FREE ESSAY ON LEGALIZING DRUGS

LEGALIZING DRUGS

Lindsey Greene
English 102
September 23, 2001
"Drugs- something and often an illegal substance that causes addiction, habituation, or a

marked change in consciousness." - Merriam-Webster Dictionary 
Just close your eyes for a minute and picture what the world would be like if 
drugs were legal. Would you be for it or against it? Just think, you could get drugs 
anywhere you wanted. You would not have to worry about getting in trouble with the 
law. You could get as many as you wanted and have a supply and variety of whatever 
you wished for. Would this be a good thing or a bad thing?
The three sources: Traffic, Legalizing Drugs Make Matters Worse, and Legalization Madness
all has the same thing in common. They all lean to the side that drugs are a problem and
legalizing them would only make things worse. There are people that argue that the best
way to solve the problem of drugs is simply by making drugs legal. There are many
problems that would be associated with legalization of drugs that is discussed in these
three sources. Drug users would increase dramatically, crime would raise higher than it
has been before, and the unemployment rate will go up due to the fact that the increase
of users has also increased the number of people who have to support their drug habit by
illegal actions (Inciardi & Saum 82). 
Wilson as well as Incardi and Saum take a look at the different sides or possibilities of
affects that legalizing drugs could have on society. Incardi and Saum make three points
that the other side is making. In their article it includes that legalizing drugs will
force the quality of drugs to go up, decrease the search to find drugs, and also increase
the amount that drug users consume (79). The drug quality will have to go up just because
there will probably end up being restrictions on the drugs and they will be monitored to
make sure they are real. Before people would buy the drugs not knowing for sure what
exactly they were getting. Now they would be guaranteed quality. They also wouldn't have
to go out searching for someone who has drugs or someone who knows how that person could
get some. People would no longer have to sneak around trying to get their drugs. Lastly,
people would increase the amount of drugs they intake because they will be cheaper. Their
bodies will get used to the dosage that they are taking and have to take more to have the
same effect. Since it will be cheaper it will just be an excuse to do it more often
(Wilson 1).
If we were to legalize drugs the number of users would increase dramatically (Wilson 1).
According to Incardi and Saum, one of the biggest reasons for not using drugs is due to
the fact that they are illegal. By making drugs legal it would entice people to go out
and try them, which would make it more likely that they would become addicted (81).
Wilson states that crime rates have fallen in this country and if we want them to rise up
again the way we can do that is by legalizing drugs. If we reduce drugs among criminals
it would help the crime rates instead of just letting them have all the supplies they
wanted (3). It doesn't matter if it is the "hard" drugs or the "soft" drugs. You can
become addicted to any drug and the users don't stop at the soft drugs but keep moving up
to the hard stuff. Marijuana only increases the likeliness that someone will resort to
stronger substances. Legalizing drugs would lower the prices of drugs but would increase
the number of users (Wilson 7).
Although the drug prices would fall this would make it even easier for people to get them
and use them on a regular basis. This would increase the number of addicts and the crime
would not decrease. In fact, Wilson suggests that crime would actually increase. We would
have all these new users who are now no longer able to hold a job because of their
driving habit that forces them to resort to criminal activity. The unemployment rate will
drop and our society will not improve but weaken (Wilson 2). This is not the only problem
we are going to have to deal with. Incardi and Saum say that there will be an increase in
physical and mental problems with people using drugs (Inciardi & Saum 82). 
A perfect example of people loosing their control over their own bodies due to excessive
drug use is seen in the movie Traffic. In this movie the drug Czar's daughter, Caroline
is seen in numerous scenes where she has no control over her body and is doing things
that she normally would not do. It shows how she has to resort to many things just to get
her next fix or to get money to support her drug habit. It shows in one part of the movie
where she has to steal her mother's jewelry to get money. Caroline was not from a low
class family. This just shows how anybody can have a drug problem.
Many times drug problems are directly associated with poor people, but this is not the
case. Caroline was from a high class, white family. She was an amazing student who had
many accomplishments and had many things going for her. She just made some bad choices,
which seemed to have a waterfall effect. Her problem started out small and then grew to
one where she could not control anymore. The only way to get out of this predicament was
to go get help. She could not do it on her own and finally by the end of the movie she
