If illegal drugs were legalised and government controlled, would that reduce crime?

Question

Was thinking if drug addicts regestered with a clinic and were given government controlled drugs that were clean and not cut. Wouldnt that cut out most of drug related crime let alone destroy the drug trade.

Answer 1

Drug-related crime would go down. Drug-Induced crime would stay about the same.

Legalized drugs would demolish the drug trade. It would also increase tax revenue. It would also diminish the appeal of drugs, since they could be gotten at any specialized store.

But this would not eliminate all the drug problems. There will always be a difference between those who use the "socially" and those that abuse them. I'd imagine we'd have scenarios similar to alcohol, where there are those that use it in a social situation for a good time but there are others who abuse it.

However, compare the user/abuser scenario to what we have now. Billions of dollars each year are funneled into the DEA, fighting a "war" that can never be won. Endles violence from cartel wars down to armed robbery for a fix. The list goes on.

Legalizing it makes the prices go from astronomical to economical. You eliminate the illicit trade crossing the borders. Cartel and gang drug related violence would drop like a rock. And since the use/user is being tracked, it would be much easier to follow those that have bad habits.

Plus, we'd get some amount of cash back in the government for other projects.

There would still be problems to be sure, but I believe it would be a net positive gain.

~X~

Answer 2

Since illegal drug use is a crime it would technically reduce crime if it were legalized. It would also put drug lords and dealers out of business as well. I mean who would want to buy cocaine from from someone like Pablo Escabar (the druglord equivalent of Saddam Hussein) when they could get it at the local gas station right next to the cigarettes. Drugs are readily available and they are illegal, so legalizing them wouldn't change things all that much, but it would make a lot of revenue for the government. It's a little ironic that the ONLY way to win the War on Drugs is to legalize them.

Answer 3

My friends were talking about this last night. The thing is if the government legalized drugs etc. and tried to take control it would just make it easier to take and produce on your own. The only way we thought of to reduce this is make all drugs illegal unless you have a receipt of some kind of a certain drug from the government all other drugs found without a receipt would be considered illegal. Or have licensed sellers that have to make a tax on it, or give a portion of the proceeds back to the government, and same thing goes for them if they're product is sold with out money being turned in there license is revoked and they are fined and expected to pay what the owe the government.

Answer 4

We could make the same argument about child molesters, couldn't we? If we just decided that children could consent to sex at four years old, then the "crime rate" of children being molested would go way down. We wouldn't fix the problem, we would just turn a blind eye to it and pretend we fixed it.

Drugs present the same problem. If we legalized them we would, of course, not arrest people for them for possession. The numbers of arrests would go way down and statistically it would look like we hade fixed a problem. Of course it would not actually fix the problem of drug use. Drug users would still need money to buy their drugs and would likely commit the same crimes they do now to get the money to buy their drugs. The rate of drug related crime would likely NOT go down and all of the drug addicts who are currently in jail on drug offenses would be out and committing crimes to get more drugs. I suspect the rate of real crime (burglaries, thefts, etc) would actually go up as now free addicts would need to get their next fix.

Answer 5

Yes. Because most people in jail today are there due to drug-related offenses. By definition, if drugs aren't illegal, then we wouldn't be arresting people for having them, thus the crime rate would go down.

That's an answer based on pure logic and mathematics. It doesn't mean we should necessarily ADOPT that policy.

Answer 6

I agree, yet i'm somewhat previous formed and have self assurance in issues like own duty. the biggest losers in legality may be the drug cartels who make plenty money out of it, check out Mexico drug wars on google to work out somewhat some the horrors those each and every person is able to. of direction this is a genuine shame whilst human beings die from drug taking, mothers and fathers could desire to be so plenty extra in contact of their youngster's lives and word of the medicine that their toddlers could desire to be taking. there is not any evidence from the countries the place marijuana's been decriminalised that it leads to extra human beings taking it. we are in a position to additionally see this in the united kingdom the place solvents which could be abused are obtainable yet solvent abuse has been declining those days. There ought to be extra to it than how uncomplicated this is to get admission to (and as you're saying, this is a shaggy dog tale to think of that drugs are annoying to get now). It wont take place nonetheless. additionally, i'm unsure that legalisation might convey the cost down. unlawful cigarettes are extra value-effective than those in the shops.

Answer 7

What about all the people who make a living selling illegal drugs? Would they go try robbing people to make that extra money that they are making now or would they get a real job or maybe a 2nd job to help pay for everything?

Answer 8

Yes Goverments should declare day one .all these people should be assesed this one to be left to just live out his life of drugs this one can be saved give him a course of helpful assistance and cut out the drug trade but lets face it there are a lot of big time money makers in the drug scene and a lot of welfare social workers who like to perpetuate their jobs.

Answer 9

it might cut down on violent crime yes but it would make it a hell of a lot easier to get ahold of the drugs and therefor drug related death statistics would go up.

same concept as prohibiton. they legalised it bcuz of the violence that occured bcuz of it and they also lost out on a shitload of money

Answer 10

I agree that is what i think !!
but i still think they need to be helped off the drugs as well
not forced to get off allowed to get off at their pace but greatly encouraged to get off them
that would end the drug trade & a heap of crime to boot
that is a very good question you put on here! :)