Would the decriminalisation and / Legalisation of controlled substances improve or hinder the economic, health and social circumstances of drugs users, their families, communities and society?
The continuous use of narcotics results in addiction, and financial struggles due to the costly upkeep. “Financial problems are one of the major side effects of drug and substance abuse” (Buaggett, 2015). Addicts cannot adequately take an active role in the economic activities, as the use of drugs inhibits the abilities of the users to earn a daily living. Due to the instability of finances, this would result in selling personal belongings to continue funding the substance of choice, and depending on the addicts living situation, this could lead to losing their house or being removed from their current housing. While being under the influence, an addicts voice of reason is jeopardized, resulting in criminal activities which raise the chances of being apprehended by the law enforcers, as well as, heavy fines are imposed. In brief, the use of drugs has multiple adverse effects, and is highly associated with the status of homelessness among
Drugs are one of the crime sources, although not by the drugs, itself, but the condition. Illegal drugs are rare products that could not be found in the normal market, the cost for its rarity is totally expensive. Once the addicts—people who cannot live without consuming drugs—try to use the products, they will seek for the larger amount of drugs to consume. However, as they consume the drugs constantly, the price keep increasing abruptly and they become peter out of money. When those people are unable to buy the drugs, they will struggle to buy it and almost of the
Imagine a country where all drugs are legal. Most people imagine a place with addicts lining the streets, needles and baggies full of unknown substances littering the floor, and thousands of deaths due to overdosing. This is because of the stigma around drug use that has risen from the war on drugs, which has turned the use of drugs from being seen as a health issue into being treated as a crime. Instead of trying to help the people who are abusing these substances as an escape from their normal lives, the government decided to blame drugs for causing people to abuse them. But in reality drugs can’t force someone to try one, each and every addict started off as just a normal person experimenting, and sending
Essentially, the war on drugs has demonstrated to be an exorbitant expense. The federal government in 2002 alone spent $18.822 billion in the form of expenditures such as treatment, prevention, and domestic law enforcement (CSDP, 2007, p. 54). However, given that the drug war has garnered meager results, this investment may be interpreted as a waste of taxpayer dollars. Alternatively, the money that has been allocated to arrest and detain drug offenders may also be a source of contention. CSDP (2007) “Of the 1,846,351 arrests for drug law violations in 2005, 81.7% (1,508,469) were for possession of a controlled substance. Only 18.3% (337,882) were for the sale or manufacture of a drug” (p. 23). Therefore, the individuals who are likely to enter the already overcrowded prisons may be users and the actual not distributors themselves. Thus, prison space that is intended to be reserved for murders and sexual predators is instead being occupied by substance
The main issue when it comes to drugs in the United States is the inefficient policies and sentencing laws that have been created. Also, the injustices within these policies pertaining primarily to race. Once the “war on drugs” was claimed the only way the government and law enforcement saw fit to handling this skyrocketing issue was to incarcerate offenders. Although this solution worked for a while, other alternatives needed to be made. However, these alternatives were not made and this left the drug policies, sentencing laws, and injustices at a standstill. Alternative policies and sentencing laws need to be made due to high incarceration rates. These high rates are costing the government and tax payers more money out of their pockets. This
The 2014 National Drug Threat Assessment (NDTA) Summary discourses evolving expansions associated with the trafficking and use of main illicit drugs abuse. The U.S. seizures of illegal substances in shipment exceeded 1,626 metric tons, demonstrating that DTOs have great succeed in shipping thousand tons of cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine, heroin, and MDMA into the United States each year. (DEA 2014) There are exceptional smuggling and shipping methods related with each drug type, but drug seizure statistics and federal, state, and local law enforcement reporting shows that smuggling overland and transportation by vehicle surpass all other methods of smuggling combined. The 2014 National Drug Control Strategy, in which has had very little
Implementation of some of these proposals may require some economic input and also rely on political goodwill. The principles involved, however - integrity, honesty, ethics, morality, and lawfulness - apply to all cultures, even though they may not present in all cultures. These solutions cannot work without the support of the society as a whole. The shift from the previous zero tolerance that threw drug addicts to prison has softened. Growing number of people are recognizing the need for treating drug addiction as a disease and not a crime. This is a great step towards creating reformed society. There must be support for a corruption free society, and with it, corruption-free law enforcement. We must start by creating a no tolerance for drug use. When drug thirst remains, the addicts will still be willing to pay large sums of money to obtain those drugs. The society thus must reject this vicious cycle, drug abuse must become unacceptable in order to stop police corruption. The fight against drug use is not just an individual’s effort. Fighting drug use and stopping drug abusers requires a collective effort. State governments’ agencies, nonprofit organizations, health care providers and even friends and relatives must work to reduce the number of people willing to buy and use
In the book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, the people of London in this future dystopian society take a pill called a soma that calms your nerves and helps your mind deal with stressful situations. Anytime they get worried at all or just feel down they take soma. (Huxley, 1998) Society should be against mood enhancing drugs because it alters their state of mind and effects the natural way of dealing with emotional situations.
