Drug Legalization In America

According to Drugpolicy.org the U.S spends annually more than $51,000,000,000 on the war on drugs. The number of people arrested in the U.S. on nonviolent drug charges 1.5 million people . The number of people arrested for marijuana law violation 693,482 and 88 percent of those arrested were arrested for possession only . The tax revenue that drug legalization would yield annually, if currently -legal drugs were taxed at rates comparable to those on alcohol and tobacco $46.7 billion. As a citizen of the United States we always hear about the deficiency that Americans deal with and the ‘’ recession’’ that we were in. Also that our jails and prisons are overcrowded and that our homicide rate is higher that any country in the world. I believe

Some may argue that general drug liberalization would lead to more people abusing drugs. Furthermore that illicit drugs would be a threat to the health and welfare of mankind, and would violates children's right to grow up in a drug-free environment. The counter argument by not liberalizing the war on drugs the quality of the drugs to people take can not be screened. In Addition, there is a huge lost of income as stated at the beginning and that crime would also be reduced. If drugs become legal it would carry the same guidelines of those of alcohol and tobacco with mandated labels with dosages and medical warning , restrictions on advertising , age limitations, restrictions of the amount purchased at a time, requirements on the form in which certain drugs would be supplied ,ban on sale to intoxicated persons, and special user licenses to purchase particular drugs. Examples of countries that have abolished all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs or have reformed laws that decriminalize the personal possessions of drugs or have government regulations are Czech Republic , Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Argentina , Brazil, Colombia ,Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, México