Why all drugs should be legal. (yes, even heroin.)
Advocates of drug legalization believe that making high-quality drugs cheaply and widely available will eliminate the illegal drug market, regulate quality and price, and decrease law enforcement costs including arrest and incarceration.
They predict that governments will spend less money on law enforcement, benefit from a new source of tax revenue and that drug-related crime will fall if drugs from marijuana to heroin become routinely accessible, more or less as are alcohol and tobacco. Moreover, legal drugs, i. The tax revenues reaped from these drugs are dwarfed by their social and health costs. The same is true for marijuana and any Why should we legalize drugs illegal drug. In November Colorado and Washington State passed ballot initiatives legalizing marijuana, making the United States the first country in the world to legalize the commercial production, sale and use of marijuana.
As of June,18 states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana, adding it to alcohol and nicotine as a third drug legal for adults.
Arguments for and against drug prohibition
Alcohol and nicotine are the leading causes of preventable illness and death in the United States. Legal marijuana competes with illegal marijuana with a big disadvantage: legal marijuana is subjected to regulations and taxes to add to its price. Worse yet, legal marijuana has shown remarkable innovation in products beyond anything ly done by the illegal marijuana suppliers, including THC concentrates dabsvaping oils, and the sale of edibles.
Both legal and illegal suppliers have increased the potency of their products adding to its risks. In response to the legalization of marijuana in Massachusetts, in a consortium of clinicians and scientists released a Statement of Concern expressing their disagreement with how marijuana policy is being shaped across the state.
Legalizing drugs would benefit the united states (from legalizing drugs, p , , karin l. swisher, ed. -- see ncj)
The following film Chronic State from DrugFree Idaho documents the impact of the legalization and normalization of marijuana on local communities:. Smart Approaches to Marijuana SAM is leading the nation in finding smart, effective and less punitive strategies to discourage marijuana use and prevent a new Big Marijuana industry with a focus on public health. Ben Court, director of professional relations for an adult substance-addiction treatment hospital in Colorado, examines the impacts of a growing new marijuana industry on everything from policing and arrest rates to LGBTQ issues:.
None of the illegal drugs is less biologically attractive than alcohol or tobacco. The reason so many more Americans use these two drugs is that they are legal for adults and are widely available and promoted supported by well-established industries.
Legalizing marijuana ensures that the percent of Americans using this drug will rise to the levels seen by these two legal drugs.
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There have also been substantial changes in the ways in which marijuana is used. Although overall the national rate of marijuana use for Americans age 12 and older has declined sincea greater segment of marijuana users are heavy users. The Institute for Behavior and Health has proposed a strategy for sustained and systematic annual collection, analysis and reporting of the health, safety, and other consequences of marijuana use and marijuana legalization. This committee would assemble, analyze and report data on the effects of marijuana use and changes in marijuana policy, and recommend priorities for research in this area.
The full IBH report on this strategy can be found here.
Priority Areas. Prevent Teen Drug Use. Reduce Prescription Drug Abuse.
Improve Treatment. Reduce Incarceration and Crime. Reduce Drugged Driving. Lead International Drug Policy. Drug Policy Perspectives.
Drug legalization: a false hope
Combating Illegal Drug Use. Harm Reduction. Drug Legalization. Archived News.
IBH Mission. Drug Legalization: A False Hope Advocates of drug legalization believe that making high-quality drugs cheaply and widely available will eliminate the illegal drug market, regulate quality and price, and decrease law enforcement costs including arrest and incarceration.
When you legalize, you create an industry whose purpose is to make money selling those drugs. And how do you sell it?
Mostly by enticing people to take them and entice them to take high quantities. Marijuana Legalization In November Colorado and Washington State passed ballot initiatives legalizing marijuana, making the United States the first country in the world to legalize the commercial production, sale and use of marijuana.