Drug Laws and Underworld Funding
(cont)
The high prices and profits for dealers entice
many young people to enter the most obvious successful job they can see.
It also forces drug users to need large amounts of money, which they often
fund by robbery and crime. Our drug laws have a direct result of high
levels of crime. And it's all well and good to say the offenders have
a choice and should choose better, but the reality is that is not happening
now and the bad choices of drug policies remain. If we want to change
the current situation, we need to change the drug laws.
Legal drugs like alcohol and especially tobacco are
understood to have bad effects. Cirrhosis of the liver, lung cancer, emphysema.
We know what the problems are. And they are addictive, but we haven't
made criminals of their users. Of course, when a drunken driver causes
an accident, they are find guilty of that crime. When a cigarette company
promotes their product while denying its negative effects, they are guilty
of false advertising and they are responsible for consequent damages.
Let's consider the prime illegal drug, heroin. What's the
main problem with taking it? Beyond its illegality and one's possible
imprisonment, it's addictive. I suppose it disintegrates some bodily parts.
It lowers the sex drive - that's one reason that ought to be highlighted,
assuming it's true. Heroin use destroys the will to improve or try hard.
Is that true? Can scientists say something like only 14% of heroin users
hold jobs vs. 92% of all adults? Of course, they would have to remove
the effects of criminality that prohibit holding jobs for a meaningful
comparison. The consequences of taking heroin are the appropriate deterrents
to the drug, not the artificial deterrent of making it illegal.
It's clear that current drug policy is not working.
It's clear that current drug policy funds many other illegal operations.
It's clear that current drug policy funds terrorism. It's clear that current
drug policy should change. The new drug policy should be regulation, not
criminalization.
