Monday, November 23, 2009

Opinion

Public Opinion: Should the United States Legalize Drugs?

More "war on drugs" or controlling them through regulation and taxation? Tell us what you think.

Posted July 25, 2008

The United States has been fighting a "war on drugs" for decades, yet illegal narcotics remain a problem for the country. Some, like Peter Moskos, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and author of Cop in the Hood: My Year Policing Baltimore's Eastern District, argue that the best way to deal with drugs is to legalize, regulate, and tax them. Others, like former federal drug czar Lee P. Brown, say that the solution is to keep them illegal and target demand in order to eliminate supply. Should drugs be legalized? Post your thoughts below.

Previously: Do polls of the Barack Obama-John McCain matchup matter this far out?

Reader Comments

drugs should be illegal

drugs should be illegal because people do bad things when they do drugs and bad things happen when they do drugs

drugs should be illegal

drugs should be illegal because people do bad things when they do drugs and bad things happen when they do drugs

I seriously believe drugs should be lagalized.

I have NEVER in my life ever been high, and if I have been, I didn't know. No one should assume because one wants to legalize drugs, they are a drug user. Let's be realistic. If drugs are to be legalized, drug-trafficking byproducts (crime for drugs, etc.) would be significantly reduced, would they not? Would the entire country really pick up drugs like madmen when legalized? Drug users tend to have problems, whether psychological or social or whatever, but then again, we should not be throwing people in prison for some years just for a possessing a little drugs. Pedophiles, rapists and the like don't seem to be as severly punished as drug users or sellers, if anyone has noticed. All they get is a slap on the wrist. Drugs can be helpful in the medical field and maybe help the economy taxing them, too. Maybe it can compete with the cost of perscription drugs and therefore, lower prices for perscription drugs.

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