This is one of the most interesting questions that can be asked by society today. The overwhelming response by most is cloudy at best. A couple of things are clear to everyone. Drugs are bad for you and can kill you. Drugs cause crime, most of it violent.
Is it the drug dealer or the drug law that is at fault for the lethal drug epidemic? The answer certainly depends on the person directly affected by the drug epidemic. The person who loses a friend or relative due to a drug overdose certainly always blames the drug dealer. Most of those people perhaps even wish the same death upon that drug dealer. That response is certainly understandable but at the same time may be exaggerated. You can’t physically kill all drug dealers and not expect new ones to replace them. You can’t blame the drug dealer either. If a product and consumer coexist then there will always be a supplier. The drug dealer is no different than the 1920’s alcohol peddler. We saw how well prohibition played out for the general public and the mafia. Thousands of people died because of badly produced alcohol and thousands died because of mafia/cartel violence.
The government and local law enforcement agencies have a completely opposite response and believe that the drug epidemic is being adequately controlled as to the best of their abilities. They arrest drug dealers and give them long federal or state jail sentences. The drug user is typically written off as a junkie and sent back out onto the streets to fend for him or herself. Law enforcement’s reasoning is fairly cut and dry because they have no emotionally vested interest in either the criminal or drug addict, only the crime.
The prior two scenarios show why the overwhelming response by most people is cloudy at best regarding the legalization of drugs. If you reread both sections the logical deduction can be made that all drugs should be legalized, just as alcohol was made legal. The legalization of drugs will eliminate drug related crime and remove contaminated drugs from the users. The funds saved from the eliminated crime can then be redirected to rehabilitate the addicts. No more cartels, no more drug related deaths and more options for life. Should illegal drugs be legal or illegal? The overwhelming response should a resounding YES from all of society.
| Author Gianni Franco | 