Recreational Drug Legalization

What is a recreational drug and why it should not be legalized? Recreational drugs are chemical substances consumed for enjoyment, or leisure purposes, rather than medical reasons. In the United States, the principle substances that are prohibited include opium, heroin, cocaine, and marijuana. Since marijuana is the most common drug that has been used for a long time, it is also known as a recreational drug (Jonathan, Angela, Beau & Mark, 2012). According to drug problems and current drug policies, the legalization of marijuana has been a controversial topic in many countries including the United States. While a significant number of citizens believe that the legalization could decriminalize drugs, there are three main arguments that should

Previously, drug policies focused on incarceration rather than drug treatment which resulted as the mass imprisonment problem (Fergusson & Horwood, 1997). However, it is obvious that legalizing marijuana and taxing it will not solve any issue at all. In Obama Administration, the government rejected economic arguments on supporting the legalization of drugs. The government explained that “tax revenue from cigarettes or tobacco are far outweighed by their social costs” (Stevenson, 2011, pp.168-175). According to the record, the heavy taxation on alcohol and drugs is not sufficient to cover the cost associated with their use. Even though the government could earn a lot of money from taxation, it is hard to afford the cost of drug usage and drug abuse. Since the government needs to take responsibility on its consequences such as health care, crime careers, and victims of drug related crime, it is predictable that the cost of legalization will never be worth the social cost (Harwood, Fountain & Livermore, 1998). Besides drug taxation, some people believed that legal marijuana could better help the government to access and control the black market. In contrast, this could encourage drug producers to expand their market to the bigger target group and approach to teenagers. To sum up, it is true that taxing marijuana could raise

Since education is the fundamental of society, prolonged use of marijuana could affect educational success. According to the health research, drug consumption prevents the body’s ability to learn and process information. To emphasize, the chemicals in marijuana hinder the brain function to concentrate and memorize things. Besides that, the connection between drug and crime are too strong to be distinguished. Ethan (1989) claimed that “the production, sale, purchase, and possession of banned substances are crimes in and of themselves.” Therefore, without the drug prohibition law, these activities would significantly turn to be considered crimes. Another record provided that almost 40% of drug users confess that they committed crimes to afford drugs (Boyum & Kleiman, 1995). Although some scientists showed that marijuana could restrain a person’s aggressive behavior, the long-term usage may modify the nervous system in the way that promotes violence instead (Friedman, 2008, pp.49-72). Furthermore, legalization of marijuana could lead to a series of negative consequences on the community. In other words, if the drug is legal then it could be said that it is accessible and available for everyone including teenagers. This leads to the matter how the drug would be regulated and sold. Although the drug policy could limit the minimum age for drug buyers, it is a bad role model for adolescents to grow up