Immediate Effect Of A Legalized Drug Market example essay topic

The dawn of the twenty first century has ushered in a new age of optimism and wonder. Despite the proclamations of television, all is not in well in our part of the world. Our societies have succumbed to the modern holy war on drugs. Being fought against our own citizens and citizens abroad, an international effort to eradicate drug production and use has undoubtedly failed leaving in its wake social unrest and political chaos. Assault, property crime, racial and economic marginalization, murder, corruption and many other undesirable things are burning through society fueled by the drug war's cold and inhuman policies.

In addition to these problems there are the initial problems that drug users incur on themselves and society; the same ones the drug war was supposed to eliminate. Prohibition is an old idea that is not practically attainable in a democratic society that values individual rights. Experiments with the prohibition of alcohol failed miserably and cost many people their lives. If the justification behind the drug war is human health and well being, as governments would have us believe, then refraining from using the police to murder and spy on our citizens would be a good start to solving the problem. A form of regulated legalization of drugs would be a tolerant middle ground that recognizes the inevitability of drug use and strives to make it as safe as possible. Regulating the market for drugs and researching new psychoactive's would lead to a safer drug experience.

Legalizing would eliminate the need for an invasive and brutal police force and halt the slow decline of our civil rights and liberties. With the strain of drug related policing removed, serious crimes could be given the resources they deserve. Organized crime would lose its foothold in the world economy along with its influence and power. It is for these reasons and others that the we must wake up and reject the 'drug free' utopia that we are being force fed and speculate objectively about a society with realistic policies based on the facts, not vague moral convictions. An immediate effect of a legalized drug market would be increased safety for drug users. Adulterated drugs off the black market are responsible many unnecessary deaths. (web) Drugs created in clean environments subject to inspection and quality control would be far superior to those created in clandestine labs who's operators have little or lose by cutting corners.

Current laws do not differentiate between those who produce a drug properly and those who attempt synthesis in their bathtubs leaving almost no room for safety concerns to get in the way of profits. A regulated drug market would provide drug users with consistent doses, lowering the likelihood of overdose with some drugs. Clear labeling, instructions, and warnings present in a legalized system would result in safer usage. It is known, for instance, that other, more dangerous drugs, have caused many of the deaths linked to ecstasy. (web) In the future, such scenarios can be virtually eliminated. Another safety issue surrounding drug usage is the spread of diseases, such as AIDS, through injection drug use.

According to a study in 1996 'Drug paraphernalia laws in 47 U.S. states make it illegal for injection drug users to posses syringes'. (web) This law effectively bans needle exchange programs (since they would be giving needles to drug users who are banned from having them). The study concluded that access to clean needles would reduce blood borne viruses in injection drug users. The legalization of drugs would also allow profitable research by pharmaceutical companies into safer drugs that produce similar psychoactive effects to the current illegal ones. New drugs could possibly decrease the negative health effects of drugs reducing the overall harm caused by current unhealthy drug use. (web) The safety gap between a legalized drug market and the black market is so enormous that it's amazing it's overlooked by policy makers who continue, with their arrogance, to push the drug market and its users further underground. It is apparent that the original purpose of promoting human health and well being has been compromised by policy makers' desire to wield their growing power to alienate those whom they " re supposed to be helping. We live in a democratic society that is supposed to value free speech and individual rights.

Citizen's civil rights are rapidly dissolving in favor of police investigative powers. Of course, the problem lies in the fact that in consensual crimes, such as drug usage, neither party has any complaint and so it is up to the police to seek out (through lawful means) and arrest those guilty. As a result, the power to search people and property after a minimal threshold of suspicions has been cited as necessary part of law enforcement protocol. Activities, such as phone tapping, were considered 'dangerous and unwarranted practice [s]' by the legal authorities of the alcohol prohibition era. (web) There was even a time when undercover police officers selling drugs to would-be buyers was called entrapment. Times have changed, however, and Supreme Court judges have, over the years, cleverly ruled constitutional exemptions for the police in order to allow drug investigations to go on unhampered. (web) At the same time police forces are arming themselves to combat the superior armament of criminal organizations that use drug dealing to generate profits. In America today, 89% of all police departments have paramilitary units.

Although the most common use is serving drug related warrants, more than 20% of police departments now also use these units to patrol urban areas. (web) This armament of police should be extremely frightening to people as war in the literal sense can now being mobilized against the people. Given the proper suspicion a swat team could be breaking down your door and pointing guns at your family. While this may seem like an unlikely event, power corrupts, and an institution with lax guidelines and blind public trust is an accident waiting to happen. Another, perhaps subtler, degradation of civil rights due to the drug war is corporate drug testing. This practice is unfair and somewhat pointless for several reasons. First, a positive drug test doesn't tell the employer whether the employee has used drugs on the job or how often they use drugs, which really makes the conclusion irrelevant for any practical analysis of productivity.

