The Legalization of Drugs and its Outcomes

The growing tensions and violent acts have shaped America negatively due to the everlasting War on Drugs between the government and the subversive people. People dying from overdoses and diseases, prisons overflowing with inhuman conditions, and violence have played a big role in shaping the American society. What kind of an example will we set for the future generations and how are we going to save our children from the dangers of illicit and unlawful drugs are the questions people have to consider in order to do the right thing for the society and its citizens. The U.S government forbid the use of drugs by law which is known as prohibition, however, it has proved to be an ineffective strategy to reduce the number of drug users. Seeing the ineffective strategy of prohibition, the officials of Portugal have decided to introduce the idea of decriminalization which doesn’t legalize the use of drugs, however, it alters the punishments for those having small amounts of drugs in possession and provides rehab and assistance to drug addicts which helped to reduce the number of drug users and violence in their country. The two policies, prohibition and decriminalization, have contributed to the societies with short term effects because neither of them were efficient since Black Markets, where people bought and sold drugs illegally without taxes, imprisoned people, and drug addictions continued. Legalizing drugs should be the next step in recovering the harmed and negatively affected societies by the War on Drugs. Although the U.S government has tried to stop the War on Drugs, all of their strategies have proved to be ineffective. New laws prohibiting drugs, overflowing prisons, the ever increasing Black Market, and more people dying from overdose have harmed the society and its people. The government should stop the war and legalize drugs which would improve the economy and the society. Portugal has tried to prevent drug overdose and spreading drug related diseases by introducing the concept of decriminalization in order to provide help and assistance for drug addicts without any punishment or chastisement involved. It became a big risk for Portugal to proceed with decriminalization because of the unknown outcomes, however, their plan turned out to have more positive results than prohibition. A journalist named O’Brien from The Boston Globe Newspaper, who believed decriminalization became a success, stated “More addicts are in treatment. Drug use among youths has declined…”(O’Brien). Two of the results of decriminalization became positive as more addicts became involved in rehab programs and the rate of drug use reduced which proved the strategy the right way to improve the society and stop the War on Drugs. Drug users receiving assistance gave drug users an opportunity to free themselves from the addiction and look for help they cannot get if drugs are prohibited. “The number of users in treatment in Portugal jumped from over 23,000 to over 38,000” (O’Brien). Decriminalization has improved the society and established a successful strategy to cure people from their addiction reducing the number of drug users. Although, decriminalization had inadequate results, its outcomes were not effective to everybody in the country due to people still dying from drug overdose and violence. Overall, decriminalization had positive outcomes because people were able to receive and ask for help to get over their addiction without any penalties which improved the number of drug users and people in treatment. Prohibition of drugs has led the society and its people on a violent path leading to destruction of the country and the citizens. The illegality of drugs has created a higher rate of violence and crime, and a Black Market without taxes which harms the American economy. The American society has seen lots of negative influences that prohibition of drugs has on people and their