Why are drugs illegal?
From a purely economic standpoint, the criminalization of drugs only benefits the criminal organizations that produce and distribute them. By raising barriers to entry and, in effect, exempting these 'businesess' from regulation (they still generally end up paying taxes through 'money laundering' schemes), anti-drug efforts increase the proffit margin on drug production and distribution. Very inefficient business models thus become profitable, and prices very high. Yet, because the demand for drugs (from addicts) is so inelastic, that does not substantially reduce use. Furthermore, illegal drugs are marketted using a very agressive technique known as 'pushing' - that targets the very young on a 1:1 basis. It takes a very high proffit margin to make this form of marketing practical. Were currently illicit drugs legal and regulated, instead, the phenomenon would be very different. Presumably, pharmacuetical companies and businesses currently making and distributing recreational drugs like tobacco and alchohol would move into the market. These are large, highly efficient businesses. Thier products would undercut those of the current illicit businesses, which would disapear (or, rather, turn thier efforts to other businesses where the illegality premium is high enough to support thier model). Prices would drop dramatically, meaning that addicts would not be driven to steal nearly as much (just for example) to feed thier habbits. Similarly, the association of drug crime with violence would fade, as acquiring such products would not require dealing with unsavory characters, and distribution channels would be decided by market forces rather than gang violence. The problem is that the business model of the new players in the market would be most proffitable if they increased the market, as well as thier market share. The temptation to make thier products more widely acceptable via conventional advertising campaigns and lobbying efforts would be difficult to resist. Tight regulation would be needed to forestall such developments, much like the efforts of past decades to stop the marketing of cigarettes to children. OTHO, with the viel of illegality lifted, drugs would be less the symbol of rebellion, and more associated with the pathetic state of addicts - much as cigarettes have come to be associated more with cancer patients than cool movie stars.
Why are drugs illegal?
Yes I understand your point, People abuse drugs and that causes problems in society like a massive increase in murders, rapes, accidents, overdoses over whelming the hospitals. Take coke for example, it started as a soft drink used to heal and for pain, the soft drink is coke cola, people became addicted to it and crime over whelmed entire community's so it was banned/outlawed,so coke cola removed the cocaine from there product. It always starts with someone screwing up. Dui's ring a bell?
Why is drugs illegal ?
Drugs are illegal because they fog a persons mind, and that person 99% of the time make STUPID choices while on them. Drug use Hurts Everyone involved, not just the user, but everyone around the user. Families are Ripped apart because of drugs & alcohol. And youre right, drunkeness should be illegal, it kills hundreds in car accidents and family abuse etc... The "small" drugs as you say(weed), are only door openers to "bigger" drugs
Should we make drugs legal?
I like the points you've brought up, but I feel like there is another aspect. Health as a nation. We pour money into tobacco education and trying to get tobacco out of the US. The FDA has said that if they truly realized the long term effects of alcohol and it was up for legalization right now it would not be legalized. So yes, economically I am all for it.....with marijuana at least, with the restrictions you mentioned. We need the money as a nation and it would add a new market. Morally, I am against it, but that's personal reasons of course. Mostly stemming from my faith. The health of our nation will be the next important issue when considering legalization and I do not know if as a nation we will ever legalize the ability to do our bodies more harm on top of obesity and alcohol addiction. Edit: Ok, so regardless of personal health and introducing all drugs......What is going to keep these high out of their minds users off the streets. A law? When they see purple people attacking them in their houses they're going to jump in their cars and run over the typical 5 year old that's also experimenting with their first hit.
Should we legalize drugs?
Well to correct you marijuana is not as harmful as tobacco and has never been proven to be physically addicting. What I mean is you will never go through with drawl if you try to quit it. That being said many people find it to be emotionally addicting and can't even get out of bed in the morning without taking a hit. Also, to correct you again many illegal drugs are not victimless. For instance if someone is on PCP they have close to super-human powers and many times do hurt people. But one of the biggest reasons I can think of that drugs are illegal is because of the fear of people driving. In fact, the reason why the legal drinking age is 21 is because the reduced number of drunk driving accidents especially people under the age of 21. Also, I think your 100% right that so many less people would use drugs if the weren't illegal. Just look at how many people drink under age, and its mainly because the can't do it. We as humans, always want what we can't have. Personally, I am in favor of legalizing marijuana because it is such a harmless drug. Marijuana is the most widely used/abused drug in the U.S. As for the "gateway" drug theory, only 25% of habitual marijuana users try harder drugs. This includes people who only do harder drugs once in their life. Harder are though harmful to your health any many times cause people to kill themselves since they feel like nothing bad can ever happen to them while they are high. But I can understand why you think all drugs should be legal. I think that many of the government money being spent on the drug war would be greatly reduced if only marijuana was legal. The number of people that use hard drugs versus the number of people that use marijuana is so small that i think only legalizing marijuana would be enough. I hope that helps!
