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The War on Drugs, for many years, has failed to provide any real benefits through its actions. Our government keeps truth about the real matters hidden from the public and fails to admit the people of this nation are not free. The money spent on this war could be being used to benefit society's well being and crime rates. Taking a deeper look into the situation could really change people's views on the matter of legalization of drugs.
For years, we have lived in a society where we are told what is good and bad for us. Trying to create a perfect world to live in, our leaders have banned the consumption of natural substances and dubbed these things harmful. But just how harmful are these things to our bodies really? There are hundreds of legal substances that are much more harmful than most of these illicit drugs on the black market. However, our government fails to see these facts and acknowledge them. Instead, they push on a failing war against these drugs that in turn has an adverse affect on society. Instead of solving crime and helping mankind and society stay clear of harm, the War on Drugs actually creates crime, promotes corruption, and demoralizes society with hypocrisy. Along with the failure of this war that has never been voted on, is the disregard to many legal drugs with much more harmful effects on our bodies. It's time to shed some light upon the other side of this war, and bring to focus our forgotten rights as humans to choose what we want to do without the governmental propaganda.
The War on Drugs is no more than a war on personal choice and freedom. As C.S. Lewis said, "To be 'cured' against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level with those who have not yet reached age of reason or those who never will; to be classified with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals (Szasz 2)." Along with not acknowledging our right to choice in life, prohibition creates a vast new area of criminal activities. Placing such a high risk on supplying drugs puts a very high payoff for very little work. The high prices of drugs drive poor addicts to crimes such as burglary and assault to pay for them. The fear of protection and detection drives dealers to have to defend for themselves and handle certain things forcefully. Adding a criminal element to the very real issue of drugs and them being supplied just drives the industry underground to be unregulated. In doing so, the purity of a drug is not controlled by any means, more potent smaller doses are made, and there's a huge corruption temptation for government officials and normal people. For years, corrupt cops and politicians have been accepting payoffs from drug dealers and drug lords, or just stealing their money and drugs. There's absolutely nothing they can do about it either, because that'd just be exposing themselves. Even with a full-force Drug War underway, there is still a full array of drugs available anywhere and everywhere in the United States. Criminals in jail can even get their fix if they really want to. Even though our government has posted information about less teenagers smoking marijuana, they fail to recognize that the use of all other, much harder, drugs has skyrocketed. Prohibition has done very little aside from costing taxpayers of America billions of dollars each year enforcing a lost war. Prohibition is simply a piece of legislation enforced by use of law officers, guns, and prisons. It is not drug education, drug treatment centers, rehabilitation centers, self-help programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous, religion, family, friends, doctors, help hot lines, and civic organizations. Hundreds of people are injured or killed every year as a result of prohibition. Also, because of prohibition, thousands of arrests of nonviolent recreational drug users are destroying lives all in the name of the Drug War. In doing so, the very little prison space we already are dealing with is being filled up with peaceful offenders. Having to make way for these peaceful, law-abiding people is causing violent offenders to receive early parole and shorter jail time than they were sentenced. It does not make sense to be jailing people harming no more than themselves, and letting violent people, harmful to society, out of jail. Prohibition takes up valuable time, money, and space in our legal system and needs a working alternative.
The benefits of legalization of drugs would have a much greater impact on society than the cons of it. After years of violence and crimes underlying prohibition of alcohol, crime rates drastically dropped after the prohibition was repealed in 1933. When prohibition is implemented on something like marijuana or alcohol, it just causes a lot more problems than it solves. It is very well documented that drug users commit crimes to pay for the high prices brought on by prohibition and that wealthy addicts do not. It is not necessarily the drugs that bring on the problems and crime, but the laws against them. Along with legalization would follow the decline in prices for drugs on the black market. Bigger businesses would probably take over the underground drug trade and drive street gangs and drug rings out of business. Without the motive of profit, illegal drug dealing does not exist. Our economy is built on supply and demand, and it's so hard to understand why our politicians and government officials don't see the solution to the drug rings. It is not through the use of guns, violence, and force that these things are solved, it is through legalization. If one drug dealer is taken down while prohibition is in effect, another one just takes its place. Through legalization, however, corporations could take over, opening thousands of jobs for our economy and bringing drugs into regulation by the FDA. Through being regulated, the market of drugs would be ensured to be less harmful than those sold on black markets. Also, doses could be labeled to avoid the problem of overdosing, and violence concerning drug dealers and drug business would decrease. Society as a whole would benefit from legalization in all aspects of life. Drug use is a real world problem that is unrealistically targeted to be rid from this world. Our government's want to be larger than nature is just not going to happen, unless we let it.
