The US led drug prohibition has failed in epic proportions. Drug prohibition has done nothing to stem the use or distribution of drugs. Drugs are cheaper, stronger and more freely available than ever before.
The only real effect that drug prohibition has had, along with appeasing certain ideologues, is the creation of a lucrative underground market which funds organized crime and extremist organizations.
As well, there is a governmental cash-cow business set-up to fight this newly fabricated threat. Billions of dollars dollar go to law enforcement agencies every year to essentially drive up the profits in drugs. Plus they need large prisons to house all the new so-called criminals.
Yet, despite no evidence that a hard stance on drugs works to prevent drug use, members of the Canadian Parliament are trying to pass a bill (called bill C-15) that would require mandatory minimum sentences for Marijuana cultivation (even just one plant). Read more about this at CannabisFacts.ca and WhyProhitibion.ca
We need to go in the opposite direction when it comes to our drug policy. Drug abuse and drug use need to be treated as health issues, not criminal issues. We need free choice for consenting adults, not a nanny-state solution imposed by the government.
Legalization would be highly beneficial to society, with the benefits far outweighing the negatives.
Legalization of drugs would
- eliminate the underground market
- stop the funding of terrorist groups
- do MORE for treating drug addicts
- save the billions currently spent annually on prohibition and incarceration of drug offenders.
