Kayli Hammond Essays - Drug Culture, Drug Control Law,

Kayli Hammond Mr. Owens Psychology August 31, 2017 I am planning on arguing drug use. If someone gets enough pressure into drugs, then they will most likely do the drugs. I have family members that are drug addicts or ex-drug addicts. My aunt went to prison for drugs and so did my uncle. They are both out of prison now but my uncle is back into drugs. Here is an article that is against drug use and states that drugs are not the best road to take to di stract ourselves in a hard time. All the quotes are from the same article "M illions of thinking men are agreed that allowing people to take whatever they like is the obvious, indeed only, solution to the social problems that arise from the consumption of drugs. " " The arguments in favor of legalizing the use of all narcotic and stimulant drugs are twofold: philosophical and pragmatic. Neither argument is negligible, but both are mistaken, I believe, and both miss the point. " "T he legalization of drugs cannot be supported by philosophical principle. But if the pragmatic argument in favor of legalization were strong enough, it might overwhelm other objections. " "S ince society already permits the use of some mind-altering substances known to be both addictive and harmful, such as alcohol and nicotine, in prohibiting others it appears hypocritical, arbitrar y, and dictatorial. Its hypocrisy, as well as its patent failure to enforce its prohibitions successfully, leads inevitably to a decline in respect for the law as a whole. Thus things fall ap art, and the center cannot hold." ( Theodore Dalrymple , Don't Legalize Drugs.) "Illegal drugs and here I refer to cocaine, heroin, PCP, and methamphetaminehave three prices that are much higher than what they w ould be if the sale were legal. First, under legalization the cash price would be lower. No one knows by how much, but the most cautious scholar says by a factor of three, the boldest one says by a factor of 20. Now take a powerfully addictive substance, one that not only operates on but modifies the human brain by producing compelling effects that often can only be achieved again by increasing the dosage, and ask how many more people would buy it if its cash price were only 30 percent or even 5 percent of its current price. Unless you think that everybody who wants the drug is already using it, a most unlikely possibility, then the answer must be a lot. Second, under legalization the quality price would be lower. Drugs are now purchased in most cases from people who offer no meaningful promise of quality. You can buy cocaine or heroin tha t has been cut five times or 20 times, and cut with sugar or rat poison. The Food and Drug Administration does not require accurate labeling, and unless you are a repeat customer, you probably have no idea what you are getting. Feel like taking a chance? Buy a drug from the furtive fellow on the street corner. Third, under legalization the search price would be zero. You would not have to search or run risks of being mugged or arrested. Maybe you would be able to buy it in the local pharmacy, but you would get it from some dealer operating in the open with no risk to you. Cut all of these three prices, the cash cost, the risk of not getting a decent quality, and the absence of searching and running risksand the total price reduction would not be by a factor of 20 but probably by a factor of 50. Consumption will go up dramatically. " " Now what happens? Here is where the only meaningful debate can exist. Do you think that there will be a decrease in drug crime? Maybeif the crime committed by users seeking money to buy drugs and the dealers protecting their right to sell drugs falls by an amount greater than the increase in crime committed by addicted users who are no longer capable of holding a job. Not all coke or heroin addicts are incapacitated, but a significant fractionperhaps one-fifth, perhaps moreare. Say we have 1 million users