Drugs

The United States is by far the richest and most powerful country in the world. We citizens take for granted luxuries that people of other countries can only dream. Yet in our society there are serious social issues that for reasons unknown are not being addressed. One of the most important issues that typical politicians are afraid to address is that of what to do with the nation's illegal drug problems. Although we hear terms like "The War on Drugs" and "Drug Treatment", a fresh approach to this issue is needs to come soon.

The country should take a new look at drug legalization as a solution to a problem that has been long out of control. Addiction and drug abuse are such "buzzwords" these days that a clarification is needed of what is meant by these terms. Addiction has crossed the line from being defined as a physical dependency on drugs to include such classifications as religious addiction, shopping addiction, food addiction, work addiction, television addiction, and love addiction. Although a person may feel that he or she can't live without their particular "addiction", there is no scientific proof or medical test for an addict. To keep things in the broadest perspective, addiction will be defined here as the continual repetition of a normally non-problematic behavior to self-destructive access. Since addiction is believed to be a social problem then an attempt at cutting off the source of addiction, drugs in this case, is thought to cure the problem. If that be the case then gambling and food abusers should be treated the same as addicts. Since drug legalization is the topic of this essay let us focus on alternatives to the "War on Drugs". One possibility for controlling drug abuse is to legalize illegal drugs. In the 1920's alcohol was made illegal by the eighteenth amendment, better known as prohibition. From it stemmed all sort of crime, illegal alcohol sales, gang controlled territories, police shootings and above all, most people continued to drink. In contrast to today's society where drugs are illegal there is not much difference. We have the same type of violent crime and gang control as in the twenties, and people continue to use drugs. Countries where alcohol is considered a normal part of life, such as Greece and Italy, have low occurrences of alcoholism.

However, where alcohol is looked upon as a moral problem, such as the United States or Finland, alcoholism is uncontrollable. Since drugs are considered the demon here in America, citizens use as a method of rebelling as well as out of curiosity of 4 what the big deal is. Contrary to popular belief, using a drug for its euphoric effect is not a bad thing and dates back historically to the beginning of time. Hundreds of tests have been conducted on addicts and the result is that the setting and mind set are the reasons for addiction. What should be done is to build a cultural setting of more tolerance and less guilt. Legalizing drugs is a viable alternative to the current policy on drugs in America. If the government would legalize and regulate drugs a substantial industry and tax income would result. The jail overcrowding problem would be reduced by fifty percent in some estimates and violent crime would decline. Of course there are those who believe that legalization will turn our whole country into drug addicts. There is no evidence to support this. Making something illegal only creates a taboo, which people challenge and break because they know it's wrong.

The government should not be allowed to prosecute non-violent offenders for consensual crimes committed in their own homes, thus complying with the U.S. Constitution. It seems the government is saying one thing and doing another. If such a negative attitude of drugs is really what the country wants why then drugs should not be glamorized by celebrities and politicians. Perhaps the criminal justice system wants to keep collecting fines and politician's kickbacks for building new prisons. Capitalism is not known to turn down easy money such as would be created by legalization. If the government believes it can win the war on drugs then it has failed to provide hard proof. Should drugs be legalized, we can expect several immediate results. First, the government will be forced into taking a look at the real issues. For too long policy makers have used prohibition as a smoke screen to avoid addressing the social and economic factors that lead people to use drugs. Most illegal and legal drug use is recreational.

Poverty and despair are at the root of most problematic drug use and it's only by 6 addressing these underlying causes that we can hope to significantly decrease the number of problematic users. Opponents believe that deterrence will do the trick, but drug use continues to increase even though tougher laws have been passed. Next, the criminal drug market will dry up. The market for drugs is one of supply and demand and people demand illegal drugs. Organized crime has moved in to fill this vacuum and is making billions of dollars. Legislation will force organized crime from the drug business. In return, the