Legalizing Drugs Term Paper

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Drug Legalization

This week, Columbian drug smugglers surgically opened six Labrador retriever and Rottweiler puppies and stuffed packets of heroin inside their bellies. Countless human beings have willingly stuck packages of illegal substances into any available bodily orifice or swallowed unknown quantities only to pass them out later. These instances indicate the grimly extreme lengths drug smugglers are willing to go in order to circumvent American drug prohibition laws. Drug trafficking is one of the world's most dangerous businesses; trafficking is intimately connected to crimes ranging from theft to murder to terrorism. In an article in Canadian paper the National Post, Ted Carpenter notes that both leftist and rightist paramilitary groups have "been financed largely by that country's cocaine trade." Carpenter continues to state, "The harsh reality is that terrorist groups have been enriched by prohibitionist drug policies that drive up drug costs ... What anti-drug crusaders refuse to acknowledge ... is that the connection between drug trafficking and terrorism is the direct result of making drugs illegal." An end to the drug prohibition is crucial. Key parallels can be drawn between drug prohibition and the now seemingly ridiculous alcohol prohibition movement in the early twentieth century: "The same type of violence came with the Eighteenth Amendment's ban of alcohol in 1920. The murder rate rose with the start of Prohibition, remained high during Prohibition, and then declined for 11 consecutive years when Prohibition ended," (Ostrowski). Not only does illegal drug trafficking fuel terrorist activity, organized, and unorganized crime, but the drug prohibition also has disastrous consequences for general public heath.

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Monies that are funneled into the "war on drugs" can be better spent on education and addiction treatment. Taxes raised from the sale of legal drugs would be a huge boost to legal economic activities. Without an illegal drug trade, terrorists all over the world would lack a substantial portion of their incomes and thus legalizing drugs would make the world a safer place.

As the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) comments on their website, many drugs are harmful. True: cocaine, heroine, and ecstasy are dangerous substances. However, so is one of the world's most prevalent legal substances: alcohol. Alcohol is responsible for addiction problems, violence, and general social malaise. Overindulgence in alcohol leads to long-term health problems as well, problems that become costly in terms of human life as well as in preventable medical costs. Yet no one would now argue that alcohol should be illegal. The dismal failure of prohibition, the widespread popularity of alcohol, and the enormous amounts of money spent on alcoholic beverages would prevent another alcohol prohibition. Moreover, alcohol in small quantities, especially beer and wine, are quite healthy. In spite of numerous studies testifying as to the harmlessness of marijuana, drug prohibition activists refuse to acknowledge that when compared to alcohol, marijuana is safe. "According to the Institute of Medicine, there is no future in smoked marijuana as medicine. However, the prescription drug Marinol -- a legal and safe version of medical marijuana which isolates the….....

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