Why should we legalize drugs?

In the United States over the past half-century, the drug epidemic has cost more than anyone could’ve predicted. The lives of American citizens and countless taxpayer dollars have been used to fight a war that’s motives are rooted in propaganda. When instead of enduring all this loss, we could’ve undermined the problem from the start by simply legalizing drugs. Legalizing drugs would save the government billions every year, save lives, and create safer communities for those affected by the war on drugs.

To start, I just would like to say anyone who believes the war on drugs was purely to keep drugs out of America is sadly mistaken. If anything the war on drugs was used to unfairly incarcerate minorities at a higher rate than whites, and maintain America’s control on Central and South America. During the ’70s and ’80s, communism had started to reach its claws into many South American countries that were involved in the drug trade and the US used the drug problem to strengthen their grip on democracy in the west. Also, the US government had the statistics and knew that poor, inner-city, minority communities would be the most greatly affected by the drug epidemic. Knowing this, the US started to incarcerated minorities at a much higher rate than white people on drug charges.

Secondly, to bring a more modern perspective to it, the war on drugs costs the taxpayer so much unnecessarily spent money. According to the US Department of Justice, we spend $100 billion on law enforcement to combat the drug problem every year. For some perspective that is charging each of our 330,000,000 citizens $300, just to enforce drug laws. There are a plethora of other problems this money could solve while still caring for addicts on the street for free to prevent overdoses and provide rehabilitation, then clean up the Pacific trash patch.

Legalizing drugs would also create a safer environment for impoverished communities. We would see lower crime rates, which means more educational opportunities and economic advancement of minorities. The US Department of Justice claims that 1/3 of inmates in the federal prison system are there on drug charges. With the US prison system filled to the brim and sucking away more taxpayer dollars every year, I think they maybe should lighten up. Fewer people in jail means more people producing for our economy and benefiting the community.

One problem many people have with the idea of legal drugs is the dangers involved with using ie. overdoses, addiction, and overall lower quality of life. While this is a serious worry, the money saved by not incarcerating millions on small drug charges, and the law enforcement involved in catching them, the government can provide health and rehabilitation centers to combat addiction, while also tracking addiction rates and caring for those affected. People will still get addicted, history shows addiction rates are relatively steady no matter the regulation. So, while arresting people who are addicted only puts them into a cycle of crime, addiction, and death while costing the taxpayer valuable money; rehabilitating and helping them can be made the main priority. Doing this promotes healthy living and gives addicts an option to contribute to society rather than hiding them in the prison system.

So far, I have laid out social, economic, and political reasons to legalize drugs in the United States. Now I am going to dive into my moral reasoning of why the government shouldn’t be allowed to tell me what drugs I can take. Doing a drug is a personal choice in my mind. Much like the clothes we wear and the food we eat, it is not something another power should have control over. The drug will only affect YOU, and will not bring harm to any other people aside from yourself. This is why I think it is an overreach of the government’s power to tell you what you can and can’t take when the only person it affects is yourself. Laws like DUI’s are in place so that if the drug caused you to harm someone else, you are liable and can be incarcerated but, in modern-day America, if you just sit in your room on mushrooms while talking to your wall for six hours, you can go to prison. To me, that is absurd.

I call for a reform of our drug enforcement laws. We should incarcerate less and care for more. Save our money and get people out of prison to save us more money. Stop pushing opiates out of the doctor’s office. Let people do their own thing.