Legalization of Drugs
SURE WANT TO LEGALIZE DRUGS? In the century of freedom that we are living in, we have started to face this new world’s new problems and new situations such as legalization of drugs. Many people are having dilemmas about drug legalization coming between ethical values and right of freedom. However, surely forbidding something for people’s and communities’ own benefits doesn’t go along with our perception of democracy and freedom. What freedom means is being able to do whatever individuals want without disturbing others’ rights and freedoms.
Then we should mainly focus on the “…without disturbing others’ rights and freedoms. ” part . Therefore , even if we are not the one’s that are capable of legislating , governments should care about our voices and be careful about this subject; because of legalizing drugs and giving people the right individually use of drugs regarding public’s rights and freedom will cause lots of consequences and problems. Therefore , in this precise situation , drugs should not be legalized in Turkey. Legalization of drugs will bring some problems with itself.
First of all, legalization of drugs will increase drug usage and the number of drug addicts as it will be stabled in our daily lives with power of laws. Therefore drug usage will seem normal as everyone will have right to use it, and people will find enough confidence to try it even tough they don’t really want to use it , but fur to curiosity. If we look into our past legalization experiences such as legalization of alcohol or smoking , we can easily see the correlation between the number of addicts and legalization of additional materials.
Secondly, increase in drug usage will increase the crime rate related to drugs. We are going to be able to the violence movie scenes in our streets as underground drug wars will spread to aboveground, the increase in drug addicts will increase the number of people in need of drugs, and it will occur the easiest way of drug afford: violence. As Magnnins (n. d. ) stated in his article although drug legalization will reduce the cost of drugs it will feed the habit. Therefore, the crimes with related to drugs will increase. (pg. 3-4).
Lastly , drug legalization will damage the social relations among in public. The drug users are mostly psychologically unhealthy people as they do not care about anything but drugs , and due to their lack of logical thinking. The careless attitude that drug addicts exhibit in their social lives could be managed for a time by their relatives, but how long this relatives can stand this as more and more people become addicts? Specifically, Turkish traditional and religious norms do not fit to legalization of drug usage and this will lead us to having social problems.
In such a country like Turkey that has population is formed by more than %95 Muslim people , it is hard to expect everyone to obey a law which is strictly forbidden in their holly book. The ones who are for legalization of drugs mostly have same supporting ideas that they see enough evidence for drug legalization. Firstly, as legalization will make drug usage legal and provide some laws, it will put drug usage under government control. They assume that government control will help drug users as governments will be able to keep track of drug usage, put quotes and even can generate income by putting taxes.
However, they miss some really important points like government control will not only be unable to stop drug usage also creates some responsibilities for Turkish government. If we look into the alcohol and smoke usage in Turkey , we can easily see that governments can not control drug usage by quotes and taxes. In addition, government control issue will bring problems for the Turkish government such as building rehabilitation centers for addicts and governmental care and responsibility for drug usage as Gargaro(1996) stated in her article “notice all the regulation and laws surrounding cigarettes?
Legal drugs means MORE LAWS , MORE REGULATION AND MORE GOVERNMENT, higher taxes and higher insurance rates. ”(pg:3). The second point that drug legalization fans cry is “Drug usage is an individual choice” which actually means to do whatever individual likes ,which is a right given by freedom , and drugs should be legalized as alcohol and smoke usage in Turkey. We understand this also from Block’s(2000) words which mainly points that not legalizing drugs means controlling individuals opinions and rights(pg:4-5). Yet, regard that it is a social issue more than individuality problem.
As drug users physiologic situations don’t let them think critically, it will lead us to have more troubles in the community. As Maginnis(n. d. ) claims drug usage is not a personal issue as drug users’ families and society also endures the consequences like the baby on its drug user mother’s stomach(pg:10). To sum up, drug legalization is a sensitive situation, and the ones that stand for drug legalization should think critically, take into account the consequences of it such as effects of increasing number of addicts on ociety like increasing crime rate, possible damages on social relationships before they yelling “legalization will put it under government control” and “drug usage is an individual choice”. They should mainly not regard the meaning of freedom: being able to whatever individuals would like to do WITHOUT DUSTURBING OTHERS’ RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS. REFENANCES: * Block , W. (2000) . Legalize Drugs Now. American Journal of Economics and Sociology * Gargaro , C. C. (1996). Drugs * Maginnis , R. L. (n. d. ). Legalization of drugs: The Myths and the Facts
