...“Drugs" The United States is at war. I am not talking about the war in Iraq or the War on Terrorism; I am talking about the War on Drugs. We are currently facing a large debate on the issue of drugs. That is whether drugs should remain illegal or be legalized within the United States. It has come to be a war; a war which is being fought against our own citizens and against other countries. It is a war which has taken many lives and will not cease in its toll. Both sides of the argument have strong points. In 1970, Gore Vidal wrote an essay supporting the legalization of all illegal drugs in the United States. I agree with Vidal, in legalizing drugs. They should be legalized and regulated by the government just as cigarettes are. In “Drugs,” Gore Vidal argues that all drugs should be legalized. The government should make all drugs available in markets and sell that at cost to the consumers. He states that the prohibition of these drugs is a violation of the constitutional right for the pursuit of happiness. He observes that legalizing drugs will take away its title of being a "forbidden fruit." People always want what they cannot have. Legalizing drugs enable people easier access to them, taking away the thrill of getting them. He argues that the prohibition of drugs, like that of alcohol in the 1920's, will be a failure. He believes that both the Bureau of Narcotics and Mafia are against legalizing drugs and selling them at cost because then there would...
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...Say No To Drugs! Few people deny the dangers of drug use, while many teens are curious about drugs. They should stay away from drugs because drugs affect our health, lead to academic failure, and jeopardizes safety. Drugs are used from a long period of time in many countries. The concentration of drugs has increased from late 1960’s and 1970’s. Drugs can quickly takeover our... [tags: Drugs] 423 words (1.2 pages) Unrated Essays [preview] Effects of Drugs - Controversies over drugs and the effects they have physically, mentally, and emotionally have been around for centuries. Some argue the fact that smoking marijuana has no health effects on the body. Some also say that other drugs have no long term mental consequences to suffer. Now, thanks to technology and hours of studies, answers have came to show the true long term hea... [tags: Drugs] :: 5 Works Cited 1157 words (3.3 pages) Better Essays [preview] The War On Drugs - The “War on Drugs” is the name given to the battle of prohibition that the United States has been fighting for over forty years. And it has been America’s longest war. The “war” was officially declared by President Richard Nixon in the 1970’s due to the abuse of illegitimate drugs. Nixon claimed it as “public enemy number one” and enacted laws to fight the importation of narco... [tags: Drugs] 576 words (1.6 pages) Better Essays [preview] Drugs and Music - Throughout the evolution of popular music in American culture, many factors have been...
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...CPHL 612: POSSIBLE FINAL EXAM QUESTIONS The final exam consists of a set of FIVE essay questions, of which you are expected to answer THREE (and only three). So, to be clear, on the final exam you will be given a list of five questions and asked to answer just three of those five. In advance of the exam, I am posting here a longer list of POSSIBLE essay questions. The five questions on the actual exam (and therefore any three of those five that you may choose to answer) will be drawn from the set of possible questions below: (1) Contrast the legal philosophies of Hart and Fuller with respect to the notion of legal validity, making reference to the case of the “grudge informer”. Which position do you think is closer to the truth? Give reasons for your opinion. (2) Explain some of Dworkin’s main reasons for interpretivism. (Be sure to explain what “interpretivism” means here.) Do you think his theory is plausible? Give reasons for your opinion. (3) Explain and evaluate an argument for drug prohibition and an argument against drug prohibition. Discuss with reference to the case of R. v. Malmo-Levine and the case of R. v. Caine. Which argument do you think is more convincing? Give reasons for your opinion. (4) Explain some of the main reasons given by (some) feminists such as MacKinnon and Dworkin for making pornography illegal. Explain how their position differs from the simple “causal” argument. Do you think that their reasoning is correct? Give reasons...
