WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
There is an ongoing debate in the United States
about the legalization or decriminalization
of drugs by society. Several states have either passed laws or are considering
laws that allow the use of marijuana for medical and possibly recreational purposes, but these laws are still
controversial, and there is the
additional problem that these state laws can be in conflict with federal laws. As a result, no one knows what
the outcome will be even though it
appears that federal officials are beginning to limit some prosecutions.
A number of prominent Americans—including the
conservative Republican senator Rand
Paul—have concluded that the War on Drugs is leading to injustices. As this is being written,
Senator Paul and Democratic senator Patrick
Leahy want to change the law and have introduced the justice Safety Valve Act, which will allow judges more
discretion in sentencing.
On the other side, many people believe that any
effort to reduce the pressure on drug users and dealers will result in a flood
of illegal substances that, in their
worst nightmares, will become readily available to children. Unfortunately, drugs are already readily
available to anyone, including
children, from all economic levels. So that nightmare is here right now.
To reduce demand, we need to
increase education. As we have said elsewhere
in this book, effective drug education is not just a matter of exhortations to refuse all drugs, because many
individuals believe that the drugs
they use are harmless. It is a matter of teaching the basic science that can help us appreciate what complex and
delicate organisms our brains are, how body chemistry may vary from
person to person, and how little we know
about the many ways, both positive and negative, short-term and long-term, that the powerful chemicals we
call "drugs" can affect us.
Good education is expensive, but with it we will be healthier, and as a society, we will save the enormous costs
of lost wages, law enforcement, and
prisons that drugs have brought us.
