What I read
According to "Canada legalises recreational cannabis use" (2018), although there is opposition from some politicians who think that it might lead to greater use of the drug, especially among young people, Canada's parliament has now overwhelmingly passed a law that legalizes the growing, sale and possession of the drug marijuana, which had been illegal in Canada since 1923. However, although Canadians have now joined the growing number of other countries that have legalized this popular drug, it will take about three more months for regulations to be be set up before the new law takes full effect.
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My response
But the costs of criminalizing the personal decisions of adults don't only include the harms the drugs directly cause to society and users. As that classic film The Godfather accurately portrays, making alcohol illegal in the US from 1920 to 1933 in order to save society, in fact invited the mafia to take over and corrupt the legal and political system of the US, from which that nation has never recovered. Exactly the same thing is seen wherever popular activities that do not directly harm others are made criminal for bad reasons: mafia gangs flourish and make vast profits, and officials become corrupt. Although I can understand why people worry about others, especially their children, using drugs, making those drugs illegal only worsens all of the harms to society, as history and the available statistics clearly show: the use of opium, for example, increased dramatically in China only after it had been made illegal! And alcohol prohibition in the US no more reduced alcohol use than the laws against it in Thailand have ever reduced yaa baa use among young Thais. It seems to me both irrational and immoral to give mafia gangs a monopoly to get rich on and to corrupt official whilst making drug harms to society worse. As Portugal, which decriminalized all personal drug use in 2001, there are much more effective ways to reduce the harms that drugs cause.
The other detail that interested me in the BBC story was that the bill had to wait for royal assent, a reminder that, like my own country, Canada still has Queen Elizabeth II is its head of state, so she has to formally approve all legislation, but she is sensible and always does what the politicians tell her to. I don't know the constitutional law of Canada, but for my country, Australia, the monarch has no choice: she must promptly approve all legislation that the Australian government passes.
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My question
Should marijuana and other popular drugs be legalized for sale and use by adults in your country?
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Reference
- Canada legalises recreational cannabis use. (2018, June 20). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44543286
At 97 words, my summary here is safely within the 130-word limit for that paragraph.
ReplyDeleteIt is an interesting question. After I have read some of this weekend homework, I am tempted to say we should give it a try and see. At first glance, most people would think legalizing drugs is definitely a bad idea, because it will promote people to use more drugs. However, Ariely’s experiment about dishonesty shows that in some situations that participants can cheat without anyone noticed, they only just cheat a little. So, in legalizing drugs case, I think It won’t be surprising if the drug abusing rate might not increase dramatically, because reasonable people still won’t use it or just use a little, even it is legal.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, by legalizing drugs, the governments could keep an eye on the drug users, and they can study them to figure out why some people tend to use drugs.
The work that Teng cited is economist Dan Ariely's essay "The Context of Our Character, Part I (2009)". The online version I've prepared is at https://1drv.ms/w/s!AvLRvG3dUEtbgZ83R19lEfYBx4wAcA
DeleteMy weekday EAP class has just begun this essay as an extended reading. If you are in the weekend class, you might also enjoy this work in behavioural economics.
I think natural drugs such as marijuana should be legalised but I do not agree with legalising synthesised drugs such as methamphetamines or ecstasy. This is because first of all, natural drugs mostly do not pose adverse effects to bodies if used as direction. For instance, there is a study shows that marijuanas do good more than harm: they have a pain relieving properties, and there are evidences indicating that marijuana can help with muscle spasms. Secondly, criminalised by government, these drugs are traded illegally, making a lot of profits to the drug dealers because they risk of being apprehended, so they can easily set the price sky-high. Legalise these drugs and monopolise them by government will make selling of the drugs be under government's control and increase income to the government.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I agree with Minnie that other drugs than marijuana should be legalized, I'm less sure that whether they are natural or not is a strong supporting reason. Heroin is natural, as is cancer, but I don't think being natural makes either particularly wonderful. And unnatural things like smartphones and HIV medications seem to me very good things.
DeleteAnd whilst I also agree that marijuana, like heroin and other opiates, has very real medical benefits, I'm pretty sure those are not the reasons that most people use any of these popular drugs.
And my thanks to Minnie for a thoughtful contribution to the discussion here.