Legal and Illegal Drugs
James Murphy
CJS 221.50-
Criminology
Fall 2005
November 22, 2005
In the United States
there is a major problem with the association of drugs and crime. It seems that
a great portion of crime is directly related to illegal drug activity. Many
believe that the legalization of drugs would directly affect the current crime
problem. Others believe that the “war on drugs” is necessary and our nation’s
biggest concern due to the harmfulness of illegal drugs. The truth is that the
public has been given a false view of the severity of illegal drugs and legal
drugs. In actuality legal drugs such as tobacco and alcohol, kill many more
people than the illegal ones do. If it is true that legal drugs are more
harmful than illegal drugs, then it is not necessary to waste money and
resources on the war against drugs
Illegal drugs have
always had a reputation for being a “bad thing.” It seems that a drugs status
of either legal or illegal affects the public’s view of it. “A majority of
Americans condone the use of alcohol and tobacco, whereas they oppose the use of
marijuana, cocaine, and heroin.”
An illegal drug already has a reputation of being a harmful and very serious
drug, even though this might not be the case. Legal drugs are thought to be
less harmful because they are so commonly used. The fact that legal drugs are
worse than illegal drugs seems to be backwards. Wouldn’t it seem that the more
harmful drugs would be deemed illegal? Husak stated, “It seems apart that the
state has made the wrong recreational drugs illegal.”
The health risks of
legal drugs heavily outweigh those of illegal drugs. For example tobacco use
can lead to many deadly diseases, such as coronary artery disease, peripheral
vascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, lung, laryngeal, oral, esophageal,
bladder, pancreatic, and kidney cancers, and of chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease.
Tobacco is also a highly addictive substance due to the fact that it includes
nicotine. It was declared by the surgeon general that nicotine was just as
addicting as heroin and cocaine. Because nicotine is so addictive, it makes it
even harder to drop the habit. Over 18 percent if the health-care costs in the
United States ($365 billion) are directly related to tobacco.
The effects of tobacco include euphoria, dilated pupils, increased pulse rate
and blood pressure, insomnia, and loss of appetite.
Alcohol is also one
of the most dangerous drugs due to its popularity and many hazardous side
effects such as slurred speech, impaired reactions, disorientation, and loss of
coordination. Alcohol use can be connected to over 75 human diseases. Unlike
tobacco, alcohol is much easier to overdose on. The side effects of alcohol are
much more dangerous because of how it effects people’s inhibitions. It becomes
especially dangerous when participating in such acts as operating a motor
vehicle. Alcohol is the direct cause of 80,000 to 100,000 motor vehicle
accidents each year. Also alcohol-related accidents are the leading cause of
death for teenagers. Besides the effects on motor vehicle accidents, alcohol is
present in more than half of America’s murders, suicides, and accidental deaths.
Illegal drugs such as
marijuana, cocaine, and heroine, all have a reputation as being “worse” than
legal drugs. When comparing basic facts, however, this assumption does not hold
true. Surprisingly there seems to be very few health risks that are connected
to illegal drugs mentioned above. Marijuana is the most popular illegal drug
today in the United States. Marijuana causes effects on its user through
suppressing neurons to the hippocampus, an area of the brain associated with
learning and memory. Most commonly smoked, marijuana suppresses the amount of
oxygen to the brain, and like cigarettes, can cause coughing and wheezing.
Marijuana cigarettes are thought to contain five times as much carbon monoxide
into the bloodstream and three times as much more tar into the lungs when
compared to tobacco cigarettes.
Marijuana, a natural drug with THC as its active ingredient, lacks the addictive
nature of tobacco, as it does not contain nicotine or any other such highly
addictive substances. Effects of marijuana include euphoria, relaxed
inhibitions, increased appetite, disoriented behavior and increased heart and
pulse rates.
Cocaine attracts
users by having side effects similar to that of nicotine and caffeine. Cocaine
users experience a rise in body temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure.
