Bryson Hester

Professor Blandford
UWRT 1102
5 April 2015
Should Illicit Drugs Be Kept Illegal or Not?
Intro/Purpose
The purpose of this paper is not to say that the drugs that are currently illegal, should be
made legal. That is not the point that I want to make. The purpose of this paper is also not to say
that these illegal drugs should remain illegal. These are simply the front running arguments from
both sides of the illicit drug debate. I am just presenting the facts. There are many reasons why
people want change with the current legality of most drugs. Reasons such as: the unfairness of
the legal system towards drug possessor/first time offenders, the newly found medical uses of
marijuana, and illicit drugs compared to legal drugs. What I mean by legal drugs is over the
counter drugs and alcohol as well as prescription drugs that can be potentially dangerous. On the
flip side there is a reason that these illegal drugs were made forbidden in the first place. Reasons
such as: health and safety hazards to user, causing violent crimes, and most are extremely
physically and/ or mentally abusive.
Statistics (Genre Product)
If you were to walk up to a bunch of random people in the United States and ask, Why
are drugs like crack, cocaine, meth and heroin illegal? Ill bet at least half of them without even
thinking would automatically respond with Because they are dangerous and make people do
bad things. Or something along those lines. But what are the actual statistics? How many
robberies and murders are caused by someone being high off an illegal drug? Compared to a

substance that is legal and that everyone seems to be comfortable with and might not even think
of as a drug. This would be something like alcohol many people dont even realize how
dangerous this substance is with an extremely high abuse potential. For my interview I
interviewed a former division of mental health and development working in child health and
development for the state of North Carolina. Due to the fact that she has seen many cases of drug
abuse she doesnt have most of the general misconceptions about illicit drug users that most
Americans have. She reveals that contrary to popular belief most illicit drug users are not violent
and actually are able to hold down a steady job and function relatively normally. She also says
that drugs hardly ever cause mental illnesses and most of the time the user already has a
preexisting condition that they were either unaware of or trying to control by self-medicating
themselves with their drug of choice. And that the problems come when these drug users are no
longer able to feed their habit. But, when I asked her why she thinks that drugs are still illegal
she stated, because of what they make people do referring to violent crimes. (Hester) On my
chart I have statistics on the amount of crimes committed while under the influence of specific
illegal drugs. Crimes were committed about a quarter of the time while under the influence of an
illicit drug, but another 10% of crimes were committed while under the influence of legal over
the counter drugs. (BOJ, Drug Use and Crime) These numbers dont seem so intimidating
considering that alcohol is linked to more violent crimes then all other illegal drugs and that legal
drugs are linked to half as many crimes as illegal ones are. (NCADD,Alcohol Crime)
Incarceration without rehabilitation in the U.S
My interviewee says that the current drug laws are unfair. That people who sell should be
punished but not the people who get possession charges and are first time offenders. (Hester)
Illegal drugs have been responsible for thousands of Americans to be incarcerated. Even though

many of them walk away with just a slap on the wrist (misdemeanor) it is permanently on their
record. It could be worse than a misdemeanor and they could be doing real jail time even if it is a
first time offense. If their drug of choice is a schedule 1 drug that has serious mental and physical
withdrawals they must suffer through it. The drug schedules are five categories known as
schedules, in which drugs are placed. Schedule 1has the highest potential for abuse and schedule
5 has the lowest potential. When they get out of prison there are not many rehabilitation
programs to help them live life in the real world without drugs. Every job interview, background
check and person with access to the internet will know that you were arrested for illegal drugs,
making it more difficult to make an honest living. What are they to turn to? The only thing they
know how to do, using drugs. The addiction is still there they just had a long break from their
last time. It is a vicious cycle and Americas punishment system is partly to blame.
History
In Ending the War on Drugs: A Solution for America Most people are familiar with the
War on Drugs in America and that it was first declared by Nixon in the early 1970s. However it
didnt really pick up until the Regan administration. Eldredge says that the war on drugs has been
a huge expensive failure in all aspects. That the war on drugs corrupts public officials, fills
prisons and causes racial issues as well.

For example when crack cocaine first came along it

was first introduced into poor black communities. This extremely addictive drug was cheaper
and readily available and caused many people to break off from their families, jobs and dreams
in pursuit of getting their next high. (Eldredge, 30-35)
Drug Legalization with heavy Restrictions?

Is it possible or practical for the United States to legalize while keeping a heavy restriction on the
drugs? One idea is to have these drugs regulated like alcohol and tobacco. I think that, regulation
is a little too accessible and open to the public. I dont think that it is enough to simply have an
age limit on these drugs. There should be a type of screening of the people that are looking to
buy these drugs. Your age, the environment you grew up in, job standing, physical health and
psych should all be taken into consideration. These are mind altering substances after all and
each person should be carefully evaluated. Maybe the United States could closely monitor other
countries policies on illicit drugs to see might work. For example, the country of Columbia has
recently put laws in place to legalize illegal drugs to an extent. They have decriminalized
marijuana, hash, cocaine and methaqualone but for personal use only. Methaqualone is also
known as Quaaludes which many Americans learned of by the mention of them in the movie The
Wolf of Wall street. The sale of these drugs is still prohibited. The reason that they implemented
this law change was supposedly because prohibiting these illegal drugs for personal use violates
the right to the free development of a persons personality. (Thoumi, Sect. 2)
Dont make business for Drug Dealers
Selling drugs is a billion upon billion dollar industry. Drug dealers from all over the
world kill kidnap and assault just for the sake of their business of selling. These are rich, and
extremely smart business men that are working on the wrong side of the law. Some of these men
dont even live in the United States. If we legalize these drugs then they will be out of business,
which is a good thing. The drug dealers not only use violent tactics but also endanger the lives of
many people. Think about it. If no one is regulating your product you can put whatever you want
into it. This includes making drugs with harsh chemicals as well as the drugs not being 100%
pure in order to save a few bucks. If the American government were selling these illicit drugs

there would be a standard for quality. The American government would also be making all of the
money instead of the people that deal drugs currently. This money spent on drugs will stimulate
the economy.
Changes/ Close
Everything seems to be hypocritical. People are afraid of drug users being violent and
mostly think that is why drugs are illegal, but from what I have concluded that isnt actually the
case. Facts are facts and illegal drugs do induce some crimes. But do they induce all crimes or
even half of them? No, they do not. That negative stigma is originating from the government and
media trying to keep people away from illicit drugs. But when you ask dig deep there isnt much
too actually be afraid of. Taking the criminal element out of drugs would make the general
population safer because then they could feed their habit and it would take a lot of nonviolent
offenders out of jail. At very least we should restructure the sentences for people arrested for
possession of illegal drugs. We should it least give it a shot. It makes no sense to me why drugs
are illegal, it seems like missed opportunities and poor judgment by the government. After all,
the past 100 years and especially the past 40 have not yielded good results in terms of illegal
drug use and crimes related to them. What do we have to lose at this point?