Drugs are illegal but McDonald's isn't. Why?
I’m surprised nobody answered this, but…We have to have food. We don’t have to have recreational drugs.The assumption (which I understand what you’re saying about McDonalds, it’s awful) is that McDonalds is food.Thus there’s no law against it. I’m not one of those people who think sodas should be limited to a certain size, all that. And, if McDonalds isn’t food, then you have to look at Twinkies, Frosted Flakes, pancake syrup… I don’t know, practically everything.I get what you’re saying - you should turn your question around, “Why is McDonalds legal but drugs aren’t?”. I assume that’s your real question. We all know we should eat right and at the same time we want the choice to eat wrong. And, we judge that adults have that choice to eat right or not.I’d question your stats, especially because “drug deaths” are very undercounted. I go out tonight and get high and drive into a tree, I died from a car accident. Alcoholics die all the time from “liver failure”. I don’t really know the number, but whatever you read, it’s likely way too low.But - in terms of the principle of the thing, I agree. Though I agree on the side of legalizing drugs. You don’t want to ask “why don’t they take away more of our rights?”. You want to ask “why is this right taken away?”.
Why are recreational drugs illegal?
Because they are bad for your health and legalizing them would signal that it is harmless to use them. But look at how enraged we are if something might be wrong with a food product. Still people do not feel the same about drugs. If alcohol and tobacco would have been developed to day they too would be illegal. As for now, these two recreational substances are too ingrained in our society to make them illegal: the country would riot. Still they kill way more people than all illegal drugs combined. Think of the potential the illegal drugs have for killing people by becoming legal and normalized.And for everyone who says that cannabis is harmless: long term inhaling of smoke of any substance, including burning plants, your incense or your fireplace, is toxic and causes a variety of diseases. We have not evolved to thrive in bush fires. Smoke = toxic. The problem with cannabis is that it is inhaled on purpose and therefor deeper than the smoke from your fireplace.
Should illegal drugs be legalized?
Regardless of how bad anything is or isn't for you, that's not the point. We don't even have to get into that. The point is, under the US Constitution, the federal government does not have the authority to ban anything if it doesn't infringe on the rights of others. Drugs do not infringe on the rights of others. Therefore the federal government has absolutely no right to ban them....anyone who supports banning drugs is anti-freedom, simple as that. There is absolutely no excuse that can be made for banning them. Under the Constitution anything not pointed out is given down to states rights....so individual states still have the authority to ban them but not the federal government, which has not only banned them but created a "war on drugs" that has cost taxpayers billions of dollars a year. The majority of people in prison are in for drug charges. Our prisons are way overloaded and we end up sending rapists and murderers out early. It costs taxpayers around $20,000 a year to house a single person. Another point is if the federal government has the right to ban drugs on account of our health, it has the right to ban any food it deems unhealthy, it has the right to force us to run a couple miles a day, to not be overweight (imagine an overweight tax....absurd sounding of course but entirely possible the way things are going), etc. Using the flawed logic we are now for drugs can be used to just about anything, and we can get every single freedom taken away. Should we ban cars? Planes? There are thousands of deaths in auto-accidents every year.... We could just put the entire U.S. population in plastic bubbles, that way no one can get hurt. Problem solved! By the way I'm a true conservative.
Do you think that drugs should be legal or illegal?
Do you think that drugs should be legal or illegal?All drugs should be legal. I believe that no-one has the right to dictate what we do to ourselves.I’ve written this answer to a different, but similar, question…The benefits would be huge.Saving money…Think of the amount of money governments spend trying to fight the ‘war on drugs’… Billions and billions of pounds, dollars, euros etc. for what? People want to take drugs. If people want to take drugs then there will always be people willing to supply them. When America prohibited alcohol did it stop people drinking or did it give organised crime huge swathes of cash? It’s the exact same thing with drugs.Generating money…If you look at the amounts of money the illegal drugs market is worth and look at the tax revenue of colorado it should be obvious that that money shouldn’t be in the hands of organised crime it should be legalised and be swelling the coffers of legal businesses and tax revenues that could be used to reduce other tax bills or increase programmes that benefit society such as hospitals, schools or infrastructure projects as well as paying for drug treatment programmes, paying for prescriptions or other beneficial schemes.Reducing crime, criminals and dangers…As stated earlier if we ended the ‘war on drugs’ we would save billions but that’s not all we could save. Take away the illegal drug market and how many people would die in shoot-outs over territory? How many innocents saved no longer caught in the cross-fire? How many overdoses do we eliminate because we can produce the drugs in a clean, controlled environment where purity can be regulated, the cutting agents are safe and the lab is sterile. Customers can go to a legal safe store to buy their drugs rather than dangerous gang controlled areas. And it’s not just the extreme cases. How many people do we save from a criminal record just because they brought drugs? How many people do we save from a life of crime because the increase in tax revenues provides better opportunities?