Why Are Drugs Illegal? Should They Be? (War on the Drug War Part 1)

This post is part one of a series of posts I will be making over the next several weeks discussing the War on Drugs and why it should end.

Since the beginning of time, humans have sought out ways to alter their consciousness. And for many years now, governments have sought to limit the ways we can legally do so. I could go into each illegal substance, and explain how and why it was made illegal, but we'll save those stories for future posts. Today, we will just talk about the typical arguments that proponents of the Drug War espouse.

Argument 1: If Drugs Are Legal, There's The Public Health Risk of Addiction.

-Those who wish to use drugs will use drugs. Period. The law does not matter to those people
-What public health risk? Addicts will either seek help, or succumb to their disease
-Why can we not redirect the money we already spend on drug enforcement to helping addicts get better?

Argument 2: Recreational Drug Use Would Mean Less Educational Attainment and Lower Productivity for Users

-Is that not the choice of the drug user?
-This is not a societal issue, but one within each individual

Argument 3: Drug Legalization Would Severely Restrict Workers' Rights

-Again, this is an issue that should be dealt with on an individual basis.
-If someone knows that using drugs could limit their job prospects, and chooses to use anyway, that is on them so to speak.
-It is within the right of business owners to decide whether they want to hire people who use drugs or not.

Argument 4: Legalizing Drugs Would Make Low Income Individuals More Vulnerable

-People decide what they spend their money on. The government cannot protect them from themselves.
-This argument is mostly based around the taxing of substances. That is answered simply by not taxing them.

Argument 5: Drugs Create Crime

-There are far more people who use drugs responsibly than there are people who end up addicted
-If someone commits an act of violence as a result of their drug use, we charge them for the act of violence.
-It is immoral to put responsible drug users in prison for possession just because there are many fewer people who
misbehave while on drugs.

Tune in next week for The History of the Legality of Cannabis where we will discuss how and why cannabis was made illegal and the progress on the road to legalization.