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The topic: Should we treat drug use as a medical problem or as a criminal problem?

Well, yet another large study has come to the conclusion that criminalizing drug abuse is not the best way to fight drug addiction and crime. A recent study on British drug policies has come to a similar conclusion as an older Rand Corporation study did on U.S. drug policies and essentially the results show that the most effective and efficient way to combat drug abuse is through education and treatment rather than treating drug abusers as criminals and incarcerating them.

First off, when illegal drugs are no longer illegal then the criminal enterprises that thrive off of the drug trade shrivel up and die. The risk associated with the selling and trafficking of drugs disappears and the price of the drugs falls dramatically. This may seem like a bad thing but in fact it removes the criminal element and cuts violence by orders of magnitude. Desperate drug addicts no longer have to resort to crime to pay for drugs that they couldn't afford when the criminal element and risk involved drove the prices sky high.

Treating drug abusers and educating the public is also much much cheaper than seeking out criminals and jailing drug abusers. If we were to drop the pursuit of punishing drug abusers and treating them as criminals we would save enormous amounts of money. Most people may feel that drug abuse is morally objectionable but that doesn't mean punishment is the best way or the easiest way to get what we want.

Best of all if we drop the criminalization of drug abuse we can restore a great measure of freedom to the citizenry. Right now "the war on drugs" is the government's biggest excuse to invade the average citizen's privacy. Some asset forfeiture laws punish citizens based on mere suspicion and forces those involved to sue the government in order to regain their rightful assets and property. By decriminalizing illegal drugs we could eliminate a large portion of government interference in people's lives by rendering it unnecessary.

Good point.

There is a wheel chair bound man in Florida who has been sentenced for 20 years in jail for illegally obtaining and using pain medicine. This guy was really in pain and he just wanted to function normally. He never violated the rights of another citizen in any way but now he is in jail. How is that justice?

So why did this guy get a 20 year sentence? It was because of some "zero tolerance" law on illegal drug abuse or something.

I can understand people's moral objections and everything but I don't think it's the government's job to protect people from their own actions or to impose morality on the populous.

Should drug users be treated as criminals?

::nods:: Drug educaton sounds like a wiser choice than actually imprisoning these drug abusers. Without their drugs, they will probably act even less civil than they do when they are on drugs. Perhaps these addicts should work on actually getting off of that addiction. Besides, I believe that they should legalize more drugs because if they are legalized, people will feel less inclined to take them. It sounds crazy, but we have a psychological desire to be rebellious against the law.

Yeah... I meant like a different kind of drug Education program. D.A.R.E. and those other cheesy ones are stupid. They should actually explain why they are supposedly bad and then look at what's around them, you know? And yes, drugs should not be necessary illegal. Their being illegal is half of the reason that people are trying them out. Hell, that is sometimes why I try them out. Just to see if it will ******** me up or not.

legalize.

that takes the money incentive out of the market and makes a huge dent in criminal activity.

it reduces prison populations to make room for truly violent offenders.

and people like Ken Lay!

then if you protest that it encourages immoral behavior, just educate; advertize, rehab when necessary...we have not put a fraction of the energy into such efforts as we have into enriching private prisons (who contribute heavily to campaign funds for both parties, whose politicians continue to support privatized jails and mandatory drug sentences, hmmm... conflict of interest, much?)

any kind of 'addiction' is a psychological problem that can lead to a medical problem. the selling of illegal drugs (or even legal drugs sold illegally -ie: pharmaceuticals) is a criminal problem.