Drugs are substances that have the potential to affect an economy both positively and negatively. Therefore, individuals may benefit from the legalization of drugs in several ways whereas others may suffer from detrimental consequences. Different people support different opinions of drug legalization because there are several advantages and disadvantages associated with the process. Essentially, drug legalization is deemed as an ethical as well as a moral issue; hence, should they be legalized or not?
In the U.S, several states have recently decided to legalize some drugs, specifically medical marijuana ( van Amsterdam, Nutt, & van den Brink, 2013) . Many researchers have compared the change in the perception of drug addiction to result in its prohibition. In contrast, some people believe that decriminalizing drug use may result in rampant addiction, which may only make the epidemic worse. In addition, there are a group of people who believe that certain drugs, such as marijuana should be made legal because of their medical and recreational benefits ( Doweiko, 2012) . However, some lobby groups believe that the fight against drugs and addiction should be treated just like other social problems.
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Legalization of drugs will possibly result in increased use and levels of addiction. There are cases where legalization of drugs has been tried in certain countries, but the efforts failed miserably. There are federal laws against marijuana possession that have been aggressively enforced but failed. Besides, specific initiatives that allow for the medical use of some drugs, such as marijuana has resulted in some enforcement challenges. Legalization of drugs has also affected the criminal justice system negatively ( Doweiko, 2012) . For instance, there are reports that the criminal justice system is losing large sums of money on the issue, and time on filing citations. Unfortunately, reports are indicating the non-violent offenders are the ones spending a significant amount of time in prisons.
Resources
Doweiko, H. E. (2012). Concepts of chemical dependency . Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.
van Amsterdam, J., Nutt, D., & van den Brink, W. (2013). Generic legislation of new psychoactive drugs. Journal of Psychopharmacology , 27 (3), 317-324.
