November 25, 1991
Legalize Drugs:
Legalizing drugs would
yield many benefits
Becky Browning
Guest Writer
The argument to make narcotics legal
raises many questions and provokes gut feel
ings in many people. However, America has
fallen victim to a serious drug problem and
perhaps a radical solution is needed. Though
the idea of legalizing narcotics creates many
conflicts, it does carry a lot of weight and
should be seriously considered.
Drugs are dangerous and many believe
that legalization will increase the number of
addicts. Unfortunately this belief has some
basis, for while only 10 percent of the people
who drink alcohol become alcoholics, 75
percent of all drug users become addicted.
The amount of money spent on the health
costs of drug abuse (therapy for addicts,
treatment for people who have overdosed,
etc.), which currenUy costs $6O billion an
nually, would increase substantially.
Finally, one of the greatest fears surround
ing the concept of legalization is that taking
drugs would become socially accepted if the
laws surrounding it were removed.
Proponents of the concept of legal narcot
ics have already created standards to control
drugs should they become legal. In the be
ginning the only drugs legal would be mari
juana, cocaine and crack, all of which would
be sold at fixed, low prices in drug stores.
They will not be sold to people under 21 in
order to protect minors who may not realize
the full effects of these substances, and a
campaign against drug use similar to the
effort to prevent smoking would also be
started to deter use of these substances.
The argument for legal drugs that has the
most clout is the amount of money and time
illegal narcotics currenUy cost U.S. taxpay
ers. In 1988, $8 billion was spent on enforc
ing drug laws and drug-related crimes.
Joseph McNamara, the police commis
sioner of California's drug-ridden Silicon
Valley, claims that 80 percent of his forces'
time is spent on drug-related crimes. The
result of this has been overcrowded jails and
overwhelmed courts.
Because drugs are illegal, dealers charge
outrageously high prices as a "risk fee." The
high cost turns poor addicts to crime and
promotes the formation of gangs which have
Should drugs be legalized?
"I do think they [drugs]
RmH should be legalized. What
I people do in the privacy of
"Mm -J"*' ifH tlieir own homes is their own
■•■**. business, until they infringe
* ~ MM onsomeoneelse'slife. What
fj£3| people forget, though, is that
h 1' ' tl d
transformed once peaceful neighborhoods
into shooting galleries.
If narcotics were to be legalized, the gangs
would disband and the crime rate would
drop severely.
As a result of the narcotics market orga
nized crime has become very powerful in
ways that '2os gangsters could only have
dreamt. Children in some areas aspire to
become drug lords, to get their share of easy
money and the key to the good life. If narcot
ics were legalized, that money would be put
into the American system instead of into
organized crime.
If drugs
become le- ~
gal, the
strained re
lations be
tween the
United
States and
some Latin
American
countries
would be
improved.
Every
crack
down the
United
States
makes on
countries
that are un
able to con
trol their
drug prob
lem creates
serious V
problems in
foreign policy.
Legalization would also eliminate the $2
billion that goes to Latin American drug
cartels yearly.
If drugs were legalized the crime rate
would drop severely, billions of illegal dol
lars would be either eliminated or pumped
into the U.S. government and our distorted
Latin American policy would have a chance
to improve. Legalization of narcotics is a
valid and underrated solution to a serious
problem.
DISCUSSION
FORUM:
DRUGS
THE LAW
The aim of the Discussion Forum
is to promote understanding by pro
viding two compelling views about
issues to Guilford students.
America's recent war on drugs has
divided the country into factions.
Some claim that the legalization of
drugs will eliminate drug-associated
violence and murder, while others
think legalized drugs will only com
pound the problem
IB
I "No-1 think that because drugs
are so destructive to the body,
I they are morally wrong."
■L 1 ' jH
:■ £ JT
-• • , • . ..
Perspectives
Keep Drugs Illegal:
Discourage addiction by
keeping drugs illegal
Joshua Fraenkel
Staff Writer
While inner city gangs with automatic
guns fight over control of the dispersing of
drugs in their territories, we commonly hear
in theevening news about other casualties of
the drug war.
The solution: many people choose to give
up what they term "a winless war" by legal
izing drugs. If carried out, this policy would
still impose some restrictions such as pro
hibiting the use of drugs by minors, as if this
would makeany difference. Those who fight
for the legalization
of drugs do have a
credible concern for
all the violence
caused by highly
valued drugs.
Addicts kill for
drugs they cannot
afford, and dealers
are unwilling to part
with drugs without
making good
money or losing
their lifes. Thus,
those in favor of
drug legalization
envision that, once
this country adopts
greater libertarian
goals and
progresses on the
path of an
individual's free
dom, it will be more
inhabitable, with
less crime and vio
lence.
With the legalization of drugs comes com
mercialization and mass distribution, which
cannot be restricted to only light drugs like
pot, but must include heavy addictive drugs
such as heroin and crack if we are to have
truly legalized drugs.
If one chooses not to legalize these heavy
drugs, then the legalization ofany drugs is a
total farce and will have no effect on the
inner city crime and violence. Thus, auto
matically with the legalization of drugs comes
their easy availability in supermarkets.
THE GUILFORD lAN
Legalizing drugs, however well
intentioned, ignores the key problem that
infects this society—addiction. Legaliza
tion would send the message that using
drugs is acceptable, just as the ending of
Prohibition sent the message that alcohol
use was harmless. Now, only a few think of
alcohol as something comparable to drugs
and as something that should be outlawed.
Its use has become so widespread that most
people don't give a second thought to getting
drunk, even with its well publicized effects.
After legalization, education on drug
abuse will become even more futile. The
modern drug plague will grow out of pro
portion while additional school populations
become servile to crack. The effects of
crack can be much more immediate than
alcohol, with overdoses and withdrawal
spasms. Junior high school kids will have
another acceptable substance to experiment
with besides alcohol.
We all know that the attempt to keep
alcohol away from teenagers is useless, as
they will obtain it if they want it, byway of
older friends. Keeping cheap, legalized drugs
from teenagers will be just as futile. Drugs,
if legalized, will be made available in all
food chains and minors will see them as
something adults are allowed to use, and
therefore not so bad for them to use. In
addition, just think of how many of these
children will be addicted to crack at birth.
Besides crack babies plaguing hospitals, an
entire generation of youngsters will form
addictive habits.
With legalized drugs, a large portion of
those adults not already addicted might be
tempted to try them, once television com
mercials are added to the picture. Middle
class America will be compelled to try pot
and crack when, during a commercial break
on a Sunday afternoon of football, they see
some tempting lady on a beach, sexily sniff
ing crack and enticing the hypnotized, gung
ho audience with drugs, in quite a similar
fashion ascurrent alcohol commercials. Thus
working America will go to work Monday
morning, totally stoned and never hoping to
come down.
> continued on page 5
IP* "I think certain
Wjf drugs should be lc
\ n galized to take
pf pressure off the
IJ3B I police force and the
judicial process.
h -%Jj Anti lflc ' act Lhat
Hk M I people going to
HP continue to use cer-
K / ,  j tain drugs regard
gu| less."
Laura
3
photos by Joan Malloch