William Arends

Ms. Curran
World History
Period 4
5/6/2021

The Benefits of Legalizing Narcotics

Narcotics should be legalized to help fix many issues that occurred because of

making it illegal, and below are three reasons why this is a good idea.

Narcotics were originally made illegal to incarcerate the minories who used them.

The war on drugs first started during Nixon’s presidency in 1971. President Nixon

waged a war on drugs in response to public demonstrations led by civil rights activists

and anti war demonstrators. It was used to criminalize black Americans and lock them

up. Four decades later, Americans in prison have gone up 350% and over half are black

and latino. Although there was an increase in incarceration, this did little to deter people

from using and overdosing on drugs or cause a reduction in drug arrests. Because there

was no benefit to the increase in incarceration, the justice system has now started to

have drug courts in some areas. The courts are trying to move some defendants away

from being put in prison, and instead direct them into recovery services and case

management called harm reduction. Harm reduction tries to improve the well being of all

individuals by meeting them where they are and know that abstinence may not be a

realistic option. Even law enforcement has been supportive of harm reduction. In the

communities where harm reduction is used law enforcement can redirect individuals to

social services for nonviolent drug crimes rather than making low level arrests.

America's crack down on drugs does not have much to show for in terms of

stopping drug related problems. Despite being tough on crime, the USA’s opioid
painkiller and heroin epidemic has killed tens of thousands each year. Even basic drug

use and its trafficking have yet to decline in decades. We could more effectively solve

this crime dilemma by punishing the crimes and problematic behaviours around drug

use, rather than punishing those who are just using drugs. To avoid generalizing all

narcotics and going all or nothing, smart legalization should be employed. This would

allow the use and sales of certain drugs. If narcotics were legal but tightly regulated,

then it would not only eliminate the black market which thrives on drugs, it would also

make drug consumption safer because it would be monitored.

The illegalization of drugs causes the drug market to go underground. Since

people’s hunger for narcotics is not going away any time soon, they are going to resort

to finding them in more dangerous ways. Buyers and sellers cannot settle matters in

court so they must settle it with violence. Violence normally occurs in illegal gambling

rings and not legal ones. Therefore violence will erupt from any policy that generates a

black market, whether the activity is good or bad. Because drugs are being forced into

the black market, it would then make sense for them to be legalized. Illegalization of

drugs corrupts politicians and law enforcement. This is because police, prosecutors,

judges and politicians are able to damage the profits of illegal trade. Because of this,

much bribery, threats and even kidnapping arise in prohibited industries compared to

other industries.

The other side may argue that the legalization of drugs would result in more drug

abuse and overdosing. But statistics show that increased incarceration does not bring

down the rate of drug use or drug overdoses. The risk of punishments did not deter drug

use. The other side might say that making drugs legal might bring about more violence,
but in truth the opposite is true. Violence is caused when things that are illegal go to the

black market. On the black market all problems are settled with violence because there

is no legal system to turn to.