Substance abuse

‘Should drugs be legalised?’

Junkies, illegal use, addiction, black market, gangs, crime...what comes to mind when you think of the term ‘drugs’?

When I think of the term ‘drugs’ I most certainly think of all of the above, but there is so much more to it than meets the eye, there are benefits of using drugs but these are often looked past because of the negative stigma drugs have. Like using drugs for medical use and to boost tourism, do you ever think of that? But are these positives considered important enough to stem legalisation by the UK Government?

Introducing legal drugs would also help to fuel the economy as tax would be added onto the substances; this would help society as more money could be spent in services such as health and schooling. In an extreme situation the legalisation of drugs could boost tourism in the UK like in Holland where the legal use of marijuana attracts travel makers from all over the world.

Not to mention the medical advantages legalising drugs would carry, for example helping drug addicts put an end to extreme hardcore drug use such as heroin by giving them a softer alternative that will work in the long term run.

The legalisation of drugs in the UK could also see reduced crime rates due to illegal acts such as drug possession and smuggling being abolished; this could lessen the cost to society as there would be a decrease in the use of police officers’ time, court hearings and keeping criminals imprisoned.

If drugs were to become legalised it would help to erode the black market in which drugs are illegally bought and sold under, this would hold a number of advantages including fewer street gangs, and decreased crimes stemming from these gangs such as violence, burglary and weapons trafficking. The drugs sold within the black market can also be very unsafe, leading to health problems and sometimes even death, if drugs were to become legalised it would help to eliminate the health risks as they would be safer and of better quality.

But on the other side to this, would it just be encouraging further drug use? Cigarettes and alcohol are classed as drugs and cause a whole host of problems; but do they make users any better and actually help society? Do we really want to add a third ‘evil’ into the equation? If we allowed further drug use this could contradict the point made about helping the economy, as the money made could go straight back into treating drug users as many more could get addicted. Would the economy really be able to relive more drug users if the substances were legalised?

We must also think about the countries that are illegally exporting drugs at this current time, when their income is sourced from the illegal trade of drug exporting if the UK began manufacturing its own drugs this would hinder others’ economies and diminish their income. So, although it may help the UK’s economy, it could have a serious effect on those less fortunate in the world, can we really justify making the economies’ that are bad even worse?

Legally or illegally drugs will still be recreationally used, it just leaves us with the question, could all the benefits of drug use actually help our society if legalised, or should they still be left to trade under the black market?

I would like to hear your views on this subject, and for you to answer the question ‘should drugs be legalised?’ Please comment below.

Thank you for reading,

C