There are countries in the world that have legalized drugs such as, Great Britain, Netherlands, Switzerland, and some other countries as well. Some people say, that these countries improved after legalizing drugs. This argument is not necessarily true.
Great Britain
According to MarijuanaBuisnessNews.com, “The British experience with decriminalized heroin in the clinical context was a dismal failure. ‘By 1985 England had 80,000 heroin addicts, the vast majority of whom were not in treatment,’ (Gabriel G. Nahas). Even with the clinical programs, heroin addicts had a death rate twenty-six times the average population. Britain made the following conclusions that are so important as to deserve to be quoted at length. While some success is claimed in terms of reducing the incidence of young users, the following findings have also been noted:
- The British approach has failed to attract a majority of addicts.
- Many registered addicts continue to turn to illicit sources of drugs.
- Many registered addicts do not decrease their dosage over time.
- Many registered addicts continue to be involved in criminal activity.
- Many registered addicts are chronically unemployed or do not earn enough to look after themselves.
- The death rate of registered addicts is much higher than that of the general population and may be higher than that of North American addicts.
- Since 1960, there has been a dramatic increase in the English addict population.
- The black market for heroin continues to thrive.
- Law enforcement appears to remain a necessary, costly and complex control measure,” (John S. Russell and Andre McNicoll).
The British didn’t have much luck with using heroin in the medical field, as substitute for morphine, the addicts still turned to the black market. There were also, just as many addicts before legalization, then there was after legalization; if not more. The major differences work for before and after legalization was, death rate went up and more people were unemployed due to drugs.
Netherlands
The marijuana Business News.com Also says, “‘The Dutch have not raised one dollar in tax revenue from drug sales, and drug violators account for 50 percent of the Dutch prison population, a higher proportion than in the United States,’ (Robert E. Peterson). ‘ The Netherlands is the most crime-prone nation in Europe and most drug addicts live on state welfare payments and by committing crimes,’ (61). ‘Dutch authorities are implementing an aggressive program to reduce drug-linked crimes and disturbances and show new teeth in combatting illegal drug sales,’ (63). ‘Legalization advocates claim that marijuana use in Netherlands has not increased since the laws were liberalized, but the number of Amsterdam drug cafes’ rose from 30 to over 300 in one decade. They also fail to note that daily marijuana use by U.S. youth has declined by 75 percent,’ (Robert E. Peterson).”
In the Netherlands, they didn’t raise very much money, if any, in tax revenue from drug sales. Crime rate went up, other European countries told the Netherlands that they needed to tighten up their hold on drug related crimes and illegal crime sales. If drugs were legalized in the United States, people think the U.S. would make a lot of money from taxes, but according to the Netherlands there’s not much money to be made; there’s just higher crime rates, which, for the United States is already a problem.
Switzerland
“‘Switzerland until recently followed a policy of decriminalization. A city park in the town of Zürich for many years was allowed to be a haven for drug users – police simply would ignore the problem by claiming that it was better to have all the addicts in one place rather than having them roam throughout the entire city,’ (Nel Solomon). ‘Unsurprisingly, in February of 1992 Switzerland ended this experiment with decriminalization after experiencing an unacceptable increase in use, violence, crime and health costs and consequences,’ (Roger Cohen). ‘Specifically, the number of addicts residing at the park (called Platzspitz) jumped from a few hundred in 1987 to over 20,000, by early 1992,’ (68). ‘Approximately 20% of these addicts were foreigners who came to Zürich to take advantage of the city’s lax drug laws,'” (69).
Once again, in another country crime rate went up along with health costs. When I first read about the park in Switzerland allowing drugs, I thought that wasn’t so bad and might actually be an okay idea. I thought that could actually work. But then Switzerland kind of took advantage of the idea and legalized drugs everywhere in the country and that’s when things went down hill.
People may think that drug related crimes are caused because of drug sales. So, why not legalize drugs but not the sale of drugs? Well Spain has already tried this and it didn’t end the crimes. Some people still went to the black market or the one guy in the alleyway; to buy their drugs.
MarijuanaBuisnessNews.com, “‘In the late 1800’s, opium was legal in China. By the 1900, ninety million Chinese were addicted to the drug, and it took fifty years of repressive police measures and rehabilitation to correct the problem,’ (Gabriel Nahas). ‘Today, opium and other addictive drugs are illegal,'”(74).
If the United states legalizes drugs, what happened to China is what I feel will happen to our later generations in the U.S. Then the whole country or at least most of it would be consumed under the intoxication of drugs. Why would the United States or any other country want this for their homeland? I certainly hope I die before I see the United States legalize drugs and everyone goes crazy addictive to drugs and the streets fill up with more drug related crimes than there was before. People in the United States need to focus on the importance of our country, they need to work hard to get our country out of debt and get the economic to a better state, then what it is in now. The drug war will probably continue for a very long time; legalizing drugs won’t help or break the drug war. Other Countries that have legalized drugs, have proven that it’s not worth it. If people were just smart and not get busted with drugs then, I’m sure people wouldn’t push as hard to get drugs legalized.
Drug Legalization 