatment of drugs brought on by prohibition.
John Lawn, former director of the US Drug Enforcement Administration upon addressing a Senate Committee investigating drug legalization said, “drugs are not bad because they are illegal, they are illegal because they are bad”. If this is a sound argument, then the question is why aren’t cigarettes and alcohol that are medically proven to be harmful, illegal? The answer of course is because prohibition doesn’t work. America is not learning from her mistakes. On January 16, 1920 prohibition of alcohol was put into effect. Though it seemed like a good idea at the time, nothing could have been more detrimental to control the use of alcohol. The chief beneficiary of prohibition was not that of the welfare of the American people, rather it was organized crime. Organized crime was producing and distributing the black market alcohol and because of the low volume and high demand, they made a fortune off of it. Because the alcohol business was so lucrative, there...