Don T Legalize Drugs By Gore Vial

Drugs are legal in the United States! How would you feel if you heard that on the news after waking up one morning? Some would be angered others would be jumping for joy. Many opinions are floating around about whether or not drugs should be legalized. Thousands of articles have been written stating opinions on such matters. Theodore Dalrymple’s article “Don’t Legalize Drugs” is written to convince people that legalizing drugs is not going to end well. Gore Vial’s article “Drugs” is written to persuade people into thinking all drugs should be legal. Katrina Vanden Heuvel’s article “Why It’s Always Been Time to Legalize Marijuana” is aimed at the fact we should have legalized marijuana a long time ago and now it’s time we finally do it. The

Dalrymple, Vial, and Heuvel are no exception to the rule. Theodore Dalrymple wrote his entire article trying to convince everyone why drugs should not be legalized. In “Don’t Legalize Drugs” he tells how he worked as a doctor to help Africa. “A liter bottle of gin thus cost less than a dollar and could be sold on the open market for almost ten dollars. So it was theoretically possible to remain dead drunk for several years for an initial outlay of less than a dollar” (Dalrymple). The workers took advantage of the low priced alcohol. “The men were either drunk or hung over for months on end” (Dalrymple). As far as I can tell unlike the construction workers he did not even take advantage of the ridiculously low priced alcohol. I am going to say it’s safe to assume he has not taken any drugs. Gore Vidal’s perspective is completely opposite of Dalrymple’s. His perspective is more from personal experience. “For the record, I have tried--once--almost every drug and liked none, disproving the popular Fu Manchu theory that a single whiff of opium will enslave the mind” (Vidal). Yes, he just admitted to taking not only taking one illegal drug but almost all of them in a published article. He has got some guts to do that. Katrina Vanden Heuvel’s perspective in not like Vidal’s and is similar to Dalrymple’s. Katrina Vanden Heuvel is an editor for the journal The Nation. I am unsure if she would own up to consuming any drugs but she is

In all the articles you can see how the age gap applies. In “Don’t Legalize Drugs” by Theodore Dalrymple he says, “The arguments in favor of legalizing the use of all narcotic and stimulant drugs are twofold: philosophical and pragmatic. Neither argument is negligible, but both are mistaken, I believe, and both miss the point” (Dalrymple). His whole article is dedicated to proving why legalizing drugs is a terrible idea. Dalrymple wrote his article in 1997, eighteen years prior to the current year. He would have been around the age of forty eight when he published his work. Dalrymple’s generation is opposed to the idea of making drugs legal. Not only that but in 1997 people were not happy about legalizing drugs. He fit his generation and time period well, whereas Gore Vidal was a bit out of the norm for his. Vidal wrote “Drugs” in 1970 and where he stood on the issue was very clear. “Label each drug with a precise description of what effect--good and bad--the drug will have on whoever takes it” (Vidal). He suggested making all drugs legal then labeling them much like we do with prescription drugs today. Young people particularly between the teenage years to young adults wanted drugs legal during the 1970’s. Vidal was all on board for it but for his age at the time he more than likely should not have been. Vidal was thirty five when he made his beliefs public.