Alternative Drug Policy

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The prohibitionist national policy towards drugs in U.S has been extremely contentious in the present times. After decades of the stance that costs billions how many each year, the paltry achievements and the countless negative externalities have led to a clamor for alternative policies instead of a “War on Drugs”. The proposition focuses on de-penalization of softer drugs and it is recommended to employ the consequent revenues towards creating a society wherein narcotics is treated as a health issue. The brief highlights the economic gains due to decrease in interdiction and legal regulation as well as social benefits through substantial decrease in acquisitive crime rates. The true consumer tendencies over drugs through study of the gateway drug theory and price-consumption responses are analyzed to highlight the flaws in the prohibitionist stance. Divergence between the nature of soft and hard drugs have been re-enforced to de-penalize only private usage of soft drugs while working towards treating hard drug addiction as a health issue through mandatory Opioid Substitution Therapy in prisons. Another recommendation to further the de-penalization policy has been made towards legislative reforms wherein non-violent drug offenders are made to undergo substance abuse treatment instead of incarceration. The focus on health and on liberalization for an overall again is deemed to be the more progressive stance. Analysis of the Policy Proposal 1. Economics of the Alternative Drug Strategy Federal spending over drug control in United States is approx. $15 billion annually of which 50% is over criminal justice expenditure (Mendeza, M., 2010). 10 million Americans use marijuana/month; Consequently, the drug seizures majorly involv... ... middle of paper ... ...ed that economically just cannabis decriminalization has got an enormous value and it wouldn’t be advisable to rope in other illicit drugs as well. Not only because hard drugs form a very small portion in drug trade in relation to marijuana, but also they bring with themselves numerous negative externalities such as extreme increase in consumption and health issues which shall be difficult to control as seen in Portugal (Consumption amplified by at almost double for hard drugs) However, to complement the soft drug de-penalization, hard drug users need to be assisted through compulsory substance treatment in prisons as well as through enactments that can rehabilitate instead of incarcerating the non-violent drug offenders. With the benefits outshining any possible ramifications, as established through strong data, the soft drug policy change is strongly recommended.

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