Drugs are chemical substances that can be used by many people to feel delighted, excited and relaxed. Those drugs may have a dangerous effect on individual’s lives. Ice is considered as one of the most destructive and powerful stimulant drug in Australia. Many Australians are addicted to this drug, which affects Australia socially and economically (Taylor, Brownstein, Mulcahy, Fernandes-Huessy, Woods & Hafford, 2011, p. 319). This essay will discuss the main problems of the drug ice in Australia and suggest possible solutions to decrease its effects socially and economically. The first section of this essay will focus on the main economic problems of the drug ice, including drug market stability and retail market competition. Then, it will
In Australia in recent years the illicit drug market has increased steadily. It is unknown just how large the markets actually are, but there is no debate that it is profitable. According to Gong, W., Ritter, A., Bright, D., & Doran, C. (2012,p208) ,the Price of methamphetamines can range from 4 times to 20 times the original product cost price. Many people use Methamphetamines because of accessibility. This causes serious problems socially and economically. This essay will illustrate these problems and offer solutions to them. It will firstly focus on financial, health and crime issues. Then it will explain counterplans.
Within a community which legalizes drugs, consumers experience just the downsides of usage. Using prohibition, furthermore, they stake offense, penalties and fees, losing specialized permits, and others. Therefore prohibition unambiguously damages people who benefit from regardless of prohibition. And also prohibition does indeed, come with large expenses, irrespective of how dangerous drugs is perhaps. (SPIEGEL ONLINE,
Statistics and American experience have shown that the rampant spending that bases on law enforcement has caused more problems than it has solved. Focusing on sending personal drug abusers to prison not only costs the American taxpayer money, it also hurts the public schooled student of the United States by taking away needed funding. Turning to complete drug decriminalization is the only choice that would fix both the social and economic issues if the drug filled America we know today. To quote Matt Groff, a documentary filmmaker whose newest film is about America’s unwinnable wars, “Drug use and abuse exists on a spectrum and as a society we must accept that some portion of the population will be addicted to drugs even if we don’t like it”. Decriminalizing drugs would allow current addicts to receive the help that they need, and also let law enforcement focus more on the large gangs that control the drug trade. The economy would be lifted higher than it has been since the War on Drugs started and drug addiction rates would plummet like never seen
Reinforced by research evidence, reasonable arguments for supporting the current law on illegal drugs are rarely offered. The clearest arguments are religiously based or moral views that the use of particular drugs is immoral; that people who use those drugs are corrupt and consequently, drugs should be banned and manufacturers, suppliers and users should be treated as criminals. Adjustment to drug laws has been advocated by a number of individuals and reform groups, however opponents announce that such reduction of laws, involving decriminalization and legalization, will eliminate the preventive effect and increase drug use and release much larger drug-related concerns into the community. A reasoning for legalization is that it would significantly reduce or even abolish drug trade inside the black market and criminal networks. Other arguments involve focusing responses within health instead of the police and the criminal justice system. Governments could accumulate taxation income from illicit drugs as they now do from gambling, alcohol and tobacco. A regulated authority could assure direct income; research indicates this may be approximately $600 million annually for a regulated cannabis market in New South
Every day on the news there are all kinds of reports. Crime reports are a major part of today's events. Almost every day there are posts about crimes. The level of crime has risen immensely in every corner of the world. People have tried to understand the causes of crime, but if we look around the world we can see that many of the crimes are caused by people who abuse drugs and alcohol, people who think negatively towards others, and poverty.