The debate regarding whether drugs should be legalized or not has gained popularity over the past few decades. One of the reasons for this debate is because drugs have both negative and positive effects on our society. Legalization of drugs means that people can acquire, possess and even use drugs without any fear of criminal prosecution by the state government. With drugs being illegal, people find it difficult to access drugs and it can reduce the negative outcomes. Drugs should remain illegal in order to protect the health of people and prevent them from easily accessing drugs.
Why drugs should be Illegal
One of the strongest arguments for making drugs illegal is because illicit drugs have a negative effect on health. The health effects usually depend mainly on the type of drug used. Some of the short term effects are wakefulness, loss of appetite, overdose, heart attack and even death. However, long term effects can be cancer, lung diseases, mental illness and even HIV/AIDS. One of the drugs in marijuana is harmful to the respiratory organs and associated with lung diseases. This causes an increase in the risk of one getting lung cancer and also reduced pulmonary function to the heavy users. The indirect effect of drugs can affect the people using and also the ones around them. It can affect the unborn babies of pregnant women and affect their growth and health.
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The legalization of drugs can jeopardize the safety of society. Most accidents are usually caused by divers who are under the influence of drugs. Drugs such as cocaine and marijuana diminish the ability to think and react quickly. Drug use has been estimated to be the leading cause of many accidnts. These drugs can impair the ability of one to correctly judge the time, distance and speed. These drugs also reduce the ability to track moving objects such as cars.
The legalization of drugs can also send the wrong message to the society that drugs are safe to be used. This will lead to expanding the rise of peer pressure on the youth and expand drug-related problems like crime. Drug users commit crime in order to maintain and support the expensive drug habits because of addiction. Crimes that are committed by individuals using drugs will not reduce if the drugs are made legal.
Why drugs should be legalized
Drug legalization can also bring about benefits to society. One of the benefits of legalizing drugs is it will save tax money. The amount of cash set aside to interdict drug trafficking and drug-related crimes is usually very high and is continuing to grow everday. This crisis would disappear and save taxpayers the expenses of building more prisons. The efforts being used by the police in fighting drug-related crimes would be redirected towards other activities.
The legalization of drugs would also make drugs safer for consumers. Since drugs are mainly illegal, they all lack the warning labels, instruction manuals, and product quality control. This makes the drugs very dangerous when compared to being manufactured by licensed companies. Most drugs being used like heroin are not all pure and they vary greatly with different dealers. When consumers know exactly what they are getting, they can easily adjust to the dosages and obtain the intended effect safely. This would generally promote consumer health and also safety.
Some of the drugs like cannabis, heroin, marijuana, and cocaine can be used for medical purposes. Cannabis can be used as an oral spray to relief pain. Heroin, on the other hand, can be used by medical professionals as a diamorphine. This eases the pain of people who have only a few days or weeks to live. Cocaine in the medical world is used as an aesthetic by the dentists. Marijuana has certain natural components that have a therapeutic benefit for people with symptoms of HIV/AIDS and cancer.
Conclusion
The drugs that need to be legalized are the ones that are proven to help medical practitioners but still, they should be regulated. Not all drugs should be legalized since people might take advantage of it and use it for the wrong reasons and become addicts. I majorly stand on the side that drugs should not be legalized. Legalization would generally mean that drugs are safe to use, increase casual users and increase drug abuse leading to health problems. Legalization generally sends wrong messages to the youth today and people who do not take drugs. There have been legal drugs such as alcohol and opioid which have several problems for society today such as addiction. Making drugs legal would not solve any problem but would create several other problems.
