Essay, Research Paper: Drugs

Reasons For The Legalization Of Drugs
We will never get rid of drugs and until we realize this we will still have one of the worst education systems, the largest imprisonment rate, the largest crime rate, and a depletion of money from other more important budgets. Legalizing drugs will create drug regulation, crime reduction, and increased revenue for the government.
Regulation is the control of who can get a product, how much that person can get, how the person can get it, and who produces it. Drugs should be regulated in the same way as alcohol. There should be an age restriction on all drugs. In order for this to work we must take the business of transportation, distribution, and sale out of the hands of the individual or the black market and put it in the hands of private industry. Laws are not a deterrent to kids. The ones who chose not to use drugs chose so because of education and a strong will, not the harsh laws government imposes. One thing for certain is should we legalize drugs we could regulate them. In the long run we would reduce the availability of drugs to our children. If for no other reason at least it would be harder for the children to become drug addicts.
Crime reduction in our society is a very necessary step. We need to look into ways to reduce crime anyway we can. We must look at the causes of crime in our society and one direction we can look is that of drug use and distribution. One of the primary goals of the drug war has been to reduce the supply of a drug so that the price will rise and the users could not afford them. This is a policy that asks for crime. An addict had no choice in this issue. They must have their drugs and they will do anything and every thing they can to get them. As we raise the price of these drugs higher and higher the results are that we are forcing these addicts to find another way to obtain the money. They commit crimes such as mugging, robbery, theft, and extortion to obtain the money they need. When these methods don't work they move to higher ground such as murder. The higher the price of drugs the more lucrative it is to sell and thus the more dealers there will be. The solution is simple. If we were to legalize drugs we could put these dealers out of business. The legalization of drugs would drop the prices of those drugs drastically. First there would be no reduction of supply by ways of police action and second the product could be produced in mass similarly to current prescription drugs and even food crops. A user would no longer have to steal to support his habit and thus the crime committed against non-drug users would decrees significantly. As long as there is a restriction on the distribution of drugs there will be a black market.
In our current situation our federal government has a deficit of billions of dollars growing every day. The government is currently cutting programs like NASA, welfare, the military, education, student financial aid, and many more programs to afford the war on drugs. More money is being spent on the war on drugs each year. Prisons are one of the biggest examples. As an example California has built 18 new prisons in the last 12 years and have plans for 5 more so that they can hold the increased number of criminals the war on drugs is handing them. Police departments could reduce the number of cops on the street if there were less crime to fight. The court system would be a little less clogged and real criminals like murderers, armed robbers, rapists, and thieves could be prosecuted more efficiently. Another thing that can be gained from the legalization of drugs would be increased revenue due to taxation. Just like cigarettes, drugs would be taxed. Legalizing drugs would ultimately provide the government with more money.
In the end it will be impossible to get rid of drugs, the black market, and those who chose to use drugs. Drugs are part of the society and a near impossibility to get rid of and so it is in the best interest of the government to legalize drugs and use the money to educate people about the harmful effects of drug usage. Legalizing drugs would ultimately create drug regulation, crime reduction, and increased revenue for the government.