Tell me, who's your favorite celebrity who's now dead because of drugs? John Belushi? Chris Farley? Mitch Hedberg? These are just famous examples of the myriad people who have had their lives destroyed by drug abuse. If we decriminalize drugs - cocaine, heroin, crystal meth and all others - deaths like this would happen even more frequently than they already do.
Alcohol is one example of a decriminalized and regularly abused mind-altering drug. Many drug experts point to a behavioral explanation for its abuse - the reasoning that because underage young adults are forbidden to drink, they frequently go too far when they do have the opportunity to drink. Those who argue that we should consider lowering the drinking age - myself included - point to this scenario and say that if alcohol became less of a forbidden fruit, people would tame their consumption.
But illicit drugs differ from alcohol in a very important way. Cocaine and heroin in particular are more habit-forming and more detrimental to the human body than alcohol and marijuana, according to a 2007 study by David Nutt et al.
All bodies react to illicit drugs differently. What for one person might constitute casual use of cocaine and heroin could present a serious health risk for another. Isn't it worth it to eliminate uncertainty by keeping the legal penalties attached to the production, sale and consumption of these drugs? While our current prison state is untenable, the idea that we should do away with all drug-use punishments is a misguided alternative.
If we decriminalized drugs, then drug-production facilities would be much more common as well. It has been scientifically shown that drug labs have adverse affects on the health of not just those cooking the drugs but also those living in the area. With illicit drugs decriminalized, the barrier to entry for those willing to try out these drugs becomes way lower - or even disappears altogether. More individuals will get the mistaken idea that experimenting with hard drugs is okay.
My opponent might argue that this could bolster the local and national economy, but is the vastly increased number of cases of addiction and loss of life worth it?
Though there may be unexpected economic and societal benefits to decriminalizing illicit drugs, the detrimental effects it would have on health and safety far outweigh the benefits.
Charlie Pfaff '14 admits that a lot of what he knows about crystal meth comes from "Breaking Bad." He is a junior studying economics.