As well, it has been found that poor performance is most often not drug or alcohol related anyway, but rather 'severe fatigue and illness'. It's not surprising then that a study found 'drug testing programs do not succeed in improving productivity'. One company put the cost of finding a positive drug test result at $20,000, which is hardly an economical price to locate a person who may not even be performing less than other employees. (web) Civil rights loss, through increased intrusion into our lives is being pioneered by the war on drugs. Once used in only the direst of circumstances, many invasive investigation procedures are now routinely practiced by our police forces. Removing the justification for further invasion into our personal affairs by power hungry institutions that once respected the constitution is a compelling reason to legalize drugs. Our legal system was certainly not conceived with today's drug laws in mind.

Considering the widespread use of drugs and the number of people who are caught offending drug laws it seems ridiculous to even consider having such laws in the first place. Over half the prisoners in federal U.S. jails were convicted for drug related crimes. (web factbook / prison. htm) Prison populations incur an enormous financial cost on society, but as long as drug laws remain people will continue to be needlessly incarcerated. Canada has reacted by minimizing administrative requirements involving marijuana charges (the most common of drug offences) while America has formed a separate court system for drugs all together that attempts to focus less on incarceration. (web) Both solutions are not complete and have not made significant changes to the paralysis drug related charges have belabored the justice system with. While courts are wasting time on drug cases real criminal cases are obviously getting less attention than they deserve.

Similarly large portions of police and law enforcement agencies have been diverted specifically to narcotics investigation and enforcement. If a fraction of the funds wasted on enforcement were applied to drug treatment, which is at least 10 times more effective at reducing the use of certain drugs (including cocaine) than jail, the results would seem to satisfy the overall mandate of the war on drugs better than any other method. (web) Of course, if drugs weren't illegal in the first place and treatment was made available for addicts the negative aspects of certain drug use could be kept to a minimum, and, primarily, the justice system would be freed to do its job: convicting the real criminals. (web writing 1.'s html) Perhaps the most compelling argument to legalize drugs is to shatter the financial basis of international organized crime. No other commodity is cheaper to produce and smuggle with a high payoff than illegal narcotics. Thousands of tons of drugs are produced every year funding the agendas of crime organizations worldwide. Some estimates put profits for illegal drugs at 400 billion dollars per year, which is approximately 8 percent of the total world economy. (web) This is especially disconcerting when you consider that organized criminals usually aren't looking out for the well being of individuals or countries. This amount of money is so huge that some criminal organizations could physically outgun the milit aries of the countries they " re based in if they needed to!

The ongoing war between the Colombian government and narcotics producers is evidence enough of this. Fortunately, bribing officials is usually a much cheaper and less bloody method of attaining the same goal. An estimated 40% of drug profits are spent on bribing officials. (web) In order for the drug trade to continue as it has it is necessary for officials in countries involved to be bribed somewhere along the way. While not as notorious as Mexico and Columbia, the governments of Canada and the United States have undoubtedly been bribed at certain levels. The commissioner of the RCMP has even suggested that 'criminal organizations target the destabilization of our parliamentary system'. (web) Indeed, there is a lot of source-less hearsay which would suggest that the same organizations that are involved with investigating and enforcing narcotic laws are, in fact, proponents and organizers of the sale and distribution of narcotics themselves. Obviously such sources would be silenced fairly quickly given the powers available to the drug investigating machine.

Such conclusions can be assumed, however, considering the probable corruption of any institution with near absolute power. (web writing 5.'s html & web) The bottom line remains, however. If drugs were no longer illegal, they would no longer produce the same easy money for international organized crime who would subsequently become less powerful. The legalization of drugs has never been more necessary. As the world rages on around us we are told that the western countries are more civilized more peaceful and on the road to a drug free utopia. It is obvious that authorities have used the vision of civility and peace as a method to sell the public on the wonders of a drug free world, while their real agendas are probably very different. Policies exist in our countries that not only contradict our basic civil rights principles but are also moving us closer and closer to police states.

International drug policies are ridiculous. Prohibition now causes far more harm than the drug abuse itself. Legalizing would introduce quality control. It would make questionable police investigative practices unjustified and stop our civil rights and liberties from sliding further into oblivion. It would remove the burden drug charges place on our legal system allowing it to concentrate more on 'real' crime. Legalization is the only method we have to stop organized crime before it further corrupts and destabilizes the world's governments.

Legalization is not a moral dilemma or choice that society should make based on whether it thinks certain states of consciousness or physiology are acceptable. To preserve democracy and freedom one must be ready to allow people to harm themselves with drugs if the only alternative is watch as corruption and deceit slowly conquer our countries that once claimed to be free.

Bibliography

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