Should drugs be legalized? why or why not?

Question

please share your thoughts on this topic, thanks......and i personally think that marijuana should be legalized, but only in the privacy of your own home..

Answer 1

Yes, drugs should be legalized. At least, some of them should be. Marijuana is one of them.

Why? First of all, the Constitution of the United States gives Congress no authority over the sale or manufacture of drugs--unless they are transported over State lines for commercial purposes.

Second, the "War on (Some) Drugs" has been an exhorbitantly expensive and spectacular failure. It has artificially inflated the cost of drugs, spawning vendettas that have cost tens of thousands of lives, increased the level of violence in low-income residential neighborhoods, and made more than a few very bad men very, very rich.

Third, the government's claim of jurisdiction over your mind and body is immoral. The government's duty is to protect people from each other, not to protect them from themselves. Laws which regulate what you may not due while under the influence of drugs can be good, because they aim to accomplish the former. Unless a drug has a strong correlation with violent behavior (such as PCP), regulating it would be aimed at accomplishing the latter, which is wrong.

Answer 2

Well Im conflicted by this. I do like the idea of being able to smoke a joint or do some blow without the legal problems that may come of it. However, as a person that has experience with drug sales I understand that the reason those drugs have the value they do on the streets is because theyre illegal. I know its not pretty but drug sales are a time honoured way that a lot of people made it out of the slums of America. If illicit drugs were made legal for all usages that would take one path away from those people and cement them into their life of grinding poverty. So, if you like keeping blacks and mexicans dirt poor then legalizing drugs would be a step in the right direction.

Answer 3

yes, I read this on the internet so I am going by memory so investigate further. They made alcohol illegal in the 20's. The government felt that they could control the influx of the Irish and Italians that were arriving in droves. Most lived in squalor-10-12 people in cold water flats. (im irish) They used the stove to heat the shacks. Under such conditions there reputation as drunks preceded them.(i speak for my irish) So, the government could arrest and clean the streets of the low-life scum (as they were treated).
Marijuana's was legal until 1937. Thomas Jefferson had many acres of marijuana's (hemp- also great use in place of cotton)
Far as I go on facts, except for my experimental stage. With every fiber I do not understand why alcohol is legal and pot is not. The damage is not comparable - you do not see mother against pot smokers (and its illegal). Not to condone drug use- but it is not going anywhere. People are not as detrimental to society on pot. The legality can remove death,jail, cycle. The cultural trap is devastating- 25% of young black males will see jail time. Try to find a job after jail time. Then what- they don't disappear- and they have to live with schooling from behind bars and the streets.
The other drugs are more complex. But we live in a society where 9000 to 1 - the ratio of sugar and candy ads to healthy food on sat morn T.V.
The easy answers are not possible- we know that food is a drug, tv. if not in moderation.
OK my answer, the second coming of Christ

Answer 4

The correct question is why they should be illegal.

We've all heard the arguments about the sovereignty of one's body, at least if one has terminal cancer and wants to die, or is female and pregnant and wants an abortion. Where does the government get the authority to determine what any free person can put into their body for their own reasons, including recreation?

It's self-damaging? Well, that's not necessarily proven, but even if it were, so are tobacco, alcohol, and anything that falls under the category of "extreme sport".

It causes people to harm others? That's already unlawful.

No, I refuse to try to justify why drugs should be legal. In a free country, the burden is on the government to demonstrate why something should be forbidden. This has not been done, and isn't even attempted without a lot of "maybe".

Answer 5

I agree with you 100% on the decrimilization of pot, as it is a herb, and put on this earth for stress relief, and I hate these stinking laws against it. Ciggs, and alcohol are legal, and look what they do to people. Never have I heard anybody dying from smokng pot. I say, focus on the hard drugs like coke, and heroin, and Ice, and get rid of it. They put innocent people in freaking jail for pot, and the hard core drug dealer, that deals all the poison, is the one that should be put in jail. They have no problems in Amsterdam, with drugs, because they are not the big problem, and some are legal there, even though they say it is not legal, you can buy hash, or pot there. If the Government controlled all drugs except for pot, wow, no more drug dealer, no jail, just education programs to help those who do the hard drugs. If they could get these drugs through the government. no more crime, because people would not have to steal, to buy the drugs. The laws have to change, because what they are doing now has done no good, and only puts millions, in the drug dealers pockets.

Answer 6

I think marijuana alone should be legalized. If it was, and taxed, the revenues to the US Government would be tremendous.
The war on drugs is one we have lost but fail to admit to it. The county where I live will not lock up crack heads because they have no money for fines, court and lawyers, and they usually end up costing the county more in hospital bills when they are locked up and go into withdrawals. Nevermind that these same crackheads are the local thieves.
Our home was broken into by a local crackhead and he stole a lot of my husbands tools (hubby's a contract builder), nevermind my husband ran him off pulling up in the yard, nevermind my husband filing a police report, none of this mattered, the local law did not arrest him until 3 months later when my husband went to his house, called to law an refused to leave until they arrested the thief. My husband got 7 dollars restitution paid to him in checks of 33 cents a month.
Instances like this are the norm where I live.

Answer 7

Rx drugs are legal, taxed, and regulated. Drugs classified as class II substances tend to get abused. When we make them legal, we do more than open up new avenues for government regulation and taxation... we legitimize the copious use of drugs which can have substantial deleterious effects on people's health, emotional stability, and their capacity for emotional maturation. It would further contribute to layer upon layer of more tort laws being developed based on crybabies who want to squirm out of their responsibilities by saying that they couldn't help themselves because the drugs made them do it. Law enforcement officials would have to haul mobile labs around in their patrol cars and on their motorcycles because conventional roadside sobriety tests wouldn't be adequate. And, and, and...

The list goes on and on. THC may only test for 40 units when a newbie is tested. Someone who is a chronic user may go for a day without using and still come up with 50 units. Do we automatically revoke all driving privileges (for life) of all persons who come up positive for THC? The science isn't good enough to answer our questions. Neither are the laws resulting from those sciences.

Lets give it a rest for a while.

Answer 8

Drugs in general? No way. Marijuana...I used to think so, but I thought about it and came to this conclusion: If they legalize herb the government is gonna get their big fat sticky fingers into it like they did with booze. It would no doubt be regulated. Next thing ya know we'll have huge taxes on it, and they'll regulate the potency. So I say no way. Besides, I'm making too much money at it.

Answer 9

all these wars on drugs arent doing anything, drugs themselves are not the problem, you need to look at what causes people to take drugs and cut the root out not the symptoms,
by making drugs illegal the just go underground and cause violence and drug wars from gangs etc
dependacny on drugs causes burglaries and murder, greater care should be taken with addicts rather than just putting them in prison where they will learn even more about drugs
and how can you prosecute someone for doing something to their own body as long as they are over the age of eighteen?

alcohol and ciggarettes kill far more people than all these illegal drugs so surely they should be illegal, rather than things like cannibus which has never killed anybody

Answer 10

Marijuana should be legalized. It is an intoxicating drug like alcohol, and as such, should have similar regulations. For example, one should not be able to operate machinery or vehicles while high, and it should be restricted to users 18 and older.
"Hardcore" drugs, like heroin, meth, and cocaine, should remain illegal. Those are extremely addictive, and have health risks that are much more serious than marijuana.