The drugs debate is a very heated topic in many countries around the world, most notably in the USA. There, 13 states, led by California, have decriminalised the use of Cannabis for medical purposes. However, in the UK, the law seems far more stringent in their views on drug legislation. Drug law in the UK revolves around the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 which classified drugs into 3 groups – A, B and C. A being the most harmful drugs and C being the least harmful. Cannabis was proposed to be downgraded by the former Home Secretary, David Blunkett, but that decision was reversed by one of his successors. More recently, there has been an issue with ‘legal highs’ which the coalition government of the UK has been trying to deal with. Here are a few pros and cons on the legalisation of drugs:
The benefits of legalising drugs
1) You decide what you put in your body – democracy is all about individual freedom. Little – if any – harm is done to other people by using drugs so there should be no reason why not to legalise them.
2) Decrease crime – a lot of people take drugs simply because it is already illegal – which makes it exhilarating and exciting to try out! If all drugs were legalized but regulated in some manner there would be drastically reduced crime rates and our prison population would plummet (around 20 % of people arrested in 2011 were drug related).
3) Alcohol is already legal and has proven to be worse than all “illegal” drugs put together – it could be argued that drugs are easier to get hold of than alcohol if you are under 18/21. This means that if regulations and eduction was increased, there should be no concern on legalising drugs.
The issues of legalising drugs
1) All drugs have different effects on people and society, so they should not all be legal – Some drugs, like Marijuana, should potentially be legal as they are not gateway drugs unless people let them be. However, some drugs are very harmful (such as heroin) and would be stupid to legalise it
2) Drugs are not toys. No drugs at all should be recreational- Zero tolerance is the only acceptable answer. Some people say they have a right to choose what they do to their body, but this is wrong because drugs will damage and harm yourself.
3) Legalising drugs might solve some problems but it would create a whole set of new problems – Legalising drugs might help with the violence associated with the illegal drug trade. But, it would most likely create a whole new set of problems. For one, making drugs more available to the people would result in an explosion of drug abuse and addiction
This summary of drugs and legislation involved with drugs is a simple, and digestible way, for you to debate your views on drugs. Please comment below and discuss….
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“Drugs – Should they be made legal?” – Yes.
Please could you elaborate and say why you think they should be made legal?
Governments have no right to tell us what to ingest. Now, our public BEHAVIOR is another matter– DUI is already illegal. Robbery to support drug habits is already illegal. Aggressive behavior and assaults are already illegal. Does it REALLY matter whether the fool was drunk or on meth or heroin? Drug abuse is a medical/psychological issue, not a criminal one. Just think of the money saved on cops, prisons, and gov’t agencies. A small fraction of this could be used to educate people to voluntarily eschew drug use. Let’s be sensible, not knee-jerk to everything.
‘Drug abuse is a medical/psychological issue, not a criminal one.’ True, as long as you differentiate between use and abuse. ‘Abuse’ is itself a legal/medical definition. Use of alcohol doesn’t necessarily imply abuse.
I have to say that making drugs legal opens the door for the need for more laws, because you cannot have legal drugs unless you have laws to protect the public from people under the influence. I guess the question is what value we place on human life? How many people would be affected in a negative manner by being able to use freely? I have always looked back on the years I smoked pot heavily and those are the least productive years of my life. I watch now as my youngest daughter and her husband both use the medical marijuana cards and they have to borrow money to keep diapers on their baby but somehow find a way to afford a 300 dollar bong. No this nation should not suffer risk by legalizing drugs.
Of couirse drugs should be legalized. Not the bad ones (most class As, some class Bs like amphetamine sulphate), but some class As (LSD, MDMA), most class Bs, and just about all the class Cs I know of should be available to adults for recreational use. Drugs aren’t (generally) banned because they’re harmful: otherwise alcohol would be a class A and the sale of tobacco would be illegal; LSD is a class A simply because governments don’t like the way it makes people think; MDMA is class A because there were a few high-profile “ecstasy-related” deaths when raves first kicked off (the odd adverse reaction, like you might get from eating nuts, but mostly from overheating/dehydrating which is easily solved with a bottle of water) and governments wanted to appear proactive. And most drug law exists because of puritanism – which is why governments are keen to ban any “legal highs” that become popular, the “health risks” are usually minimal. A regulated market would work. As for above comments: why should I be criminalized just because someone else buys a $300 bong instead of diapers?
Martin, have you ever looked at the number of junkies in this country? Do you have kids?You see I understand your logic, I shared it at one time, but work in an ER and see what goes on there that is directly attributed to drugs. Then understand that is while drugs are illegal, think about what happens when they are legal, incidents will likely increase rapidly. Like I said it is about placing worth on human life. Humans doing drugs eventually get clean or become worthless. Nobody is criminalizing you unless you choose to break the law. If you are breaking the law now and using drugs, what sort of testament is that to the level you can be trusted to use drugs safely? Your ecstacy argument does not hold water, have you ever looked up the number of rapes associated with that drug? It is not adverse reactions it is the people who cannot control themselves when under the influence, or use drugs as their vehicle to do the wrong thing. Of course the government could make a killing off of taxes on all drugs, but in a sense they would also be telling people “have at it kill yourself.”
Now if you want to legalize drugs I say first trip to the ER for an overdose and you become a ward of the state. Kill someone while high ward of the state, for any negative drug incident ward of the state. It is the non drug users I am concerned about. Want legalization have laws in place that make a person truly accountable for their actions. 1 strike.
I fail to see what the number of junkies has to do with my argument. Heroin and its analogues, cocaine, crack and amphetamines are bad and I specifically said they should not be legalised. The drugs I think should be legalised are not “junkie drugs”. And your comment about ecstasy is just ridiculous. You ever done it? If so, you know it does not lead to rapes or anything of the sort. It makes you feel happy, empathic, it makes you want to dance, to hug people, to love the world. Rape drugs are potent hypnotics etc, like GBH. Your comments make me disbelieve your assertion that you work in an ER, otherwise you wouldn’t believe such BS.
Oops I said GBH when I meant GHB. Doesn’t change my point though: ecstasy doesn’t lead to rapes because users “can’t control themselves”. When you are on ecstasy you do want to hug people and feel loving and have empathy – that does not make anyone want to jump into bed with someone and be raped. “Loving” does not mean “uncontrollably want to have sex”, it is more like Christian-type “love thy neighbour” (no I do not mean Jesus takes ecstasy ok?). You don’t “lose control” on ecstasy, you’re more likely to do that on alcohol.
As for your comment on criminality: you’re just trolling. One of your arguments about why cannabis should be illegal was because your daughter spends $300 on a bong instead of diapers. I said: should your daughter’s poor judgement make it illegal for me to smoke weed? Thousands of people die every year because of drink-drivers; does that mean it’s wrong if I have a relaxing beer at home after work?
in US allegedly we are guaranteed the right to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ .. however, if in pursuing our individual right to happiness, it is found that we have availed ourselves of substances the ‘nanny’ government controls, then they mess with our life and take away our liberty. it’s contrary to america’s mythological ideals for drugs to be illegal