Essay About Decades Drugs And Increase Of Drug Abuse

Should Drugs Be Legalized?
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For several decades drugs have been one of the major problems
of society. There have been escalating costs spent on the war against
drugs and countless dollars spent on rehabilitation, but the problem
still exists. Not only has the drug problem increased but drug related
problems are on the rise. Drug abuse is a killer in our country. Some
are born addicts(crack babies), while others become users.
The result of drug abuse is thousands of addicts in denial.
The good news is the United States had 25,618 total arrests and
81,762 drug seizures due to drugs in 1989 alone, but the bad news is
the numbers of prisoners have increased by 70 percent which will cost
about $30 million dollars. Despite common wisdom, the U.S isnt
experiencing a drug related crime wave. Government surveys show
between 1980 – 1987 burglary rates fell 27 percent, robbery 21 percent
and murders 13 percent, but with new drugs on the market these numbers
are up. One contraversial solution is the proposal of legalizing
drugs. Although people feel that legalizing drugs would lessen crime,
drugs should remain illegal in the U.S because there would be an
increase of drug abuse and a rapid increase of diseases such as AIDS.
Many believe that legalizing drugs would lessen crime. They
point out that the legalization of drugs would deter future criminal
acts. They also emphasize and contrast Prohibition. When the public
realized that Prohibition could not be enforced the law was repealed.
From this, one may infer the same of legalizing drugs. Legalizing
alcohol didnt increase alcoholism, so why would drugs increase drug
abuse?
However, drugs should not be legalized because there would be
an increase in drug abuse due to its availability. Once legalized,
drugs would become cheaper and more accessible to people who
previously had not tried drugs, because of the high price or the legal
risk. Drug abuse would skyrocket! Addicts who tend to stop, not by
choice, but because the drugs arent accessible would now feed the
addiction if drugs were made legal. These drug addicts would not be
forced to kick the habit due to the availability of the drug they
would partake eagerly. The temptation to use drugs would increase when
advertisements for cocaine, heroin and marijuana are displayed on
television. Instead of money used by employed addicts, you will see
welfare funds used to purchase drugs. If welfare funds were being
misused,