Legalization of Drugs

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Legalization of Drugs
Legalization of drugs has been a very controversial issue in the United States for many years. Drugs being legalized can have both advantages and disadvantages on society. On one hand, certain drugs, such as aspirin has long been used as a common medicine to many people, to cure diseases and help people with their personal problems such as headaches, toothaches, to name a few. Some people even take the drug daily as a therapy to lower the risk of heart attacks and strokes. On the other hand, legalization of all drugs could potentially lead to over use; putting the young generations at great risk due to their unawareness of the effects and damages some substances can cause. This issue becomes directly connected to the …show more content…

The author concludes by saying that “the desire of most people to lead responsible and productive lives in a social setting that rewards such desires is what controls and limits most drug use” (Shapiro, 535).
Some of the claims that Shapiro makes seem to have logic. People who are admitted to the hospital and receive high doses of drugs very rarely become addicted. There are certainly some cases where patients do become dependent on drugs, but compared to the amount of people daily admitted to the hospitals and administered the drugs, that number of addicts is insignificant.
However, I disagree with Shapiro that drug’s chemical composition is not a factor in determining drug addiction. I think it is a significant part of the reason why people become addicted to certain drugs. If the drug is strong and highly addictive from the very first use such as heroin, the one use of the drug will inevitably lead to frequent consumption or addiction.
For that reason I think that legalizing all drugs can have a harmful impact on society, but legalizing certain drugs can be profitable, allowing the government to collect more taxes and spend more money on improvements in fields such as education, research, transportation and so forth. Legalizing recreational drugs does not mean that they will be accessible to all people. The drugs that are legal today such as alcohol and tobacco are not available to everyone; they are regulated. Only people of certain age are

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