This post is part one of a series of posts I will be making over the next several weeks discussing the War on Drugs and why it should end.
Since the beginning of time, humans have sought out ways to alter their consciousness. And for many years now, governments have sought to limit the ways we can legally do so. I could go into each illegal substance, and explain how and why it was made illegal, but we'll save those stories for future posts. Today, we will just talk about the typical arguments that proponents of the Drug War espouse.
Argument 1: If Drugs Are Legal, There's The Public Health Risk of Addiction.
-Those who wish to use drugs will use drugs. Period. The law does not matter to those people
-What public health risk? Addicts will either seek help, or succumb to their disease
-Why can we not redirect the money we already spend on drug enforcement to helping addicts get better?
Argument 2: Recreational Drug Use Would Mean Less Educational Attainment and Lower Productivity for Users
-Is that not the choice of the drug user?
-This is not a societal issue, but one within each individual
Argument 3: Drug Legalization Would Severely Restrict Workers' Rights
-Again, this is an issue that should be dealt with on an individual basis.
-If someone knows that using drugs could limit their job prospects, and chooses to use anyway, that is on them so to speak.
-It is within the right of business owners to decide whether they want to hire people who use drugs or not.
Argument 4: Legalizing Drugs Would Make Low Income Individuals More Vulnerable
-People decide what they spend their money on. The government cannot protect them from themselves.
-This argument is mostly based around the taxing of substances. That is answered simply by not taxing them.
Argument 5: Drugs Create Crime
-There are far more people who use drugs responsibly than there are people who end up addicted
-If someone commits an act of violence as a result of their drug use, we charge them for the act of violence.
-It is immoral to put responsible drug users in prison for possession just because there are many fewer people who
misbehave while on drugs.
Tune in next week for The History of the Legality of Cannabis where we will discuss how and why cannabis was made illegal and the progress on the road to legalization.
I have yet to see one compelling argument for the criminalization of drug use. No logic, only money has motivated our laws at present.
I agree wholeheartedly. Money and the liberal notion that the government can protect people from themselves.
There are natural, and there are chemical drugs...
Confused not worth it
3d Drug and Food printers are almost here!
Moleculular assemblrs or 3d printers for drugs will make darkweb markets obsolete OR the machiens will be so expensive that peopel will buy them to make their own drugs and MAYBE to make drugs to sell!
Making 3d drug printers would allow anyone to basically BitTorrent a Drug file and print it out liek a 3d priter printing a 3d modell!
Drug will become legal when people are able to MANUFACTURE them by themselves!
The reason why crim happens with drugs involved is basically because people are mugging each other off or not getting the money in time. Think it would solve a lot of problems if it was legal. It will be more expensive and reduce crime rate. there's no way it will happen unfortunately!!'
While I agree with your assessment that crime is usually a result of the prohibition of drugs, as opposed to the use of them, I disagree that there's no way it will happen. I think that if enough of us educate ourselves on how legalization and decriminalization has worked in other countries, and on the effects of the drugs themselves, and then we speak up about it on a near constant basis, they can't ignore us forever.