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Are Drugs The Answer? Essay, Research Paper

Are Drugs the Solution?If drugs were legalized many of the problems that face society will diminish. Removing legal penalties from the production, sale, and use of illegal drugs would remove many of our biggest social and political problems. Many of these problems that would be eliminated include ending prison overcrowding, freeing up police resources, unclogging the court systems, saving tax money, making drugs safer for those who choose to use, stabilizing other countries, eliminating much of the governmental corruption, helping slow AIDS and other blood born viruses, breaking down organized crime, ridding the loss of personal liberties, and making our homes and streets safer. Legalizing drugs would make our streets and homes safer. Two-fifths of robberies and assaults and half the nation’s burglaries and thefts are reportedly due to illegal drugs. In a 2 1/2-year study of crime, it was found that a 10 percent increase in the price of heroin alone produced an increase of 3 percent total property crimes in poor nonwhite neighborhoods. Armed robbery jumped almost 7 percent and simple assault by nearly 6 percent (Lawrence, 1991). Remember, this was only a 10 percent mark up on heroin alone. The reasons are not difficult to understand. When law enforcement restricts the supply of drugs, the price of drugs rises. Due to supply and demand, addicts must shell out hundreds of times the cost of the goods, so they often must turn to crime to finance their habits. The higher the price goes, the more they need to steal to buy the same amount. The streets become literally a battleground for “turf” among competing dealers, as control over a particular block or intersection can gain thousands of additional drug dollars per day. If and when drugs are legalized, their price will collapse and so will the various drug-related motivations to commit crime. Junkies will no longer need to steal to support their habits. A packet of cocaine will be as tempting to grab from its owner as a pack of cigarettes is today. Retailers will push drug dealers out of the retail market when drugs become legal (End the Drug War , 1998).It would put an end to prison overcrowding. Prison overcrowding is a serious and persistent problem. It makes the prison environment dangerous and inhumane. Governments at all levels keep building more prisons, but the number of prisoners keeps outpacing the capacity to hold them. Legalizing drugs would immediately relieve the pressure on the prison system. Since there would no longer be “drug offenders” to incarcerate, drug users would no longer need to commit violent or property crime to pay for their habits (Lawrence, 1998). There would be fewer “real” criminals to house in the first place; Instead of building more prisons, we could pocket the money and still be safer.Drug legalization would free up police resources to fight crimes against people and property. The considerably large police efforts now used against drug activity and drug-related crime could be redirected towards protecting innocent people from those who would still commit crime despite no drug laws. The police could protect us more effectively, as well as they could focus their resources on catching rapists, murderers, and the remaining criminals who commit crimes against people and property (Eldredge, 1996).Legalization would unclog the court system. If you are accused of a crime, it takes months to bring you to trial. Guilty or innocent, you must live with the anxiety of the trial to come until the trial finally begins. There simply aren’t enough judges to handle the rising amount of cases. Because it would cut crime and eliminate drugs as a type of crime, legislation would wipe tens of thousands of cases off the court schedules across America, allowing the rest to move sooner and quicker. Prosecutors would have more time to handle each case ( End the Drug War , 1998).It would reduce governmental corruption. Drug-related police corruption takes one of two major forms. Police officers can offer drug dealers protection in their districts for a share of the profits. Or they can seize dealer’s merchandise for sale themselves. Seven Philadelphia police officers were indicted on charges of falsifying records of money and drugs confiscated from dealers. During a house search, one man turned over $20,000 he had made from marijuana sales, but the officers gave him a “receipt” for $1,870 (Swisher, 1995). The huge profits from the illegal drug trade are a powerful motive for law enforcement agents to partake in the illegal activity. Legalizing the drug trade completely would eliminate this motive to corruption and help to clean up the police’s image. This again would put less strain on our court systems and make this type of activity less tempting for law officials.Legalization would save tax money. Efforts to stop the drug traffic alone cost $8 billion in 1992. If we ad the cost of trying to incarcerate users, traffickers, and those who commit crime to pay for their drugs, the tab runs well above $15 billion (End the Drug War, 1998). This is all money that we could be using towards education and welfare reform. The crisis in inmate housing would disappear, saving taxpayers the expense of building more prisons in the future. The savings would be put towards better police protection and quicker judicial service. Or maybe it could be converted into savings for taxpayers or perhaps a portion of the costs could be put towards the budget deficit. All these things could be possible; however, it takes legalization to make this all possible.It would break down organized crime. The Mafia, organized gangs, and the Cartel stand to lose billions in drug profits from legalization. Members of organized crime, particularly at the top, stand to lose the most from legalizing the drug trade. The underworld became big business in the United States when alcohol was

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