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Legalizing drugs in the united states
Legalize all drugs
Drug legalization
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Upon reading Gore Vidals "Case for Legalizing Marijuana" one may wonder why drugs are not legal in the United States of America. Afterall, several valid reasonings were made throughout the article. There is a demand for drugs and many people are supplying them, while also making a small fortune. If drugs were made legal and sold for high prices, their market would decrease because many people would not be able to afford them. Most people involved in the drug world do not know the consequences of that which they consume.
Based on the Commonwealth Fund 2002 International Health Policy survey states that the Americans are more likely to use prescriptions drugs. Also the United States uses a larger income related inequalities in pharmaceutical use. Additionally, the price of medication in the U.S. is more expensive than it is in another country. The use of prescription drugs varies from age comparing all the 7 countries based on the graph it is easy to see that their is a high percentage of overuse of prescription drugs among the age of 18 and below. Based on the graph I am able to see that the United States has the highest percentage of more prescription drugs over the past 12 months.
Chapter two introduces the policy problems related to the War on Drugs, as well as other policies that banned or limited other use of alcohol and drugs. Authors start with the history of the regulations of mood altering substances that began in colonial times, and then it escalated with “The Father of Modern Drug Enforcement”, Dr. Hamilton Wright. President Roosevelt assigned him to be the first Opium Drug Commissioner of the United States. Dr. Wright saw drugs as a big problem, according to the text the drug prohibitions started with his opinions on limiting drug use. In 1906 the Pure Food and Drug Act was signed and required the labeling of the ingredients of the products.
II. Places of deaths, most effective prescription drug comparison between states. Prescription drug abuse became an issue in every state in the U.S., However, there are some states that have less number of deaths than others for not legalizing the types of drugs that the others states legalize, and abusers can be arrested for using non-medical drugs. Since the medical marijuana movement began, 23 states and the District of Columbia, starting with California in 1996, have legalized medical cannabis.
Danielle Allen who is a “political theorist” wrote this article to bring perspective on the effects of the “War on Drugs” declared by late President Nixon, on mainly the African-American communities, and minorities. This war was meant to stop drug abuse to improve our communities, instead, it turned into a war on the people of our country. Danielle Allen begins with what we hold as truths in our society by quoting amendments from the Declaration of Independence, “that all the people are created equal…that among these are Life, Liberty, and pursuit of Happiness”. She created a platform of these truths to remind the reader of beliefs and values of the American society. She also used Declaration of Independence further creating with an overview of the issues that we are facing today.
The 2014 National Drug Threat Assessment (NDTA) Summary discourses evolving expansions associated with the trafficking and use of main illicit drugs abuse. The U.S. seizures of illegal substances in shipment exceeded 1,626 metric tons, demonstrating that DTOs have great succeed in shipping thousand tons of cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine, heroin, and MDMA into the United States each year. (DEA 2014) There are exceptional smuggling and shipping methods related with each drug type, but drug seizure statistics and federal, state, and local law enforcement reporting shows that smuggling overland and transportation by vehicle surpass all other methods of smuggling combined. The 2014 National Drug Control Strategy, in which has had very little
Prescription drugs (opiates only) have caused over 165,000 deaths within the last 15 years and is currently on the rise. Over 2 million Americans in 2014 were addicted to Opiate prescription narcotics. The most troubling fact is listed directly on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website: “As many as 1 in 4
There are two things that prompted the idea of regulating drugs in the 20th century. They were the abuse of the drug and the drug use among minority groups. Cocaine and opium were the main drugs used for treating pain the soldiers were in and women with female problems. These two drugs were the first to be patent because of the addiction that is was causing. Today patent means it has to be registered with the government.
Due to street heroin purity improving in the 1980’s heroin usage increased substantially in the 1990’s. (A Social History of America 's Most Popular
Each year the United States Law Enforcement makes more than 1.5 million drug arrest which is more arrest than all violent crimes combined according to Drugpolicy.org. There are at least 133,000 people behind bars in U.S prisons and jails for drug possession and 63,000 of them are held pre-trial. Decreasing arrests for drug possession improves the relations of community police, it also increases the trust in law enforcement. " Law enforcement agencies in countries that have decriminalized drug possession have reportedly not been hampered in their investigations of large drug trafficking operations,83 and decriminalization does not seem to have impacted drug markets, drug seizures or crimes related to drug trafficking. "(Drug Policy)
In the United States alone, more than 36 million people abuse illegal substances, however, most of these are not caused by the prescription of opioids. A drug abuse crisis is overtaking the U.S. Drug abuse kills over 200,000 people worldwide each year, although only .002 percent of these deaths are caused by the prescription of opioids. 117 million people suffer from a chronic illness, many of which need the prescription of opioids to function on a daily basis. Even though many people abuse them, doctors should not stop prescribing opioids because they are necessary for many people to function, most people who abuse them have had problems with other substances, and most opioid-related deaths do not come from doctor prescribed pills.
Executive Office of U.S. President states, “Overall, 6.26 percent of residents of Texas use illicit drugs, which is below the national average of 8.02 percent”(AAC Facility). This statistic shows how much the decline in the usage of Cocaine has decreased in the state of Texas. When compared to the usage in the United States of America as a whole Cocaine has remained stable since 2009. Data from 2011 showed 505,224 nearly 1.3 million emergency room visits were cocaine related. “In 2014, there were an estimated 1.5 million current (past-month) cocaine users aged 12 or older (0.6 percent of the population).
Despite the government's “best” efforts, drug use and addiction rates continue to rise, and the criminalization of drug
In America about 10.6% of people 12 years of age and older have abused drugs, both licit and illicit. Including all types of drugs, legal and illegal drugs, there are around 30.3% of women who use drugs while pregnant. Most drugs can harm a fetus in many different ways, including death, miscarriage, and many other physical and birth defects. The physical development of an unborn child is in a very fragile state of development throughout the entire pregnancy.
The U.S. leads all nations in opioid usage. Another 8 million use cocaine in the U.S. this number is 3rd overall across all nations. These statistics have lead me and many others to believe the war on drugs is anything besides a success. Opposing views claim, that the war on drugs has been rather successful.