Public Opinion: Should the United States Legalize Drugs?

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

July 25, 2008 RSS Feed Print

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?

Tags:
drugs,
law

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make weed legal no one has ever OD from smoking to much bud its better than cigs

daniel of CA 11:53AM March 21, 2012

I disagree with thoughts that legalizing drugs will make people think they are "less-cool" and make the choice to not use. I feel that the legalization of drugs will allow more people who are law-abiding to decide to start to use illicit drugs leading to many more cases of violence, torn apart families and self-problems. If people can obtain and use drugs freely, there would be no reason for people to worry about using them, and it would allow current addicts to easily obtain more without attempting treatment. I don't see a problem with the big prison population relating to drug use. If people break the law, (use drugs) then they should be put in to prison. If you change the laws to free-up prison space, what makes drug use any different than people who have broken other laws. If drug users in prisons can change common laws to stop the over population of prison, it would make us a dirty country. Changing what we thought was fair to lower the population in the prisons seems like an unnecessary attempt to solve drug abuse. Making it legal is not solving the problem, it is only allowing it to grow. The best ways to solve the social problem on drug abuse is to make them very hard to obtain and having many resources for interventions, rehab and counseling for abusers.

Jake H of IL 8:54PM March 09, 2012

drugs ftw

jake111111111 of MT 10:40AM February 14, 2012

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