Legalization Of Narcotics Term paper

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According to the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information, approximately 5000 Americans each day try marijuana for the first time. This is with the restrictions the United States government has on narcotics now. Imagine how many thousands of scenarios such as David s there could be if drugs were made readily available.The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines narcotic as A drug (as opium) that in moderate doses dulls the senses, relieves pain, and induces profound sleep but in excessive doses causes stupor, coma, or convulsions. 2 Illegal narcotics include almost anything in the families of amphetamines, cannabis, cocaine, hallucinogens, opioids, phencyclidine, and barbiturates. Drug addiction is a form on enslavement. It pathologically alters the nature, character and impairs the judgement of a human being. In 1906 Teddy Roosevelt passed the Pure Food and Drug act which restricted the sale of Dangerous or ineffective medicine. 3 In 1914, the Harrison Narcotic Act implemented even more strict narcotic control laws. These acts however, did not completely stop the spread and consumption of illegal narcotics; it just created a war on drugs.The war on drugs began back in 1981 when Ronal Regan began pouring billions of dollars in an effort to help rid the nation of illegal substances. It is by far one of America s most expensive projects. According to the National Review, America spends nearly seventy billion dollars per year on narcotic related operations. This money is spent on prisoners who are already in jail for related drug charges, the trial time of our judiciary in drug related cases, and the time and expense of over four hundred thousand policemen helping to fight the drug war. This money spent does not include the expenses for sponsoring and funding programs such as D.A.R.E and drug rehabilitation centers that use the twelve step program. A survey conducted by the Palm Beach Post referring to the drug war in America states In the 50 years that the U.S. public has been asked to name the most important problem facing the nation, it is virtually unprecedented for any other social issue to appear at the top of the list. 4 The legalization of narcotics is a raging issue among teenagers, parents, politicians, and economists. Some of these people feel that America should legalize narcotics and use the money that is spent on fighting the drug war on better political agendas such as education and health care reform. Some also feel that we have foughtthe drug war for many years, and we should stop, due the fact that drug usage has not had a significant decrease in the past 10 years. Narcotics should not be legalized due to the reasons that if narcotics were legalized, drug use would spread exponentially, which may lead to a substantial increase in drug abuse, crime, and many domestic problems.Economist Dr. Richard Gilbert, the president of the Canadian Urban Institute and has written extensively on both drug and urban issues in America. He believes drug business dealers cannot survive if dealers only sold to dealers, as well as dealers not being able to survive if they couldn t sell to the majority of inner-city residents. Furthermore, he believes in order for a drug business to thrive, there must be a ready source of customers. If drugs were legalized and sold under heavy restrictions, which include a minimum age requirement, this would produce revenue for the government as well as put illegal wholesale dealers out of business due to the customers buying the narcotics from a different legal source. A survey of 8098 Americans taken by the National Comorbidity Survey showed that 51% of males and females from the ages of 15-54 have abused illegal drugs more than once in their lives. When they were asked the reason for repeating their drug abuse, over 80% of those surveyed said it was due to the availability of the drug. In other words those, 80% of the 8098 surveyed would not have been repeat offenders of illegal drug use.had they not had a connection to get more. The availability of narcotics is one the reasons why we have repeat drug abusers. This is proven with the availability of cigarettes compared to the availability of heroin. Cigarettes contain nicotine, which is a highly addictive substance in tobacco that is poisonous in concentrated amounts. Anyone who is over eighteen can walk into a liquor shop or grocery store and purchase cigarettes. Those who are under the age of eighteen usually have older peers or strangers walking buy a liquor shop who will be asked to purchase cigarettes for them. Over 46 million Americans smoke, approximately 3,000,000 of those are teenagers and children. According to the National Clearing House of Drug and Alcohol, there are 7000 new smokers per day. There is no denying the fact that cigarettes are readily available to virtually anyone. Heroin is an opiod which starts off as opium and is refined many