Heart palpitations or cardiac arrest are also possible side effects of the
drug. Young, single males are the most common abusers of this highly addictive
drug. Cocaine abusers become physiologically dependent on the drug, and can end
up losing interest in their family and job, becoming interested only in using
more and more of the drug.
It is very possible to overdose on cocaine; yet while this drug is very
physically harmful, the numbers of occurrences of deaths related to cocaine are
significantly lower than those of alcohol or tobacco. Besides the threat of
overdose, there is no evidence that cocaine use leads to any physical diseases.
Heroine can be
administered in a variety of ways. Injecting the drug is becoming increasingly
more common, creating a decrease in snorting or smoking of the drug. A major
problem with injecting the drug is the transmission of diseases, namely HIV.
While the spread of this disease is not related to the drug itself, it is
related to the lifestyle often associated with heroine users. Symptoms of
heroine include euphoria, drowsiness, respiratory depression, and an absence of
pain. This highly addictive drug creates a variety of health problems including
overdose, spontaneous abortion, collapsed veins, and infectious diseases.
The most common legal
drugs, alcohol and tobacco (nicotine), are also some of the most deadly drugs.
These “legal” drugs have overwhelmingly higher death rates than illegal drugs.
Nicotine annually causes between 350,000 and 430,000 deaths, which is more
deaths than all other legal and illegal drugs combined. Also alcohol causes
between 50,000 and 200,000 annual deaths.
The fact that these drugs are used more commonly than illegal drugs lessens the
value of these numbers, but these high death tolls still express that these
drugs are the most deadly by far. It could be the fact that more people have
access to the drug, but it is also proven that alcohol and tobacco are
physically more damaging than illegal drugs.
The war on drugs is
acting on the criminalization movement, where drugs are thought to be kept
illegal and to punish those who indulge in them. It is thought that drugs such
as cocaine, heroine and marijuana should be kept illegal because the increased
availability that would result from the legality of the drugs could cause
potential abuse by children or young adults, similar to that of cigarettes and
alcohol today. More may be tempted to try the drugs if they are made legal as
well, which because the drugs are highly addictive, could lead to many more
regular users of the drugs.
While 90% of the American population favors criminalization of drugs, the
remaining 10% (wanting drugs to be made legal) has a strong impact on society as
well.
The
decriminalization movement, or the opposition of the war on drugs, is becoming
more and more popular. Many well known politicians such as, former secretary of
state, George Schultz and the mayor of Baltimore, Kurt Schmoke supports the
decriminalization of some or all illegal drugs. Many believe that this is the
smartest option due to the fact that America is losing the war on drugs. The
war on drugs seems to be very counterproductive of its true function. “Many
commentators claim that the evils of criminalization are greater than the evils
of drug use itself, so that the “cure” of law enforcement is worse than the
“disease” of drug use.”
The decriminalization of drugs would lead to more access to drugs such as
marijuana, cocaine and heroine, but in the process would reduce crime associated
with smuggling illegal drugs. The legalization of drugs would also reduce
government spending and reduce the amount of people in prison. The majority of
people in jail today are there because of drug charges, and the legalization of
drugs would help reduce this problems.
The
legalization of currently illegal drugs is one possible solution to today’s drug
problems. Along with the legalization, decreased crime rates and disease rates
(such as HIV) would result. According to the basic facts regarding legal and
illegal drugs, they do not differ that much in severity and/or physical or
psychological harm to the body. Because of the minor differences between the
two types of drugs, it is not probable to determine some to be legal while
others are illegal. Both types of drugs are of similar severity, both types
should be made to be either legal or illegal.
(back to top)
Bibliography
Abadinsky, Howard. Drug Abuse: An Introduction.
Chicago, Illinois: Nelson- Hall Inc. 1989.
Husak, Douglas N. Drugs and Rights. New York:
Cambridge University Press 1992.
Unknown author. “Drug Facts” 2005. <http://www.drug-rehabs.org/drug-facts.php>.
(11/20/05)
