Introduction
Drug legalization has a lot of advantages for the society which are usually not mentioned in disputes. Common people are not aware that drugs were not always illegal. A lot of drug substances have been used for centuries not only in general use but also in the medical field. However, since the end of the nineteenth century different states such as the USA, Russia and Britain have been trying to forbid the usage of drugs. Nevertheless, they did not take into account other ways of the development in this industry. In 1971 the President of the United States Richard M. Nixon signed the Controlled Substances Act which determinates drugs as ‘public enemy number one’ and started “War on drugs” (History.com Editors,2019). However, currently the perspectives of the solution have changed. In countries such as the Netherlands, Canada and Portugal, the governments have already legalized light drugs, which led to many social pros. This essay will argue in which way legalization could influence the social aspect of our lives. Also it will argue about social benefits of drug legalization and provide with firm arguments for this.
Main Body
The arguments for legalizing can be divided into four parts. Firstly, legalization will save money of tax payers. At the moment the money which is collected as taxes goes on meaningless warfare between the government and organized criminal activity. As a result, the government is fighting not with the reason why the drugs are produced illegally but with the final outcome; the drugs coming into the country and its distribution. In the last 40 years America had spent around 1 trillion dollars on this drug war (Pearl, 2018). However, as Miron (2008) suggests, the USA can save about 41.3 billion dollars by legalization. If the drugs are legalized, the money to stop its distribution would be invested in other fields, such as the improvement of the welfare of the community. Secondly, the allowance of drugs can stop the disproportionate incarceration rates. Currently in many countries such as Russia and Belarus, there are about 100.000 people who were sentenced for using or carrying drugs and this number is still growing. Only in 2017 in Russia courts condemned around 102.000 of people for the offences stated above. The period of the sentence varies from 8 to 10 years in general. (Torocheshnikova, 2018). During the time in prison, people do not undergo any rehabilitation. They have no psychological support and no opportunities to learn new skills for their further live out of prison. Therefore, after living in prison for such a long period of time, ex-convicts find it extremely difficult to socialize in the society. Neither their friends and family nor their potential employers can fully trust them, which means that these people are found dangerous. Prison eventually becomes their trademark, where ex- prisoners grow into being more desperate and commit new crimes which can be much crueler than drugs. Thus, new drug policy can help protect people from such destiny as becoming a new criminal element in the social mechanism. Thirdly, legalization can tackle organized crime. Columbia and Mexico are the centers of the drug trade. The value of such trade is 10 billion dollars per year (Kaplan, 2013). The Legalize will give the condition for countries to create their own manufactures which can compete with illegal imported products. For example, California is one of the states, which legalized marijuana for recreational use in 2016. Legal products have become much more relevant than imported ones, due to the fact of them being fresher and cheaper. As the result criminal activity was reduced by 13 percent (Gavrilova, Kamada, Zoutman, 2019). Finally, legalization of drugs leads to improvement in medicine. Treatment of mental diseases such as depression and post-traumatic stress has been gradually developing over the last three centuries. Recently, there has been a breakthrough in this field of studies. According to Alcohol and Drug Foundation (2018), in 2016 in London, research demonstrated that a single dose of LSD has a meaningful impact on brain and promotes neuron growth. Moreover, after usage of LSD the patients had shown their aptitude to face their problem and recover from illnesses. Thus, legalization will provide with new field of research and various ways for more effective treatment. Consequently, legalization of drugs is one of the most important steps in the war with cartels. The main idea is the limitation of the drug traffics and the reduction of money flows.
However, this topic has arguments against. Firstly, drug legalization leads to moral dissolution. According to Goldstein (1985), the main influence of drugs is the psychological effect. Drug users cannot control their actions and those provoke them to commit drug related crimes such as murder or robbery. It is thought that after the legalization takes place people will be bound to fall under the influence. Thus, such society will become an anarchy where everyone will do whatever they want without self-cautions or guilt. On the contrary, as L. Grinspoon and P.Hedblom suggest, the researchers from Cambridge did not find the connections between outbreaks of aggression and the using of drugs such as methamphetamine and heroin. Moreover, the idea of legalizing drugs gives people the freedom of choice. People more often do things which are forbidden, because they are attracted by things which are hidden from them. If we make the drugs legal people will increasingly lose their enthusiasm in this. For example, after legalization of marijuana in Canada about 60% of citizens still have never used the drug (Werschler, Brennan, 2019). In the 19th century many drugs such as cocaine and opium where legal and as we all know the societies of that time were not morally dissolved. We should keep in mind that during that century great minds had lived and many famous scientific discovers were made, like telegraph or phonograph. This example examines that drug legalization is not the reason for moral dissolution. Secondly, with the new drug policy the society will become less safe. As I have described previously, the people who were sent to prison for drug usage or drug carrying, will have to be released from prison. Therefore, people might feel unsafe and unprotected because ex-prisoners such as drug dialers, drug users will be claimed as dangerous by the society. When being back in their old lives, ex-convicts would not be able to return home, due to the fact of being considered untrustworthy. Taking into account all that is mentioned previously, it will be extremely difficult for them to find a job. Most of them might attempt to return their old habits or start committing even more serious crimes. Notwithstanding, these issues can be solved by the government. The money which once was used to cease the drug trafficking can be re-channeled to create special rehabilitation centers and job places. Ex-prisoners can gain or restore their good reputation with the help of these centers. Moreover, most of drug dealers will just abandon their businesses. They will not have any opportunities to continue their productions, because the drug trafficking will be monitored by the government. This circumstance can be used as a good motivation for them to start a new life or do other legal businesses.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this essay has argued about social benefits of legalizing drugs. In the 21 century the new drug policy is a vital project for every state. As I have suggested before, drug using is not deviant behavior for an individual, it is a part of the mankind culture. In this respect, the government of each state should create new laws. These laws should apply for the drug industry to become under governmental control inside each country. In conclusion, the main idea of this legalization is not to create anarchy in the society which will be destroyed by people being influenced by drugs. The main focus is to build a new form of social behavior which will be free from prejudices about the influence of drugs. Moreover, we should take into account the impact drugs could have on the medical field. Although today, the world is much closer to the legalization of the drugs that it was 10 years ago. It is still unarguable that it has numerous drawbacks, which can be solved only by making mistakes and experimenting.
Bibliography
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