gained her father and mother's support in this matter as well as the people from the
clinic. 
In Legalization Madness it points out the three different theories on why violence is
associated with drugs. Psychopharmacological, economically compulsive, and systematic
show how and why people resort to crime. One of these suggests that addicts commit crimes
because they are not themselves. It is the drugs responsible for their actions but
Inciardi and Saum suggest otherwise. They believe if drug use increased that violence
would increase as well. Even if the drugs were cheap people would just end up buying more
for themselves causing them to be that much more addicted to the drugs and become
dependant on them to function (74). 
These two articles have a lot of similar views. They both agree on the fact that in
legalizing drugs violence would also increase. They both say that physical illness will
most definitely become and issue if the use of drugs proceeds. Legalization Madness and
Traffic both showed the different perspectives of the issue on legalizing drugs. Although
Traffic seemed to be based on keeping drugs illegal some other parts of the movie would
completely contradict that. Many scenes in the movie is showing the drug Czar and his
compulsive need to have "just a drink." He wouldn't face the fact that his daughter had a
problem so he would drink. He said he needed to loosen up but really he just didn't know
how to deal with the problem in his own house. Another part of the movie shows how
different the rules are in the United States compared to Mexico. The Mexican police
seemed like they were breaking the law also. They were out to get benefits for themselves
not to enforce the law. The movie Traffic is a perfect example of the problems associated
with drugs. People will do things they normally wouldn't do. A perfect example of this
would be Helena. She had nothing to do with the drugs but as soon as her husband was
going to jail she resorted to measures that were illegal just to save him from staying in
prison and to keep her son safe. A good point of this movie is that you can't stop drugs
in general unless you start with individual people. 
In the movie Traffic they used pathos mostly to get us to sympathize with Caroline. In
the scene where she was in bed and so messed up that she couldn't even see strait really
was meant to get to people's hearts. They wanted us to feel sorry for her especially when
the dad broke down crying because he had to see his daughter like that. They also used
pathos with the whole situation with Helena. She had to keep her son safe because there
were men who were willing to kidnap him if she didn't pay them the money that her husband
owed them. It got the viewer to feel sorry for her because she didn't have anything to do
with it even though later she started to get involved. It just shows how drugs can suck
people in.5rt
Drugs are something that should not be taken lightly. They are powerful and very
effective. When used in a careless manner it can result in serious consequences. Wilson
states that if we legalize drugs it will only harm others (2). All three of these sources
support keeping drugs illegal. If we think that legalizing drugs is the answer then we
will find out the hard way. The only way to keep people off the streets, off drugs, and
away from violent behavior is to make sure the generations to come have a solid education
of this issue and if we take time to help the children they might not turn to drugs. This
is shown on Traffic at the end of the movie where Javier is watching the baseball game.
He is doing his part to take time to give to the children and be a support for them. He
tried stopping drugs but he finally realized that he needed to start in his own
community. The same thing happened with the Drug Czar. He had a goal to stop the problem
of drugs but throughout the movie he dealt with family situations that gave him a broader
glance at the problem of drugs. He realized that he couldn't do anything to stop the drug
problem if he couldn't even deal with it in his own home. He quit his job and decided to
be there to support his daughter hoping that his support would keep her off the streets
and back into the promising life she had before.
As you can see these three different sources weigh all of the facts and use evidence to
determine what the best answer to legalizing drugs would be. These sources encourage you
to think for yourself given all the information. Even if we think that legalizing drugs
would be the best answer we have to remember that drugs are still illegal and the only
way we can change that is by doing something about it, which is happening with these
sources. They are encouraging the reader to consider their perspective and just think
about where they are coming from. So no matter what our opinion may be these articles at
least gave us both views and made us definitely think about what we believe and why we
believe it. 
Bibliography:
Inciardi, James A & Saum, Christine A.. "Legalization Madness." The Public Interest 123
(1996): 72-82.
Traffic. Dr. Steven Soderburg. Perf. Michael Douglas, Katherine Zeta-Jones, Don Cheadle,
and Benecio del Toro, 2000.
Wilson, James Q.. Legalizing Drugs Makes Matters Worse. September 02, 2000. Cannabis
News. September 14, 2001 http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6919.shtml.