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Issue Exploration Paper Joseph Timpson Nkenna Onwuzuruoha Drug Trafficking & why it should be legalized

Drug trafficking why is this, such a large issue in the US with so many fairly easy solutions, decriminalization, legalization or it should at least be considered to allow some of the less harmful maybe just the natural ones to be used and sold. I honestly had zero knowledge on and with this issue before commencing what has been a very insightful journey. I have researched the topic extensively for this essay and I hope not only to have enlightened myself on this matter but my readers as well.

The abuse of legal and illegal drugs has been going on for centuries; it is only now in the past few decades that it has been so prevalent that it has actually become a war of sorts. For years we have been focusing our time and efforts on criminalizing then catching drug use and drug users, this has solved nothing and also has proved very expensive, The
U.S. federal government spent over $15 billion dollars in 2010 on the War on Drugs, at a rate of about $500 per second.State and local governments spent at least another 25 billion dollars. Jeffrey A. Miron & Kathrine Waldock.This has

simply made users and distributors more devious and violent and the sale of these insidious narcotics hasnt gone down but up. The

Timpson 2 government of the United States estimates sells around 60 billion a year and this is just an estimate Americans dont seem to be against these drugs which is what leads to such high numbers so despite the efforts of the DEA, if you have a demand for something and its high enough to give it value the masses cannot be stopped from getting it maybe partially but not completely and from the estimates of drug sales not in even a remotely large enough portion. Drugs became quite prevalent in the 1800s they used to be harmless remedies for illnesses and a good medicine for certain ailments, but as time went on people found that they could abuse them to get certain pleasures and to make a lot of money by selling them because they are illegal skyrocketing the value to anyone willing to brave the law to bring people their very highly sought pleasures. Drugs are highly addicting and thats why people who partake of them are forced to keep going back for more. The Las Angeles Times has written numerous articles on the subject and in one printed on April 14, 2010 by Ken Ellingwood stating that more than 22,000 people have died in a 3 year war on drug cartels. In perspective 32,000 people died in car accidents in 2010 the number of people who died from a single war over drugs is 75% of the amount who die in car crashes annually this is a startling high number in my opinion. Again, to point to the increasing violence from a war that cant be won in another article written on January 13, 2010 Richard Marosi & Ken Ellingwood wrote: That a Mexican drug cartel kingpin was

Timpson 3 accused of dissolving victims in barrels of lye & waging a terror campaign that turned Tijuana into one of Mexicos most dangerous cities. Because of the criminal sentences given to people caught with or carrying drugs great lengths are taken to prevent their detection including the dissolving of bodies. That fact is one that convinces me further that we have got to stop this drug war, it is only getting worse and by keeping it illegal it is causing more and more fatalities, and it is just as if all of the deaths are just casualties of a war that has no ending in sight.

Many people are calling just for the decriminalization of drugs, but we need to take it a step further and legalize it as well, and I am in good company when I state that; Mr. Justin Trudeau Canadian Liberal Party leader also states: I have done an extensive amount of listening and reading and a lot of paying attention to the very sensitive studies that have come out, and I realize that going the road of legalization is actually a responsible thing to look at and to do.

Recent research shows that half of all 15-16 year olds have used some form of illegal drug. Another shocking statistic researched by Jon Snow and presented on a TV show: Drugs Live, is that the up to half a million people use ecstasy in Britain every week! Scientists still haven't figured out everything that comes from taking this horrific drug, but there is new things that come up every time they do new tests. In the

Timpson 4 public debate on Marijuana legalization the percentages are 82% are for it and 18% are against it. This is to be expected because marijuana is defiantly not as harmful as some of the other drugs we are faced with, and it actually has quite a bit of medical pros if used right. In legalizing drugs, we will not reduce the usage, but I think it will make people more aware, they will still not be available to minors but we'll still have to come up with an active plan to get the young people to not think it's the thing to do, and that it's cool, but that's a whole other topic.

The only way of solving this issue is to address it and confront the problem itself and the problematic users. The illegal drug market is led by people demanding prohibited drugs; but if the masses weren't making as much of a profit from tit and the legislators were controlling the profits, that would enable us to regulate where the mass product is going and also what the outcome would be for the money turned over. If we could regulate the market for drugs this difficulty would be reduced significantly. Most of the violence in the drug industry is caused by its illegality and we need to eliminate the criminal marketplace, and one step to fulfilling this is to legalize and regulate drugs and the system. In legalization of drugs, the masses that have to steal for their portion or cut of either the drugs themselves or the money involved will be abandoned, not completely but definitely improved, also our legal system, for example: our prison population

Timpson 5 would be reduced saving scores of money and at the same time freeing up the patrol personnel to take care of other pressing matters.

On a national debate page there was a vote on whether or not the government should legalize drugs; the votes came in 71% are for legalizing it and 29% aren't. Many of the voters who didn't want them legalized were arguing that all of the people that make a living off of selling drugs for a living aren't just going to magically go straight and narrow if we legalize it and also that drug crime and violence won't stop all of a sudden. They're absolutely right, it isn't going to stop overnight, its going to be a long process but by taking away the opportunity for people to make a living off of selling illegal drugs, we are going to make it harder and harder for them to keep it up, when they're customers stop coming and they can't resort to violence, they're going to be forced to find something honest and worthy in society. Another issue that gets brought up when discussing drug prohibition and legalization is our national debt. A recent study made by the CATO Institute estimated that the impact of legalization on federal, state, and local budgets concludes that drug legalization will reduce government financial loss about 41.3 billion annually, that is astounding. Drugs are a world-wide problem, it is high time that we take matters into our own hands and end this drug war that has held us captive for so long. This problem is not going to go away and we can't ignore it anymore, people aren't going to stop using drugs and

Timpson 6 more aren't going to start just because they're decriminalized, it's an individual choice and while I don't support drug users, I understand that everyone will make they're own choices.

I believe that the legalization of drugs will prevent our liberties from being threatened, it will greatly reduce the crime rates and improve our society immensely, we will be able to build up our society and it will also help with prevention of disease, it will prevent illegal aliens from coming in from foreign countries without being sterilized and given proper shot so we aren't spreading disease from country to country. All being said I believe that legalizing drugs is the next step we need to take as a nation, and we need to do it sooner rather than later.