Summary Of An Open Letter To Bill Bennett

It is astonishing to consider how a little over a century ago the use of drugs was completely legal in the United States. Prior to the implementation of Acts such as the 1914 Harrison Tax Act, the 1970 Controlled Substances Act, and the ongoing War on Drugs drug use was constitutionally protected as the extension of liberty gave citizens the right to consume any product they desired. Thus, prior to the 1914 Harrison Tax Act, any federal ban on any drugs was viewed as unconstitutional. Moreover, drugs were easily and cheaply accessible for users to purchase and even encouraged as their appearance of them in business catalogs and product advertisements boosted the economy. Groups seeking to ban particular drugs sought to establish the 1914

In An Open Letter To Bill Bennett, Friedman is pleading with Bennett to rethink the system of the War on Drugs and consider how effective it has truly been when observing the persistent drug issue not only in America but also how the illegality of drugs has influenced the devastation of other countries within the drug supply. In this letter, Friedman agrees with Bennett on the importance of drug regulation and understands the moral, health, and safety dilemmas that drug use places on society. However, Friedman believes that the way that America is addressing the drug problem is not the correct method and is instead a large source of the increasing drug issue in America. In the letter, Friedman discusses the demand for drugs having to operate through restricted and illegal channels only causes more harm through violent crime, increased arrests and incarceration rates for non-violent drug users, and takes the efforts and focus of law enforcement away from other serious crimes. Further, Friedman pleads with Bennett to address the issues plaguing the prohibition of drugs by appealing to the restrictions of human liberty and individual freedom that are supposed to be guaranteed and offers a solution that focuses on rehabilitation instead of punishment of drug users. Overall, Friedman makes an effective argument for the legalization of drugs through the use of appealing to liberty, addressing

As evident from the arguments above, great harm is occurring with the current system of prohibiting drugs and the subsequent War on Drugs. First, a harm to American society as we feverishly punish those who are guilty of drug use and abuse. Second, harm to the individual as they are restricted from personal liberty to choose to engage in particular activities, more likely to engage in dangerous activities as the drug is criminalized, and suffer from a higher likelihood of abusing or getting an addiction to the drug than if it were legalized. In my overall stance, legalizing drugs would benefit America by offering a more compassionate method of treating those who engage in drug activity and decreasing crime and violence associated with the illegality of drugs. Furthermore, one country that has had great success with legalizing drugs has been Portugal. In July 2001, Portugal decriminalized the personal use and possession of all illicit drugs. The video “How Portugal Successfully Tackled Its Drug Crisis'' is an informative look into how America could potentially address the drug crisis here. Portugal's system emphasizes harm reduction, treatment, and rehabilitation and at the center of it focuses on drug use as a health problem and not a crime. While drug traffickers are still prosecuted, personal use of illicit drugs is allowed and people dealing with