I was talking to some co-workers about legalizing drugs today during lunch. The Canadian government, and the US government, view drugs as a matter of law. In reality, though, it’s really a social issue, and by punishing drug users and traffickers with harsher penalties isn’t going to solve it. If the issue is public health, then we should focus on prevention and safe drug use, instead of just throwing people in jail. If the issue is morality, then the question is, what is morality?
Alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking are both legal in Canada. What makes marijuana any different? Is it just because pot smoking has always been viewed as illegal and bad, thus it must always remain so? I’m not promoting the use of marijuana, but people need to stop and think about the reasons they hold onto certain beliefs. Marijuana is progressively becoming a folkway as opposed to a mores in today’s society, and a lot of people are already pushing to legalize it.
One more thing to consider is that one of the side-effects of illegal drug trafficking is violent crimes. An example would be drug dealers trying to protect their turf, thus resulting in gun violence against other drug dealers. If drug supply is controlled by the government, then these violent crimes can be lowered. So instead of the police spending so many resources on trying to punish drug dealers/users, they can focus on more serious crimes, and as a side-effect of legalized drug, the rate at which the other crimes occur would lower too.
