Drugs - Does America Have a Future? Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive

Does America Have a Future? Can you picture this? Children and teenagers suffer from irreversible brain damage. Children go to school high, if they even to go school at all. Crime rates soar to outrageous proportions. Businesses fail because of decreased productivity and increased absenteeism. Families break up because a parent is in prison. Courtrooms and prisons are overcrowded with criminals convicted of drug-related crimes. These scenes could reflect America in the future if drugs such as cocaine and marijuana are legalized. One argument for the legalization of drugs is that crime rates would be reduced. Former Surgeon General, Dr. Joycelyn Elders, stated on December 8, 1993, that "we could markedly reduce our crime rate if drugs were legalized." Her rationale is that drug users would not kill other people for drugs or drug money of drugs were legal. The logic is simple: if much of our growing crime rate is due to attempts by drug dealers to obtain and market drugs, and to attempts by addicts to obtain the money to buy their drugs at inflated prices, then legalizing drugs and controlling the cost would reduce the current crime rate. However, legalizing drugs would most likely increase the crime rate, not decrease it. A close look at the dynamics involved reveals that legalizing drugs would bring nothing but disaster for our future. First, legalizing drugs would promote further drug use. Current users would probably use drugs more often if they were legal, and people who do not currently use drugs might be tempted to try them for the same reasons. The National Institute of Drug Abuse reports that two-thirds of Americans between the ages of twenty and forty have used illegal drugs in the past... ...If that were not enough, parents under the influence of drugs are simply unable to make logical decisions or give children the guidance they need. What will happen, then, if more parents were suddenly able to obtain drugs for their "recreational use," most often in their homes? With such disastrous effects, why would anyone believe that legalizing drugs would benefit this country? Even if one or two of these predictions turned out to be true, would we be better off than we are now? If drugs are legalized in this country, this country would rapidly deteriorate in the midst of the millions and millions of drug-using Americans. Crime rates would escalate, and individuals, families, and society would disintegrate. Drugs are already consuming America. The future of America looks even more dismal if drug use were further legalized and its use further condoned.