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...Outnumber The Risks Every year thousands of people die from illegal drug overdoses, but ten times that number die from legal drug overdoses. Given this fact, the classifications for legal and illegal drugs are quite unbalanced. Marijuana is currently an illegal drug. Its primary contents are the cannabis plant and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Along with cocaine and heroin, marijuana is classified as a Type 1 drug, meaning that its use can result in maximum penalties in state or federal prison. Currently, the only states with legal authorization to medically administer the drug are California and Arizona. Marijuana use should be legalized in all states because the reason for its previous abolition is nonexistent today, research supporting its use is kept hidden from the public, it is safer than most legal drugs, it does not contribute to the use of other drugs, and it proves effective in the medical field. The use of marijuana should be legalized because the government’s reason for prohibiting it does not apply today. According to Charles Schaffer, founder of the Schaffer Library of Drug Policy, “Marijuana was outlawed in 1937 as a repressive measure against Mexican workers who crossed the border seeking jobs during the Depression. The specific reason given for the outlawing of the hemp plant was its supposed violent ‘effect on the degenerate races’” (Schaffer, sec. 1). Government used the prohibition of marijuana as a discriminatory tactic to keep foreigners out of the United...
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...A hot button topic in politics for the better part of the last decade has been the debate over the legalization of marijuana. Now of course, each side of the debate has its merits. Yet, the fact is that marijuana has been used by normal, everyday people since 6,000 BC and possesses many upsides. Marijuana, before being deemed illegal by governments around the world, was once used as a major trading currency. Marijuana does more good than harm and I am up to the task of proving that to anyone reading this essay. Marijuana should be legal nationwide and worldwide and I believe one day it will be just that, legal. Hopefully this day comes soon. Now marijuana isn’t some new occurrence in the lives of people all around the world. As I stated...
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...Name: Tutor Course: Date: Why Marijuana should be legalized Introduction Various governments have made numerous drugs illegal while others remain legal. Such drugs include cocaine, heroin, methane, marijuana, alcohol, bath salts or synthetic cathinone, hallucinogens, methamphetamine and many others. However, some are legal to use; the use of others are limited while others are illegal. For instance, alcohol is legal in most countries while its use is limited in others in terms of time one can use them and in terms of amounts that one can consume. Nonetheless, most of these drugs are illegal including cocaine, heroin, marijuana and many others. However, even though some drugs are termed as harmful, they should receive some considerations to legalize them due to numerous reasons. Particularly, marijuana should be legalized. Marijuana refers to the dried flowers, leaves, seeds and stems from the hemp plant. Scientifically referred to as Cannabis sativa, that contains the mind-altering (psychoactive) chemical, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), alongside other associated compounds. Commonly, it is utilized for its physiological and psychoactive effects that can elevate euphoria or mood, appetite, and relaxation. Discussion Over the past few decades, they have been serious discussion on whether to legalize marijuana or not. Many know the reasons as to why marijuana should not be legalized. Some of the reasons put forward for not legalizing marijuana are that it harmful to...
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...individuals, but these institutions' level of accomplishment is askew. The financial burden attached to the building, maintaining, and staffing of prisons constantly plagues the penal system. During the late 1960s, New York built prisons at a price of $2 million each. Since then, prices have risen dramatically. In 1990, each prisoner required $15,496 to support (“Bureau of Justice Statistics”). A prison containing 2,000 inmates amounts to over $31 million to operate on an annual basis. The United States spends an estimated $60 billion each year on corrections (Prisons in the United States). The operation price is synonymous with the level of security, ranging from the supermax, containing serial killers, to the minimum security, containing drug offenders. Violence is not confined to outside prison walls. In 2005 alone, federal and state prisons reported 885 incidents of sexual violence. Of the aforementioned incidents, 38% were between an inmate and a staff member (“Bureau of Justice Statistics”). The constant fear of attack can lead a prisoner to experience serious mental problems. Inmates can suffer from indigestion, constipation, and headaches as some of the psycho-physiological effects. The constant psychological stress can impair the individual physically. These people can suffer...
