Should Drugs Be Legalized?

Question

did the ban on alcohol help to reduce the consumption of it in the early 1900's. lol i forgot when Prohibition was in action.

Erica G- shouldn't you make that decision? why should the government tell you what to and not to do? Then why not ban cigarettes? they are bad aren't they?

Answer 1

Yea i think drugs should be legalized cause if you are that stupid to do drugs and mess up your life and body then go ahead.... At least it is not my body.. my body is staying healthy.. If they legalize them everybody can decide on their own if they want to do that to their body or not....... It will be their problem.... not ours....

Answer 2

Illegalizing bad drugs is not gonna do any thing, because now over the counter drugs are being abused. I think education is the key issue not illegalization. Why do you think there is a drug smuggling problem here in America? It 's because certain people from this country can't get them so drug smugglers from south the border get them to them. I admit we need to catch the drug smugglers, but there way too many illegal immigrants still coming into this country than there are drug smugglers, We have a problem with the borders because we're too focused on the drug smugglers that we let the others get away when they cross the border.

Answer 3

The easy answer would be to say yes, under restrictions or tax.

But the reality answer would be NO.
Illegal drugs are great for the economy. How many cops, jailers, etc. would be out of work and have to get retrained to get a real job with skills? How many jobs are created by new prisons, and upgrades at jails? All of that would be gone and from the construction worker, to the cops and judges, the economy would take a big hit. Thats why it will never happen, even though alot of us would welcome it.

Answer 4

Honestly I was thinking about this the other day. And I have to say yes, but obviously controlled, but still available to people through the government. The worst thing about illegal drugs on our society is actually the organized crime that goes along with it, by keeping it illegal we are just enriching horrible, violent, criminals who have no regard for the people of this country. When the terror cells, and gangstas, and south americans have competition they will have to fade away. Why buy illegal drugs off the street from some crack head when you can legally buy them with your druggie ID card at the gov't shop.

People will continue to use, no matter what we do, so why not put the evil people in charge out of business?

Answer 5

yes, as phrohibition is against induvidual freedom, the Basis of the constitution, but there are numerous reasons
Should police put thier lives (and others) in danger to chase a pot dealer or crackhead?
Many police officers support legalization and would prefer going after rapists, murderers, pedophiles etc....
As an (adult) induvidual, don't we have the right to choose what we put into our bodies? Alcohol is far more damaging than marijuana, but because it is socially accepted by the majority, it is legal.
And parents should be the ones who are "ultimately" responsible in teaching thier children between right and wroing.
And besides, the "war on Drugs" is pointless, an addict will get thier fix one way or another.

Answer 6

it's odd, and I know this is a hard concept to grasp... but drug addiction would actually probably DECREASE if we legalized drugs. For years it was completely legal to "pursue chemical happiness" in this nation and people for the most part dealt with it pretty maturely. Now we are just filling our prisons with people that got caught with a drug for personal use instead of dangerous criminals.

Now on the other side of that we have new waves of drugs today they didn't have in the past... and some of these (like say Meth) can make people violent.. and as such ARE a threat to the greater society.. not to mention addicts that would rob you blind and kill their mother for a hit.

So ... what's the right answer? I say legalize them (with the same restrictions as alcohol) and use the extra revenue that we WON'T be spending holding minor drug offenders in prison to set up rehab and awareness programs. The whole nation is happier and the government gets a new set of products to tax the hell out of to raise money.

Everyone wins.

Answer 7

I’m in favor of legalizing recreational drugs that don’t have serious addictive qualities. I rule out highly addictive substances (for example, cocaine, heroine and meth), because then I argue the selling of these drugs is no longer victim-less, because dependency of those you sell to is quickly developed.

However, consuming some drugs is essentially a victim-less crime, if the drug is not mixed with activities that can harm others like operating a vehicle or a firearm (for which we have similar laws with alcohol). Also it would eliminate the organized crime-element related to these drugs, since legalization would allow smarter, legal businesses to provide them and take away a gang’s ability to profit from it.

Prohibition proves this. It proved that making a recreational drug illegal (in this case alcohol), you increase the amount of criminal activity related to that drug, and also increase the violence and gang-related warfare related to the acquisition and distribution of the drug.

Decriminalizing these drugs is the worst compromise in my opinion. All decriminalization will do, is keep the selling of these drugs in the criminal element, and pacify the consumer. This means, organized crime would have a greater means to exert a monopoly over the product, and the gang-related drug wars would continue.

There is a serious argument that marijuana is no more harmful than consuming a moderate amount of alcohol. If marijuana were legalized to sell and consume, but illegal to use irresponsibly (driving and using firearms while consuming marijuana would solicit time in prison), I think we’d be better off. I say that because we would remove a serious weapon used by organized crime to grow in power and revenue, and we’d reduce the amount of criminals in our prisons, allowing our prison system and law enforcement to focus on crimes with an actual victim.

Answer 8

It isn't the business of the government to tell people what they should or should not do in the privacy of their homes, unless someone else is directly harmed thereby. So of course consumption of drugs is none of the government's business. (NB even in the 20s with prohibition, it wasn't drinking that was banned but the sale of alcohol.)

Answer 9

Yes; it will end up killing off those who are too stupid to live, thus making the general population more intelligent.

Teenagers stuck on drugs will drop out of high school, and make sure that there are still people to work for minimum wage.

Sounds like a good idea to me.
Don't smoke crack. Don't do heroin. Don't do Meth. Some people don't get this, and if legalization of drugs means that these people will go drug crazy and OD, removing them from society, that's grand.

Answer 10

Drugs only are a symptom of a much wirse mallady, contempt for society, the law, and our country, and the welfare of your family.
But, is the right solution to leaglize drugs? If we did, does the problem go away? No.
Not any more than if you legalize rape, a crime that needs total contempt for the sactity of women and childrens bodies as their own!
Drugs and druggies are contemptable sub-humans and never ever trust one of them, they lie straight-faced to you to steal a nickle for a joint or a rock.