War on Drugs
- Submitted by: emilyhaag11
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- Category: Politics: Crime and Drugs
- Date Submitted: 02/09/2016 05:17 PM
- Pages: 4
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Drugs and Prohibition
The War on Drugs has been going on for years, and yet we still haven't seen any progress. Prohibitionist imagery of a world run amok on drugs is widely held in a culture raised on anti-drug propaganda, and even appears commonsensical. Would more people use drugs if they were legal? After a century of drug prohibition, many people could not imagine that things could be any different. According to a new poll more than 78% of American believe the war on drugs is a failure. Support for legalization remains infinitesimal, and efforts to bite at the edges prohibition, such as decriminalizing pot possession and allowing for medical marijuana are fiercely contested; thus marijuana should be legalized.
There is harm in the way we attempt to deal with drug use as a social problem. There is a variety of alternatives to the current global prohibition regime. Decriminalization would remove criminal sanctions for the use or possession of small amounts of drugs. This would eliminate the threat of jail from tens of millions, but would leave intact the global black market in illicit drugs. "Decriminalization must precede open culture demands.” Chemist & Druggist 23 Feb. 2013: 7. Web. 30 Nov. 2015. Decriminalization would move us near addressing drug use as a public health issue. By providing proper supplies of currently illegal drugs the price will fall, leading to a collapse of the illicit drug industry. Some even state that in a strictly regulated market, drug use may fall overall, by removing the marketing activities of the illegal drug industry.
Another alternative that we need to look at is medicalization; that would make drugs available through prescription or by maintenance doses in a controlled manner. This would transfer power from the law enforcement establishment to the medical/psychiatric establishment. There is numerous scientific evidence that proves Marijuana is an efficient and safe medicine. “Marijuana has been...
The War on Drugs has been going on for years, and yet we still haven't seen any progress. Prohibitionist imagery of a world run amok on drugs is widely held in a culture raised on anti-drug propaganda, and even appears commonsensical. Would more people use drugs if they were legal? After a century of drug prohibition, many people could not imagine that things could be any different. According to a new poll more than 78% of American believe the war on drugs is a failure. Support for legalization remains infinitesimal, and efforts to bite at the edges prohibition, such as decriminalizing pot possession and allowing for medical marijuana are fiercely contested; thus marijuana should be legalized.
There is harm in the way we attempt to deal with drug use as a social problem. There is a variety of alternatives to the current global prohibition regime. Decriminalization would remove criminal sanctions for the use or possession of small amounts of drugs. This would eliminate the threat of jail from tens of millions, but would leave intact the global black market in illicit drugs. "Decriminalization must precede open culture demands.” Chemist & Druggist 23 Feb. 2013: 7. Web. 30 Nov. 2015. Decriminalization would move us near addressing drug use as a public health issue. By providing proper supplies of currently illegal drugs the price will fall, leading to a collapse of the illicit drug industry. Some even state that in a strictly regulated market, drug use may fall overall, by removing the marketing activities of the illegal drug industry.
Another alternative that we need to look at is medicalization; that would make drugs available through prescription or by maintenance doses in a controlled manner. This would transfer power from the law enforcement establishment to the medical/psychiatric establishment. There is numerous scientific evidence that proves Marijuana is an efficient and safe medicine. “Marijuana has been...