International examples of Wars on Drugs?
As a resident of the Bay Area in California, I am interested in the effects of marijuana legalization, as is on the Nov. 19 ballot as Proposition 19. How much do city/state/federal governments spend on drug prohibition? Is most violent drug-related crime due to marijuana or harder drugs such as cocaine? What’s the estimated economic effect of drug legalization? Will drug legalization lead to increased or decreased crime and accident rates? I’m also interested in historical and international examples of wars on drugs, and reading materials (preferably websites) about them. The one that comes to my mind is the Opium Wars in China, but I haven’t read anything about how the government dealt with opium before and after the wars, and how opium use changed after the war. Examples of both successful and unsuccessful government interventions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
look in the Netherlands, they liberalized their drug laws for marijuana. what happened, drug use of all forms went down. and crime also went down.
There are multiple reasons for this, but, i’ll start with the use… if its legal, you need to be the appropriate age to buy marijuana. Now most pot smokers start off in high school because they are surrounded by others who smoke marijuana. so, if you are 15 you can buy off of a dealer, if marijuana is legalized, you can’t buy it in a store unless you are old enough, this means that less people will use it in school and so less adults will use it, eventually though, because this will not happen right way after legalization. also… if marijuana is legalized it separates it from the hard drug market, so if its legal, people aren’t buying off of the same people who sell heroin, if its illegal they are, so they are more likely to try a hard drug if its illegal than if its legal.
now for the crime part, marijuana its self does not cause crime, now other drugs may cause people to be more violent, but over all, its not the drugs that cause crime, but the people causing crime just so happen to be on drugs. so let me explain.. right now you have to be a criminal to use marijuana, if its legal, you are not a criminal… so this means a few things, but for starters, prohibition dose more harm that marijuana dose. gangs sell weed to get money, this money can be used to buy weapons, in some cases, marijuana will be traded for harder drugs or for the weapons them selves… gangs need weapons to protect their drugs from cops and rivals, if its legal, cops will protect businesses and there will be less violents.
there is also a bit more that is dose when it comes to the reduction of crime.. marijuana offenders are not violent, but they get sent to jail with violent people, and so, they go in jail for tinny crimes, and they come out hardened criminals… this means that if marijuana is legalized, there will be less violent criminals being created.
legalization will also be good for the economy and dept, because millions of dollars are being wasted on prohibition, this is creating the need to build prisons, and higher people to enforce drug laws, if marijuana is legalized it will save all this money and generate money in taxes. this means money can be spent on stuff like building schools… also, police can focus violent crimes.
there are so many reasons and i can’t cover them all, but i will recommend you watch the movie The Union, it tells you the truth about marijuana, why it was made illegal, and why some corporations want it illegal.
also, you could check this site out, it tells you the truth about marijuana and the myths people say about it. http://www.drugpolicy.org/marijuana/factsmyths/