Drug Decriminalization

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In today's society the drug debate is the forever unresolved elephant in the room. Often times the issue can be difficult to solve as it has found its way into the infrastructure of the capitalist society early on. Being a part of this foundation of our society has lead to the drug business incorporating aspects of the economy, criminalization system, judicial system, into its day to day workings making it difficult to root out from society. The entwining of the drug business although throughout time has had policies working against it, yet it continues to thrive in our society today. The inability to solve this issue has lead me to consider whether or not the constant thrive to reject drugs from society in the first place is worth it. The …show more content…
Primarily, the individuals who were planning on using drugs would find it whether or not it was decriminalized and made available. It is because of the drug decriminalization that the drug market is pushed underground making the risks higher when using drugs because everything is unregulated. Decriminalization of drugs is justified because it would allow the government to regulate the drug market, not only substances but distribution and sales, decreasing violence in society due to drug wars. By regulating drugs the product sold would be safer so people who decided to use it would have less of a health risk. For instance, during alcohol prohibition in the united states the entire business of alcohol was pushed underground leading to an increase in violence with American gangsters, 1,000 Americans died a year due to alcohol poisoning, alcohol sales increased by 400% from 1923 to 1931, prices for beer increased 700%. (pbs.com) The effects of prohibition of alcohol were astronomical to the us, but once it was legal again and regulated many of these consequences disappeared. Theoretically, because the drug market is unregulated it can have whatever product it produces, making the product very unsafe for consumers, and prices are also not regulated resulting in high prices making it a more profitable market encouraging growth. By decriminalizing drugs the government wouldn't be encouraging drug use but instead trying to regulate the harmful situations that involve the production and distribution of drugs. As for the deterrence, the government and product advertising of the drugs would have to include all the health problems on the labels such as cigarettes to create an informed population so people would use at their own risk. Thus drug criminalization can be justified because it would laws would regulate how easily the product would be sold so similar to alcohol,
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