From “USA top for onlinedrug sales” US drug dealers had a 36% share of the online market and the number of drug deals on the dark web had tripled since 2013, although online deals represent only a small portion of the overall drugs trade (2016).
_______________________________________
My Yes/No question is:
Should drugs be legalized?
My answer is:
Yes, but drugs should be control by the government.
In the article, It’s shows that even the research company faced difficulties collecting some of its data, due to the secretive nature of the online drug trade. I think if we legalized drugs we can know exactly the amount of drugs in the countries so we can address the real issues.
For instance, Many people addicted to recreational drug use and start taking drugs on a daily basis but still in control of how often they use the drug, another person can take the same drug once and develop an intense and continuous craving for it and become addicted to it.
While others may use drugs because of medicinal reasons which doctors are allowed to prescribe them, stores can sell them for patients, but it's not legal for people to use these medicines anyway, on the dark web,19% of drug users are purchase from prescription. I think that the users suffer from the disease and it’s easier for them to purchase online however it can be very dangerous, As I mentioned above that drugs should be legalized, prohibition is not the answer to the country’s drug problem.
Make all drug use safer is the key, every year the government spends a lot of money to deal with drug related problem. Legalized drugs, control and regulate the sales can be safer. Even if it’s illegal people who want to buy it will buy it anyway but if we illegal drugs people would only be able buy drugs from certain places. The person would have a license so they can give advice like a pharmacy stores.
High Taxes collected from legalized drug sales can can also used for treatment programs to get users off drugs or educated children to prevent from drug addicted. Legalization would also help us to disseminate open, honest and truthful information to users and non-users to help them to make decisions about whether and how to use. We could begin research on drugs to discover all effects both positive and negative. I really like an example of drug policy of the Netherlands, where cannabis laws are far less harsh, drug usage is amongst the lowest in Europe while most countries think that recreational drug use is detrimental to society and must be illegal.
___________
Reference
USA top for online drug sales (2016, August 10). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/technology
I like Namwan's response. Her last point seems important to me. Some people think that if drugs are made legal, they will be used more, but as Namwan's example of the Netherlands shows, this common belief seems to be false. Making a drug legal does not increase the use of that drug, and might even reduce drug use.
ReplyDeleteI think Thialand would be much better off if yaa baa and the other popular drugs that a lot of adults enjoy using were legalized and, as Namwan says, properly regulated for safety.
Namwan, I have the same idea with you on this topic. From economic standpoint, legalizing drugs will improve the overall living quality. Think of demand and supply. Because drugs are illegal, acquiring them is difficult. Especially when the policy are fighting against drug dealing while result in decrease of supply. While the demand stay the same, or increase from drug users convincing their friends to use drugs, the price would obviously skyrocket. People love money. And this makes more users to become drug dealers themselves. This problem is growing bigger when we force it to go away. And how this affect the society? Well, people have to pay more money to buy drugs. And sadly drugs target people in the lower curve of income. By making drug hard to come by, the price rises, and the poor have to pay more. People are already addicted, it is not like they can stop it at their wills. They might seek helps, but rehabilitation is difficult. They have to face with social judgment, unemployment, or their family being torn apart. The habilitating facility have nothing to support them when they shove those people back into the society. They might get no job because they have bad history. There is nothing to guarantee that they will not return to drug again. Furthermore, the real reason they used drug in the first place is because of stress and anxiety. Punishing them, or incarcerate them is not solving the problem at its root.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, legalizing drug is a mush better choice. Like you suggested, it is easier to regulate. The government can control how much people consume, so they won't overdose, or educate people to use drugs safely. It can be a new source of revenue for the government as well.
I like your response but I think we should know that are there more benefits or disadvantages for our health? People can easily addict even they use some addictive drugs just only one time. I never know that drugs are more benefits for our health. Although using drugs can make people feel better in the short period, drugs can harm their health for years. As a result, the government has to spend a lot of money to treat these people who are important for developing the country in both our society and economic. So I disagree to permit addictive drugs as the legal drugs.
ReplyDeleteI see your point that the government have to spend the budget on medication for the people suffering from addiction. However, I think otherwise. The government will spend more money if drugs are illegal.
DeleteFirst of all, illegal drugs are more expensive. People have to pay hefty portion of their income to get daily amount of drugs. Furthermore, statistic shows that drugs target the minorities and the poor. By making more expensive, it is the same as increasing the wealth gap. Thus, some decided to become thieves, or become drug dealers themselves. All of this can cause more problem than dealing with medication costs in longer run.
Medical attention to help those who addicted might not be necessary at all if drugs are legalized. It is true that they can cause health problem, but that is from overdose of drug isn't it? By legalizing addictive substances, drug users are more well-informed about how to use them. They will know how much they should use. The risk of overdose will decrease.
Moreover, following your logic, some substances should be illegal as well. Alcohol, for instance, can cause more problems than most drugs. It slows down reaction time and makes people unconsciously do stuffs, hallucinate or make bad decisions. We hear about drunk driver killing pedestrian, or hitting building all the time. Some sexual assaults starts with alcohol and ends with abortion. Shouldn't alcohol be illegal? Well, alcohol might seem farfetched for some people who don't drink. What about coffee? Caffeine in coffee increase the risk of heart attack. It raise blood pressure. Its effects are similar to some illegal drugs. Why the government let people drink coffee, but not use other drugs?
I think that it is easier for the government to regulate people if they legalize drugs. They might include tax on the drugs as a new way to make revenue for using in other public services. It seems much better to make drugs legal.
For the current situation, selling drugs in licensed Thai pharmacy shop is limited to certain types of drug. Allowed drugs need to be beneficial to medical purpose. Therefore, not surprisingly, those popular recreational drugs are now not available in a store. People who need to buy drugs must have a prescription from a doctor and present it to a pharmacist. Then, a pharmacist is required to do a drug selling record and sent it to the authority every month. This is the whole process of current drug selling control.
ReplyDeleteFor everyone that supports drugs to be legalized, do you think that using the current procedure is still effective when all drugs become legalized?
DeleteI think it will be effective to do drug selling record in order to send useful information to the authority. As I mentioned above even the research company faced difficulties collecting data, if the government can collect the information and disseminate truthful information it would be useful for everyone.
I support that drug selling record would help authority to control the situation. However, I also think that only drug selling record is still not enough. One thing that might assist a government to control this is drugs' price manipulation. To do this, a government have to set drugs' price to the certain value. This value must be not too high to tempt drug sellers in dark market to keep doing their business. In contrast, this value must also be not too low to allow vulnerable people to buy drug. This sounds hard to achieve, but I think it would be such a helpful strategy if drugs became legalized.
Delete