The Drug Industry is so large today and so widespread that it encompasses a very large portion of the ordinary population who are typically employed, productive, responsible, and now significantly impaired from leading conventional lives (Roe 2). It is sad to think that just because of a simple law their whole lives could be ruined because of what they choose to do for themselves in their free time. Simple math tells us that the small population of visible addicts makes up only a small fraction of the $150 billion per year illegal drug market. The money our government could save and earn back through legalization and taxation could be used on many things to benefit society instead of ripping it apart. Drug education programs and self-help centers could be established, opening even more jobs and declining the rates of overdoses. Also, that money could be spent on law enforcement, schools, and many other areas that could really use the extra money. Legalization would free up our law enforcement to focus on the much more serious issues such as child molestation, murders, domestic violence, and rape. With more officers and more time to work on cases, violent and disturbing offenders would have a much higher chance of getting caught and locked away. Education about the facts of these substances that are around would circulate, and the truth would finally be known. More scientific research could be legally conducted on these drugs as well to figure out what really is going on with them. Behind all the propaganda lies the truth. Legalization is the only way that truth is ever going to be able to surface and be learned about, shedding light upon itself. The irony of illicit drugs being illegal is that there are many substances around in the United States today that are much more harmful on our bodies that are legal. For example, tobacco causes nearly a million deaths annually in the United States alone from cancer, cardiovascular disease, and emphysema (Roe 2). 350,000 die from alcohol-related cirrhosis and its complications, and caffeine is the cause of cardiac and nervous system disturbances. However, there are little, if any, recorded deaths from marijuana. It's time for society to look into the situation from both sides, and make the right choice for itself. The people finding and pushing the propaganda against drugs are the ones with money being gained from the fight against them.
Marijuana is one of the most commonly known drugs on the planet. For thousands of years it has been used for paper, fiber, fuel, building materials, clothing, animal and bird food, medicine and medicine preparations, and a protein source for humans. Even George Washington had a hemp plantation. Not after these thousands of years of growing naturally and being a resourceful plant, our government wants to label it an evil of the world. Nowhere is there any proof that marijuana is harmful in anyway besides the smoking of it, and that's just because smoking is unnatural. Our brains have even developed receptors for the THC in the plant. In fact, our brain creates its own version of the chemical that mimics THC on its own, controlling many aspects of its function. Our government's stance against marijuana has changed many times through the years, starting as "making users violent and out of control" to "making users docile" in the time of war. It is this very confusion circulating the propaganda against drugs that destroys its credibility. In Dutch studies, a small dose of THC actually enhances brain activity. It is only in high doses that the brain starts to slow and become overly relaxed, causing the user to pass out. Also, nowhere in history has marijuana ever killed a single person from overdosing, unlike alcohol and many other hard drugs. Marijuana has many health benefits as well, such as stress relief, curing asthma, and helping glaucoma. It is a simple plant that grows in the dirt, naturally. Eighty year old men with erections are not natural, and yet we have a legal pill for that in our society. There are thousands of pills, made by men, on drug store shelves with many side effects. Just because marijuana's side effects are different, although not negative, it has been dubbed illegal and 'evil'. With so many different pills with so many different side effects, it should be a person's choice if they want to trust man or nature.
From Colonial times up until 1914, Americans had the right to be the authors of their own drug policy (Szasz 1). Free choice and individuality were important in developing our great nation. These rights have not been lost, unless the people let them go. Freedom to individual choice is a very important aspect in life that makes us who we are. No organization should ever have the ability to take that away. Right at this very second everybody has the right to think their own thoughts, see whatever movie they want to see, and eat what they want to eat. It should still be a person's choice as to what they want to do with themselves. Not saying other people should not offer assistance in those decisions, but ultimately the decision to do anything rests solely upon that person deciding and that person alone. Life is everyone's right to live, so long as they live it peacefully without harming others. It's kind of hypocritical how a nation that bombs and invades, destroying thousands of lives and homes, can preach peace and jail the only people actually being peaceful. Marijuana smokers, for the most part, are not hurting anybody, not polluting the youth, not selling any lies, and not causing any disruption in the daily lives of others. However, thousands of people continue to judge these people, label them, and cause commotion in their lives just because they respect a plant. Everyone has their own choices and paths in life; they should walk their own and let others walk theirs.
Nobody can change the past, but we can alter the future. The War on Drugs needs to be stopped, along with the humiliation, labeling, judging, and personal image destruction that comes along with it. The truth of this matter must be heard and spread from ear to ear because the people with money think they can just stomp out any voice against them on TV, Radio, and publications. "A society that regards crime as one of its greatest problems yet allows its leaders to refuse to consider the only known solution deserves the leaders and crime it gets (Duke 3)."
