Blog Stage Five

Has the war on drugs been a success? Some say yes, others say no. We know drugs are hazardous to your health, and some would say to society, but is it the actual drug that causes all the problems we see today? The common problems we attribute to drugs would be addiction, drug related crimes, and youth having access to drugs. Now whether or not drugs are decriminalized, there will be addiction no matter what. With that being said, the question becomes is having drugs illegal the best way to lower usage and reduce the drug related crime in Texas.

With so many people buzzing about the drug cartels in Texas, I think this is something to seriously consider. When America went into prohibition and banned alcohol, what happened? While people were sure that organized crime would subside, in reality prohibition helped organized crime and gangs flourish. Today’s drug cartels are making so much money these days and gaining so much power because drugs, like marijuana, and illegal. Imagine if drugs were legalized in Texas. Would people still need to go to these drug cartels for drugs? No, they wouldn’t. And the power of the drug cartels would surely decrease. You don’t see people smuggling alcohol across the border, do you? That’s because alcohol is legal in Texas and people can get it from the store themselves.

People say if drugs are readily available then more people would use the drugs, and become addicted. Now let's think about this for a second, if heroin was legal tomorrow, do you really think a lot more people would do it? Would you or anyone you know go buy heroin tomorrow if it was legal? Probably not. The same people who already do drugs would continue to buy drugs, just like they will continue to do if they’re illegal.

Another issue to consider is how much Texas spends annually on prohibiting drugs. Texas spends over two million dollars enforcing just marijuana laws alone. Imagine how much money Texas would be saving if even just marijuana were legalized, let alone other drugs. Also, if Texas legalized drugs, they could potentially make millions of dollars taxing it to sell.

If the point of making drugs illegal was to stop people for using it, shouldn't it be working? We can see that it is not, so maybe having it illegal is not the best solution to reducing the addiction rate. I’m not saying that drugs are good, or that I promote the use of them. I believe that if drugs we legalized, Texas should set strict laws and limits around them as they do alcohol already. I just believe that it is worth evaluating the effects legalizing drugs would have on Texas and its economy.