times to become and psychologically. Daily use for only a short time results in addiction. Heroin use is much more serious and deadly than cigarette use. An individual withdrawing from the high from heroin may experience lethargy, hallucination, convulsions that may lead to a shock or coma, and extreme mood swings, which may lead to domestic violence. There are and estimated 600,000 heroin addicts in the United States today. There are also and estimated 286 new heroin users a day. The reason for the significant difference between heroin and cigarette users is due to the fact that heroin is illegal. Heroin, unlike cigarettes is not made readily available. If drugs were legalized and sold under tight controls as Dr. Richard Gilbert suggests, there would be minimum age requirement set, which would most likely to be eighteen or twenty-one. This however will not stop minors for gaining access to heroin or any narcotic for that matter, just as the minimum age requirement doesn t stop minors from gaining access to cigarettes.According to USA Today, the legalization of narcotics might temporarily take some of the load off the criminal justice system. A policy of this nature though would impose many additional costs on the health care and social service systems, schools and the work place. To put it simplistically, the legalization narcotics will save some government spending on law enforcement. However, if narcotics were legalized, taxpayers will be paying for increased welfare services and health care services for junkies. Furthermore, the U.S. Department of Justice reports that criminals commit six times as many homicides, four times as many assaults, and almost one and a half times as many robberies under the influence of drugs as they do in order to buy drugs. Distribution of illegal drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and marijuana are controlled by organized crime. The harvesting, processing, and distribution of these drugs is a multi billion dollar international industry. It is highly unlikely that legalization will change the control that organized crime has over the industry. In fact, legalization could strengthen the position of organized crime worldwide. According to the Drug Enforcement Agency a kilo of heroin has a street value of 250,000 dollars. It costs approximately 50 dollars to illegally produce a kilo of heroin. A five thousand percent markup. It would cost the U.S. government anywhere from 1,000 dollars to 5,000 dollars to produce a kilo of heroin depending on the refinery process and standards of production. For example, a small time drug dealer may produce heroin in their garage, putting no standards into consideration; while the United States government will have create regulations and standards, which will take time and cost money. If the American government decides to legalize narcotics, this does not mean narcotics will be sold at a less expensive price than an illegal drug wholesaler or drug czar would sell them for. It would only create competition due to the fact that narcotics will not be inexpensive to produce for the U.S. government. A minimum age requirement will force illegal drug wholesalers and drug czars to focus on targeting minors, and it would be virtually impossible for the U.S. government to produce a profit if prog-rams such as D.A.R.E. are still around. Further more, even if narcotics were to be legalized and sold by the U.S. government, there is nothing that will stop illegal wholesalers and drug czars from continuing their business. All of these factors taken into consideration may actually strengthen illegal drug wholesalers and czars, and place the war on drugs right back into square one. Joseph P. Kane has served as a chaplain at Riskers Island for over twenty years. He helped develop a curriculum on criminal justice issues for many high schools and is co-editor of Who Is The Prisoner?, which is a collection of original articles about the U.S. criminal justice system. In an article he wrote for American Press, he asserts: Legalizing addictive drugs would probably increase their use. At least we know that the repeal of alcohol prohibition had that effect. So, how can we responsibly legalize narcotics? For the same reasons that we keep alcohol legal! Just as we do not choose to return to Prohibition because we do not want gang wars, a growing disrespect for law, astronomical illegal profits, corrupted law enforcement personnel or the sickness and even deaths from impure substances, so we do not want our loved ones-- whether addicts or social users who want a buzz from a drug or a drink--to become involved with outlaws.5Kane s Statement ignores a few very important factors. Death rates from cirrhosis among men came down from 29.5 per 100,000 in 1911 to 10.7 per 100,000 in 1929. During prohibition, admission to mental health institutions for alcohol psychosis dropped sixty percent; arrests for drunk and disorderly conduct went down fifty percent;...

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