Term Paper on "Legalization of Drugs"

Term Paper 5 pages (1556 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Legalization of Drugs

Laws against drugs are nothing new. But, in response to rising drug use, efforts to enforce prohibition were strengthened in many countries from the late 1960s onwards (Prohibition (drugs)). In 1972, United States President Richard Nixon announced the commencement of the war on drugs, increasing enforcement of drug laws and penalties for drug law violations. Since this time, critics charge that the war on drugs has been a miserable failure and call for an end to prohibition. This paper presents and disputes the most widely-used rhetoric against the war on drugs such as the assertion that it doesn't work, that it cost too much money and that the legal system is a poor way to deal with drug users. Historical evidence reveals that the war on drugs has reduced drug use, that the social costs of drugs far outweigh the cost of fighting them and that the legal system is necessary to deter crime and to cope with the violence associated with drug use. The war on drugs is working and should be continued.

Anti-war on drug advocates make generalizations backed by poor research concerning drug use statistics to spread the belief that the war on drugs isn't working. One of their most unsupported claims is that drug use in the United States is on the rise. A variety of shoddy techniques are used to make drug use increases look larger than they actually are. For example, articles will make comparisons based on time frames that are too short to be completely relevant or make fluffy statements that are not based on any factual drug use data such as "The majority of Americans do not see the nation's illegal drug problem getting any better after years of increases in national spending." (Cromie, 1998) Or, articles will throw out the number of Americans that use drugs, 15.9 million in 2001, to gain credibility, and then make unsupported statements that drug use is on the rise (Haines, 2004).

Although the 15.9 million Americans that use drugs may appear to be an alarming number, more than ninety-five percent of Americans do not use drugs (Drug use trends, 2002). Data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) suggests that the claims that drug use is on the rise are false. In 1979, before the war on drugs began in earnest, NHSDA reported that 14.1% of the population age twelve and older reporting using an illicit drug in the past thirty days. In 2001, SAMHSA reported that this figure had been nearly cut in half, with 7.1% of the population age twelve and older reporting using an illicit drug.

Prevalent cocaine, including crack cocaine, use was one of the major motivators for the war on drugs. Use of these drugs peaked in 1979 for 18- to 25-year-olds at 9.9%; in 1982 for 12- to 17-year-olds at 1.9%; and in 1985 for 26- to 34-year-olds at 6.3%. In 2001, only 0.7% of the population age twelve and older reported using cocaine, including crack, at least once in the past month. In 2001, use of these drugs decreased to.4% for 12- to 17-year-olds, 1.9% for 18- to 25-year-olds and 1.1% for 26- to 34-year-olds. Clearly, drug use trends are heading in the right direction since the war on drugs began.

In addition to distorting the facts regarding actual drug use trends, foes of the war against drugs fail to discuss the proven results of legalizing drugs. After the Netherlands decriminalized drugs in the 1980s, drug use skyrocketed there (Solomon, 1995). The Dutch Government has reported a 250% increase in drug use since 1993 and a doubling of marijuana use since 1988. The number of registered, hard-core drug addicts in the Netherlands rose twenty-two percent from 1990 to 1995.

The experience in the Netherlands shows that supply reduction in the United States is an effective way to reduce the demand for drugs. When drugs are more expensive and difficult to obtain, fewer individuals use them. Although it is true that it is impossible for the legal system to stop the flow of illegal drugs, it has succeeded in making them more costly and difficult to obtain. Legalizing drugs sends the wrong message to society, particularly our children. "By characterizing the use of illegal drugs as quasi-legal, state-sanctioned, Saturday afternoon fun, legalizers destabilize the societal norm that drug use is dangerous." (10 main pros and cons on medical marijuana) Consider the movement to legalize medical marijuana. Children entering drug abuse treatment have routinely reported that they heard that marijuana is medicine and, therefore, believed it to be good for them (10 main pros and cons on medical marijuana).

Critics of the war on drugs argue that it is too expensive. An estimate of the total direct cost of the war on drugs in 2003 is $39 billion, with the federal government spending $19 billion and the states spending more than $20 billion (Haines, 2004). Further, some argue that indirect costs make the true total cost more than $80 billion. These indirect costs include expenditures such as incarceration and court costs, social services, foreign aid to countries to fight the drug war and tax losses from untaxed drug sales.

While the $80 billion figure for the war on drugs seems high, it pales in comparison to the social costs of drug use and the overall federal and state budgets. Drug and alcohol abuse already costs taxpayers in the United States $143 billion in preventable health care costs, absenteeism, premature deaths, increased insurance and health care costs, accidents, crime and lost productivity (Farley, 2004). Imagine what these costs would approach if drugs were made more accessible. The social costs of increased drug use would certainly make the war on drugs worth the investment.

Opponents of the war against drugs argue that harsh criminal laws, tough prosecutions and stiff penalties are not appropriate for drug users who should really be receiving treatment. They state that our swelling prison populations are getting out of control and that drug prohibition allows organized crime to flourish. Approximately 251,200 inmates in State prison at year end 1999 were there as a result of a drug conviction and in 2001, federal drug offenders constituted 56.3% of the total federal prison population (Effectiveness of the war on drugs, 2002).

There are many rebuttals to the case presented against using our legal system as a means to punish drug users. Unfortunately, there is a high association between crime and drug use. Only about five percent of inmates in federal prison are there because of simple drug possession (Speaking out against drug legalization, 2003). The rest are in jail because they have plea-bargained down from major trafficking offences or more violent drug crimes. Netherland's decriminalization of drugs spurred a rapid increase in crime; armed robberies increased by 70%; shootings went up by forty percent; and car thefts rose sixty percent (Solomon, 1995). Further, the number of organized crime groups in the Netherlands has increased from three in 1988 to ninety three in 1993, indicating that legalization of drugs there did nothing to curtail the growth of organized crime. Finally, it's worth mentioning that one-third of all people in drug treatment programs are there only because the criminal justice system put them there (Farley, 2004).

In conclusion, it's easy to get sucked into the emotional rhetoric that the war on drugs isn't working, that it's too costly and that the legal system has been used too extensively to deal with the drug problem. However, it's time to push aside emotions and generalizations and to instead rely on the facts. A closer examination of historical evidence leads one to a more logical conclusion. Data shows that drug use has actually decreased since the war on drugs began. While… READ MORE

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