This is the first part of an article on drug legalisation. Please find the second part here.
Should we legalise recreational drug use? The main arguments in favour of legalising recreational drugs are:
- Legalising or decriminalising recreational drugs will bring in additional tax revenue.
- Prohibition of drugs causes crime and benefits criminals.
- Legalising drugs would allow the state to control drug quality and access.
- Other, legal drugs are more harmful (alcohol, tobacco).
- In a free society, people should be free to choose themselves if they want to use drugs.
- Drugs have always been used in human societies.
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This is the first of a two-part article. In the next part, we’ll discuss arguments against legalising recreational drugs.
Seven Reasons to Outlaw Recreational Drugs
Should we legalise recreational drug use? This article explains seven arguments against legalising recreational drugs.
Debate overview: Legalising recreational drugs
Historical context
Before the 20th century, drugs were generally not regulated and even states engaged officially in drug trade (see, for example, the Opium Wars between Britain and China).
In the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act, the US introduced controls for many drugs considered addictive and/or dangerous. This was part of a more general trend in US society towards safeguarding “Christian” values that had started in the 19th century and included the prohibition of alcoholic drinks that was put into law from 1920 to 1933.
Legalisation vs decriminalisation
Today, there is a movement of many societies towards a liberalisation of drug laws. This can be either a legalisation of particular drugs (the trade and consumption of the drug becomes legal) or a decriminalisation of its use (the drug is still not freely available, but its consumption is not considered a criminal offence; instead, it is regulated and controlled by other means). Often, decriminalisation is proposed only for the consumption of a drug by individuals, while the trade of the drug would still remain a criminal offence.
Different kinds of drugs
Obviously, there exist great differences between drugs, both in the effect that they have upon the user and in their potential to be addictive and/or harmful. Some drugs that are generally considered addictive are not actually strongly addictive, while others that are freely available (e.g. sugar or nicotine) are both addictive and dangerous to the users’ health, but still legal and widely advertised and used in society.
This fact makes the discussion of the legalisation of drugs particularly difficult, as it becomes almost impossible to draw a clear line between types of drugs with particular properties that would justify their prohibition.
Another important decision is that between …
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