Legalization of Drugs

Public opinion about drug use and drug abuse is difficult to ascertain. It would be completely impossible to live in an entirely drug-free society in that drugs help alleviate pain and misery, correct organic and social dysfunction, and treat disease. And yet, drug use and abuse can serve to create some of the very conditions that drug therapy seeks to control. Drugs create disease, damage organs and tissue, engender social and psychological problems, and create physical and interpersonal pain. Furthermore, drug use and abuse creates, at the social level, crime and criminal activities that the non-drug-abusing members of society deem unacceptable. The use of many drugs represents a crime, irrespective of the individual or social harms done by the drug or by the person under the influence of the drug. So why then is there such considerable and constant interest in the idea of drug legalization?

Historically, the topic of drug criminahzation and drug legalization has emerged several times. Usually, the discussion about criminahzation occurs when there is something else happening in the society that is related to drug use and the public believes (perhaps wrongfully) that criminahzation will solve the [Page 511]problem. Sometimes the criminalization helps, sometimes there is no noticeable or immediate effect, and sometimes the criminalization creates more problems; discussion then ensues regarding undoing the criminalization. Usually, this discussion centers either on a cost-benefit analysis of the laws or on the morality of drug use and the idea that it should remain illegal, regardless of the costs.