5 Reasons Why We Should Give Up this Useless War on Drugs

I already knew the war on drugs was causing more problems than it was fixing, but I never considered legalizing all drugs as the answer to this problem.  Even though I'm still uncomfortable with the idea of legalizing drugs, this video below made a pretty convincing argument as to why it would make more sense to just legalize drugs. The 5 major arguments I got from this video were:

1. If we can't keep drugs out of jails, we certainly can't keep it off the streets. It's a losing battle. Some places deal out executions for drug offenses, and drug use is still happening in those places. It's just not working.

2. The war on drugs isn't reducing drug use, it's causing the jails to be over runned with drug users. People who need treatment not jail time. It would be way more beneficial to have them be productive members of society instead of costing the state money.

3.We are wasting resources that could be used on education and better treatment which have a far better chance at reducing drug use. For example, tobacco awareness and education has greatly reduced tobacco use, even though it's still legal.

4. The law is meant to protect people from each other, not ourselves. Drug use should be handled by the education and health care system, not by the criminal justice system. By enforcing a no drug policy, we are trying to enforce morality.

5. Controlled drugs sales would ensure quality and reduce overdoses on bad batches of drugs. It would take money away from criminal empires and give it instead to funding things like treatment, drug education, health care or things like homelessness and hunger. It could even provide jobs.

I found these arguments very convincing, but I'm still doubtful that drug use won't increase. I know most adults won't start using just because it's legal. Most of us know the consequences of drug use and don't believe those consequences are worth using. 

The younger generations can be taught the consequences of drugs use like we did with tobacco and having employees drug tested when job safety is a concern can also reduce the amount of people who might use if drugs were legalized. So maybe there would be a slight increase but there will still be risks linked to using and they will still far outweigh the benefits for most people. 

I don't endorse drug use, but I do believe people shouldn't be judged, discriminated against or criminally charged and prosecuted for using drugs. People are still going to do drugs no matter what, so maybe it's time we stop treating them like criminals and find a better way to deal with the negative effects of drugs.I think things like powedered alcohol is a bad idea and they shouldn't add anything new to the drug problem. Like don't promote it but also don't charge people if they do any.

We should provide the best help possible for addicts and increase awareness of drugs negative impact like we did for tobacco. Smoking is so frowned upon now that less and less people are smoking. Even if drugs were to be decriminalized they would be so heavily frowned upon (like smoking) that most people wouldn't use. 

Maybe if drugs weren't treated as a crime people wouldn't be demanding that addicts not receive any social assistance like I wrote about here No Social Assistance For Addicts 

I think that maybe the pros of decriminalization outweigh the cons, but I'm sure there are many more reasons for and against decriminalization, so let me know what you think in the comments section.

Here's the Blog Post on Powdered Alcohol Really? Powdered Alcohol Has World Gone!

Yours truly,

Charmed