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...Legalization of Marijuana In today’s society what is accepted in different American cultures as far as drugs are on a thin line of what people accept. The Gore Vidal was published on September twenty-six nineteen seventy, so the discussion on marijuana has been talked about over forty-four years now. It is about time that the American society accepts legalization of marijuana. Many Americans do not see anything wrong with a doctor prescribing them “legal drugs.” People think of marijuana in a negative ways because they are against the law. Many people don’t realize that there are many things that are legal that are a lot worse than marijuana things like prescription drugs, alcohol, and even in some instances cough medicine, but none of these are illegal why is that? When in all reality can we really put a difference on which is okay in today’s society. In the article that Gore Vidal wrote, he believes that our society should legalize marijuana. In comparison to Gore Vidal an article on the website called the Huffington post they also think that there are good reasons to legalizing marijuana and also some negative stand points. America has been fighting to legalize marijuana for nearly forty-four years now. Recreational marijuana is for sale in Colorado, one of the few states that have actually gone through with legalizing it in the United States. There is a Huffington Post article about the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and the effects of it. Amendment 64 is the legalization...
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...America's War on Drugs: Policy and Problems In this paper I will evaluate America's War on Drugs. More specifically, I will outline our nation's general drug history and look critically at how Congress has influenced our current ineffective drug policy. Through this analysis I hope to show that drug prohibition policies in the United States, for the most part, have failed. Additionally, I will highlight and evaluate the influences acting on individual legislators' decisions to continue support for these ineffective policies as a more general demonstration of Congress' role in the formation of our nation's drug policy strategy. Finally, I will conclude this analysis by outlining the changes I feel necessary for future progress to be made. Primary among these changes are a general promotion of drug education and the elimination of our current system's many de-legitimating hypocrisies. However, before the specific outcomes of Congressional influence and policy impact can be evaluated it becomes important to first review the general history and current situation of drugs today. Our present drug laws were first enacted at the beginning of the century. At the time, recreational use of narcotics was not a major social issue. The first regulatory legislation was for the purpose of standardizing the manufacturing and purity of pharmaceutical products. Shortly after, the first criminal laws were enacted which addressed opium products and cocaine. Although some states had prohibited...
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...Mark Ortiz 9.2 Persuasive essay final draft Gun control or people control? Society should be against a gun ban because people should be able to protect themselves. Why should honest, law-abiding citizens lose their rights and freedoms because there are people who violate laws? The failure to obey laws is here to stay. What we have to do is deal with those people on a separate basis, not take away the things they disobey the law with. A gun ban will only keep the 'good guys' from obtaining firearms. Bad guys will always have ways of getting weapons. New gun laws will not do much in stopping them. A gun is an inanimate object. It is a tool, just like a baseball bat, a knife, screwdriver, or hammer. Any of these are as dangerous as a gun; they all have the potential to kill. Guns do not kill people, people kill people. If a gun is sitting on a table it does nothing. It is not capable of committing a crime; until a person decides to pick it up and use it. You cannot blame and an inanimate object for any type of wrong doing. You have to blame the user. Without someone controlling the item, it is not possible for it to do anything at all. If guns commit crimes, then pencils misspell words and spoons make people fat. There are a lot of falsities said about guns. Most of them are derived from fear of the unknown. There are a lot of people that talk about gun control, yet have never owned a gun and know nothing about guns. One of falsities is the gun show loophole. Just like going...
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...Crime, Organized Crime, Illicit Drugs and Violence. Illicit drugs affect everyone. They may cause family problems, health problems even effort jobs or your performance. Even with the use of drugs that may have to be swallowed or even injected into your own body could increase chances of obtaining the HIV virus. But drugs that we smoke like marijuana could cause lung cancer. Illicit drugs can also affect the brain, by causing the brain cells to die and in cases resulting in permanent brain damage. The abuse of drugs also affect the economy, people using drugs are accident waiting to happen. Each year drug uses is the cause of a large number of accidents at home, office and on the roads. Everybody pays the price of drug abuse more cops and prisons more hospitals and treatment centers and many lives lost. Australia has approximately one drug overdose death each year. Broadly speaking, the prevalence of illicit drugs has been falling since the late 1990’s though some drugs have increased over that period. The authoritative reports below will summaries the trends as follows. In 2010, approximately 15% of the national population 14 years and above had used one or more illicit drugs in the past 12 months, with Cannabis the most commonly used illicit drug (10.3%), followed by MDMA (ecstasy),(3.0%) and amphetamines and cocaine (each used by 21%). Non – medical pharmaceutical use (0.2% to 0.4%). Just by using drugs they become part of the drug world. They are already committing...
