Legalize
Drugs, Heyday for Thugs?
Could
legalizing drugs be beneficial? A
friend drew my attention to an article:
…Savings
on drug-related law enforcement – FBI, police, courts and prisons – of
$2 billion to $10 billion a year if marijuana were legalized, based on
various estimates, or up to $40 billion a year if all drugs were legalized,
based on enforcement costs from the White House’s Office of National Drug
Control Policy. That’s before the cost of overseeing the new drug
regulations.
Increased
productivity as fewer people were murdered, drug offenders were freed to
find work and those stripped of their criminal record found it easier to get
jobs (including running drug boutiques). However, how many of those now in
prison would turn away from crime is unknown. … http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/CollegeAndFamily/
RaiseKids/WhatIfWeLegalizedAllDrugs.aspx
I
like innovation, but innovation
which does more good than harm. Legalizing
drugs would be acceptable as an experiment under certain immutable
conditions:
(a)
a clear definition of acceptable and unacceptable drugs, without the
pharmaceutical companies having a hand in the definition;
(b)
there would be drug communities far away from non-drug communities;
(c)
the drug communities could not ask for medical resources from non-drug
communities;
(d)
the drug communities could not travel to non-drug communities;
(e)
the drug communities could not have or raise children;
(f)
the drug communities could not attempt to do any drug business with non-drug
communities.
If
you answer the multiple-choice questions below and e-mail to lessonanswers@mymontebello.com
with “Lesson answers” in the subject field, you will be credited toward
a “certificate of recognition in community affairs” to be awarded in
2008 by a local nonprofit organization.
1.
What might legalizing drugs do?
(a)
Save us money.
(b)
Reduce the number of murders.
2.
On what weak premise is the essay based?
(a)
That there would be enough jobs so that drug offenders could find jobs for
which they were qualified.
(b)
That legalizing drugs would not adversely affect youth.
3.
What “fixes” might be included to overcome the weak premises?
(a)
Drug communities would be far from our communities.
(b)
Drug communities could not attempt to do any drug business with non-drug
communities.
(c)
Drug communities could not have or raise children.
December 18, 2008