how would you propose to deal with the drug problem in the United States?

Question

As a sociologist, how would you propose to deal with the drug problem in the United States? If you were called on to revamp existing drug laws and policies, what, if any, changes would you make in them?

Please be serious, i see alot of stupid imuture anwers here.

Please don’t answer if you are going to say legalize them, it’s obvious that I have gotten that “advice” more than once. Be creative, think of something new. Thanks!

Answer 1

Well, here goes. This won't be the popular answer, but, then again, I am not a politician, so I don't care about being politically correct and/or offending anyone. You can bet I would change existing drug laws and policies. First, I would take drugs out of the realm of criminals and criminal activity. I would decriminalize drug use. I would have the government control quality and package it for private use, like cigarettes. I would tax it and use the revenue from the taxes to fund rehab units. Some drugs would have to be on medical advise only. If you were caught with someone else drugs then you would be sentenced to rehab and kept there...against your will, if necessary...for a good, long time...not this one week, two week stuff. I would offer free Methadone programs, but you would have to test clean to continue in them. I would give free, sterile needles to users to reduce disease. But mainly, I would try to stop the cycle of crime, violence and arrest that surrounds illegal drug use. Take the profit factor off the street, make the drugs legal and take the crime element out of it. Offer help, not jail. You will never, ever, ever eliminate drug use. But if you quit making it against the law, you eliminate the need to prosecute and convict people for using it. That helps free up our courts and jails. You make it legal and controlled and that eliminates the profit factor and puts the drug dealers out of business. Put the drug dealers out of business and stop the gang wars over who controls the drugs. Control the quality of the drug and that eliminates the deaths caused by drugs cut with rat poison and other substances. You realize of course that this only works for the more common drug substances? What we do about what somebody cooks up in the kitchen sink, I don't know. All I know is: our "war on drugs" isn't working. You would think we would have learned from Prohibition that you can not legislate morality, and when you tell someone that they can't have something, that is the very thing they will get. Illegal booze made many a crook a millionnaire, and some of them never got caught. But a lot of people got killed.

Answer 2

If you choose to legalize all illegal drugs, okay, then heap on a 99.9% sales tax. Why sooooooo "high" on sales taxes? Okey, here are three reasons;

(1) It'll take care of the national dept that we still have.
(2) It might make it unprofitable for the drug lords, especially the ones that sponser terrorism!
(3) it might make it unoffordable for the average street user
here in the U. S.

But I'm not progressive-liberal enough to do that. So Here's some nuts-n-bolts on what I would do;
(1) If you are the type that screams out "OUR JAILS ARE TOO FULL!!!" Okey, those states that have the death penalty should do what Texas does, absolutely with one hand flip off the ACLU, and start throwing the switch on those that are on death row with the other!
(2) Now you've got some jail space for drug dealers, and drug lords as well! As a matter of fact, death penalty for these two groups.
(3) Arrest anyone associated/and/or, with the ACLU for treason against the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
(4) Make Prozak illegal, and put all of our Senators, either democrat, or republican, that are using the crap into rehab!
That's what I would do about the drug problem here in America.
I should run for congress! At least you won't elect anyone that's not hooked on any kind of drug.

Answer 3

Legalize, tax and track. Most synthetic drugs are poor imitations of cocaine and morpine. Crack cocaine is like grain alcahol was during prohibition. If a person could go to the pharmacy and buy some then the drug dealers, wholesale and retail, would be gone.Prisons would empty out leaving room for dangerous people. Tax money could pay for a whole lotta programs.

Answer 4

Legalize them - it is so easy to get drugs now anyway, it wouldn't make much difference other than we wouldn't be wasting money on an impossible task. We could also tax the drugs - more income for the government to misuse lol (jk). It really comes down to parents teaching their children the things they need to refuse the drugs that are often offered to them. I'm terrified of having teenage children because I know how easily they can get drugs and fear that despite my best efforts to instill in them the reasoning needed to refuse drugs, in their inexperience they will still try them.

Answer 5

Make the black market in drugs unprofitable. There is a simple way to do that, but our politicians are too stupid or bribed to see it, just like the f-ing ****** who gave me a thumbs-down. Decriminalize all of them and make those that are normally abused a medical problem, not a legal one. Of course, that will make it necessary for criminal scumbags like the Contras to find other ways to finance their anti-democratic insurgencies.

It was thanks to an ignorant Republican diplomat and quack that addicts around the turn of the 20th century went from being productive citizens to becoming common criminals, and that ignorance has carried through to this day, with only sporadic periods, such as the 60's, when light was shed on the hypocrisy and wastefulness of the unwinnable drug war.

The war on poverty is winnable, but that doesn't warm the cockles of perverted politicians, with a few exceptions like.presidents FDR and LBJ and shoulda-been presidents like George McGovern.

Answer 6

repeal all laws against drugs. do not require a prescription for anything let people consult a doctor if they wish and then buy what they need. Illegal drug profit will disappear and stop much crime, addicts will take drugs . get the crime element out of the problem

Answer 7

Legalize them. Law enforcement can then concentrate on more important things.

Answer 8

Apply the death penalty to drug dealers and put users on chain gangs.

Answer 9

Legalize It period

Answer 10

stop increasing production in afganistan