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...tackle illicit drug markets. In this essay, I want to define how the problem of illicit drug market is tackled by the governments one by one and jointly. I will try to determine which policies are the best in preventing illicit drug market and what policies international community regarding that problem uses. There are 4 types of illegal markets defined by Jens Beckert and Frank Wehinger, and the one I want to focus on is of type 1 (“illegality due to the outlawing of specific products”[1]). Free sale of hard drugs (excluding alcohol and nicotine) is prohibited everywhere and of soft drugs is prohibited almost everywhere. However, the global illicit drug market is huge and it has big impact on international community because of drug trafficking, drug-related crimes and the number of people involved in producing, transporting and selling drugs. States and international communities are making efforts to eradicate drugs from the society spending substantial parts of their budgets. As to international community’s efforts, the United Nations is the prime organization that “controls” drug flows around the globe. Since 1912 Hague Opium Convention, the international community decided to focus on supply side of the global drug market. They decided to allocate all resources on battling the supply side, because they thought that once they control supply side they would prevent drug use and abuse. Such supply-centric policies are damaging countries in which drugs are produced ...
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...Zitkala-Sa’s political activism is not directly addressed in her writings, but her beliefs about her people’s right to fair treatment frame her narrative as she portrays the victimization and suffering of Indians at the hands of the white “invaders.” To understand Zitkala-Sa, I want to understand the relationship between her activism, her public identity and her self-identity. That focus led me to the primary source that I chose: a newspaper clipping which gives a glimpse of one aspect of the work she did advocating Indian rights. Published in The Indian School Journal, the October 1918 article, titled “Indian Wife of Army Officer Fights for Race,” chronicles her speech to the National Arts Club about Indian citizenship and about legislation...
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...Public Policy Essay Marijuana is a drug that, with responsibility, can be used and enjoyed without threat to the user or society and should be legalized not only for this reason, but also for the many positive economic, political, and societal impacts that legalization would bring. My public policy paper will be discussing the legalization of cannabis for recreational and medicinal use, along with the benefits and reasons for doing so. Despite its legalization around the globe and now in some parts of the country, marijuana is still often regarded with a negative view by many and possession or use can result in extreme criminal consequences. This negative view is often caused by irresponsible users and teenage angst. It is such a shame that...
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...Name Writing Assignment 3: Writing a comparison- contrast essay Due: October 13th, 2015 Introduction to Independent Learning Teachers name Herion Abuse VS Alcoholism My goal in this paper is to compare and contrast the difference of Heroin abuse and Alcohol abuse. To achieve this goal, I will explain the differences and the similarities. Heroin is a very popular drug affecting all ages. It is a drug that is severely abused by mental dependency. According to narconon.org, Opium was “developed as a pain killer in approximately 1810. It was considered a wonder drug because it eliminated severe pain associated with medical operation or traumatic injuries.” This drug was used in the Civil war treating thousands of soldiers. Resulting in, becoming addicted to Heroin. At one point in the 1920’s, in the United States Heroin was sold legally. Quickly, congress realized the danger of this drug and created the Dangerous Drug Act. This act prohibited people to purchase, export, and transit Heroin. In 2011, according to drugabuse.gov Heroin has effected 4.2 million American aged 12 or order. This means, they’ve sniffed, injected in veins, or smoked this evil drug. Many documentaries have been filmed about Herion addiction. Including, Drugs, Inc, National Geographic, and Monroe news. All these documentaries have been aired on Television. Heroin has become a public focus. According to think process.org, the Obama administration “unveiled a new strategy to combat heroin abuse...
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