Pros and Cons to Legalizing Illegal Drugs
Pros and Cons to Legalizing Illegal Drugs
In today’s world, illegal drugs seem to be everywhere. Illegal drugs are prominent among adults, youth, the poor, and the rich. The United States spends billions of dollars each year trying to keep drugs from entering the country, but with limited success. Several politicians and other individuals question the way in which our country handles the problem of illegal drugs. Some believe that we should keep fighting the drug war by keeping drugs illegal which includes sending people to prison for buying, selling, transporting and being in possession of drugs. Others believe that we should legalize drugs, or decriminalize the charges brought about by drugs in some way. The legalization of drugs will only create new problems, and create more chaos among the criminals who buy, sell, transport, and use drugs. Cases such as this come up often in our country, and it is important to look at all of the effects of each opinion before making the correct decision or law.
Yes to legalization
What have we done about the increasing drug problem? The government has enlarged its funding and resources and has tried to declare war, but it has not helped much. Many people ignore the law that says drugs are illegal. In the previous year, about thirty million people in America have had something to do with illegal drugs and have violated drug laws. I have seen the effects personally, in which drugs have torn relationships apart between my friends and their families. Many have fought their own war with drugs, and others continue to use drugs. Few are able to afford the expense of treatment centers. Today places that used to treat people for drug problems with open arms are now over crowded and are sending people elsewhere, or just simply giving them no service at all. The same problem of over crowding is happening in our prisons. Drug law violators make up about 1/3 of the population in federal prisons. Drug violators rather than more serious offenders such as robbers and sex offenders are using more of our prison space. The number of drug law violators in prisons is going to continue to increase. The cost of maintaining and building as many prisons as needed for the enormous increase in population can amount to large sums of money for taxpayers, and this idea is not very appealing to...