The United States Should Legalize All Recreational Drugs

The Importance of Statistics "You may have graphs and statistics to support your argument yet, in my opinion and hopefully in the opinion of others, these become materialistic and unworthy." Statistics on hundreds of thousands of people dying from something we helped contribute to isn't materialistic and unworthy. These deaths aren't just government forces and cartel members, they're also innocent civilians caught in the gunfire. Many women and children have died in this war as well. Countless families have been broken apart, destroyed, and displaced. For example, in Mexico's drug war, 5 children were killed in a single state, in a single week.(1) One was a 4 year old girl. Another a 2 year old boy. These type of things happen throughout the Americas. " You are attempting to argue that the prohibition of drugs has caused war and deaths. With parts of this statement I agree, but to legalize drugs just to prevent the Cartels causing more deaths is pointless." How could you say it's pointless to prevent innocent people from dying? This is not only disrespectful to those that have lost everything from the drug war, their livelihood, homes, family members, and even children, but it's simply heartless. The Desires of Cartels " In fact you are submitting into their desires .... submission to criminals will show weakness in the government and soon citizens will lose their trust in them." Drug Prohibition is the very thing that allows criminals to enrich themselves. Drug lords, distributors, and gang members are the last people to want drugs to be legalized. The Power of Cartels "The act of legalizing these drugs to prevent war with the Cartel will soon result in the Cartel increasing in power and wealth and corruption. Next you are arguing upon the large amount of money spent on war in a battle against drugs. Well, the point of a government is to be in democratically in control of the country." One of the main reasons to support drug legalization is to crush the cartel's profits and substantially weaken their power. The most effective method to stopping the cartels would be to take away their monetary resources through legalizing the production of recreational drugs here in the US, which would bring down the profits of those cartels by many factors. Joseph D. McNamara, PhD, and a former chief police stated that "About $500 worth of heroin or cocaine in a source country will bring in as much as $100,000 on the streets of an American city. All the cops, armies, prisons, and executions in the world cannot impede a market with that kind of tax-free profit margin. It is the illegality that permits the obscene markup, enriching drug traffickers, distributors, (and) dealers.”(2) Government Strength "Now to have a law overturned due to the pressure of criminal activity shows how weak the government is. To pursue the war against them will show great courage yet also the country will become feared upon by criminals." Governments are fallible. They make good decisions and bad decisions. This doesn't make them weak though. One of the strengths of the US political system is its ability to change and adapt to new information and an evolving society. When we have gathered information over decades to support an idea, the government would show its adaptability and versatility in changing toward the direction of truth. This is one of the times where the government would not be weak, but strong, to change. Cost-Benefit Analysis "You talked about how prohibiting drugs caused 'economical harm". The money spent on this war is money spent worthwhile. The younger generation should not be allowed the choice, no the temptation, of whether to take drugs or not." The government limiting an individual's choice to do something which does not infringe on the rights of others is not something I agree with. There are many things bad for us, but we do them anyway. I will give an example. Let's say we banned junk food because it is a leading cause of many health issues. Billions could be spent on sending people to jail for being caught selling, manufacturing, and consuming foods such as donuts and cookies. What would result from this ban is a massive black market, in which people are able to sell junk food illegally. The government could try endlessly to prevent people from eating these deliciously unhealthy treats, but the supply and demand would be too much for government to prevent. The prisons would fill up with nonviolent offenders of these laws. There would still be people getting obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure, as these laws would fail to prevent people from over-consuming junk food. After 40 years of a failed war on junk food, do you think the money spent would be worthwhile? Is it actually a morally justifiable thing to prevent the consumption of junk food? This analogy is very close to what's happening with drug prohibition. Billions are spent annually on enforcing drug laws. Nonviolent drug offenders now account for about one-fourth of all inmates in the United States.(3) Drug usage has increased. Drug trafficking has increased. Even worse, hundreds of thousands have died in the process. The benefits aren't there to outweigh the enormous costs. The younger generation will have the choice to take drugs whether the government wants them to or not. The temptation will always be there, as the government has failed to prevent temptation through criminalization. Prohibition has failed. Morality of Government "They should live in a country where the government is strong and resilient to all pressure and rely upon it. A government with a moral spine to say what's wrong and to prohibit it despite great financial losses. These attributes shown by the government will become iconic and hence breed a proud and righteous younger generation." The younger generation will be the ones to determine what the government should be strong and resilient against. The government's moral stance on issues will change as time moves on. The government's course of action on problems will also change. If the younger generation sees drug usage as a problem large enough to tackle using government, there are better ways to do it than the failed policy of prohibition. Where Money is Needed "My last thoughts: Although the instigator shows various statistics proving the great financial losses of the country as a cause to prohibition of drugs, I have to say that this area is where great money is needed." Instead of using that trillion over the past 40 years on drug law enforcement, imagine if we instead spent that money on educational programs and addiction rehabilitation. Imagine the results that could have been made if instead of treating the problem as a criminal issue, we treated it as a health issue. I agree that drug addiction is a problem. But what I hope I have convinced you by now is that drug prohibition is a failing and destructive method to prevent it. Conclusion Drug prohibition was an idea based on the best of intentions, and has been fought diligently for decades. Sadly, the criminalization of drugs has caused much more harm than supporters would have ever imagined. Prohibition was never going to work, as the supply and demand of the drugs would remain constant, unchanging by the illegality of it. The enforcement and funding has never been so strong, yet it has not led to promising results. There are other ways to fight this problem, if we can even agree recreational drug use is completely a problem. End the cartels. Save thousands of lives. Save billions of dollars. Prevent peaceful people from filling up the prisons. Support the legalization of recreational drugs. Vote Pro. Sources: 1. http://www.nydailynews.com... 2. http://aclu.procon.org... 3. http://www.nationalreview.com...