Recreational Drugs
- What are the issue and conclusion?
The issue discussed in this topic accounts for the legalization of drugs such as marijuana. These drugs are sold in the underground economy despites criminalization of handling and transporting them either for sale or for personal use. The validation of these drugs ensures that the populations do not misuse them. In addition, an issue on government taxation on the drug comes out in the essay. This is where government losses income by making the drug illegal hence handled in secret. Government can also unveil numerous crimes by giving a chance to traders to carry on their businesses in the full glare of the community. It will see the scraping of child drug trafficking. In most cases, children are used as traffickers by traders because they are innocent. They end up scot free when body searches are conducted in public places. Thus, children will be at save hands when traders carry out trafficking by themselves. The rights and freedom of children have been violated in some cases when they indulge in the selling and distribution of drugs. Saving children’s health is another advantage. This has forced some of them to develop fear and psychological problems. Introducing children into drug trafficking at early age have negative effects on their health as growth is retarded. Some have been sexually abused by adults and end up dropping out of school due to shame and lowered dignity and self-esteem.
The conclusion of this passage is that recreational drugs should be legalized for the sole reason of eliminating social injustices and evils that takes place under the watch of the government. One of the vices is extortion of money through corruption and financing of terrorist activities from money attained through illegal dealings. This poses threat to the security affairs in the country as well as poses danger to development. Government uses a lot of funds fighting terrorism that could be death with through legal mechanism (Wall, Poh, Cerdá, Keyes, Galea, and Hasin 715).
- What are the reasons?
There is diverse reasoning for both sides of legal provisions for recreational drugs. The pros of this endeavor include the following reasons. First, the community will benefit from legal trade. Money collected from these endeavors will be used for development or community programs that help the society. Second, government will be able to control consumption by imposing taxation on the drug. This will reduce consumption as well as demand by the population. Third, illegal trade that is used by criminals to advance their activities will be monitored and eventually controlled. On the contrary, the society is deemed to experience moral decay where children and underage teenagers will access drugs hence end up in the streets. Lastly, the application of drug may lower or interfere with the thinking ability of an individual hence affects his/her judgment. Moreover, increased sales of recreational drugs lead to increased rate of school dropout as students engage in trade and trafficking of the same. However, these disadvantages do not override the benefit accrued from legalizing marijuana and other drugs (Reid, Derry, and Thomas 75).
- Which words or phrases are ambiguous?
One phrase that is ambiguous denotes that “The war that happens against illegal substances increases the number of addicts. This is because human beings tend to go against the law and do the opposite of what is right (Lynne-Landsman, Livingston, and Wagenaar 1502)”. The phrase is ambiguous because of the following reasons. First, war on drugs reduces the amount of content distributed to the public as well as traded by different people. The crackdowns see freight of handlers and traffickers who in most cases end up in jails. Therefore, the war is destined to end up trafficking unlike stipulated by the phrase.
- What are the value conflicts?
The conflicting values in this case involve freedom to trade and community health. There is need to have traders do their business without extortions from police and other stakeholders in public surveillance. This value comes hand in hand with the provision of new rules that will guide the use and manner of conduct in regards to trade. Thus, legalization will add value to the economy which will yield from these activities. Contrary, the value of healthy living is in doubt with the permission rendered to bhang users to do it in public. This means that individuals and community will have to bear or meet the medical cost of their relatives who struggle with addiction. This will render them in-active and unable to carry out their day to day work (Lynne-Landsman, Livingston, and Wagenaar 1502).
- What are the descriptive assumptions?
The descriptive assumption is that the legalisation of recreation drug will bring down the underground economy. Thus, money circulated in this section will be availed to the economy and help build up the structural and developmental components in the country. In addition, tax is deemed to increases while control of these drugs strengthened to incorporate new regulations towards the reduction of bhang consumption amongst many other drugs. Moreover, users will consume and enjoy their stuff in hygienic places. This will lower the level of contraction of new diseases and conflict amongst users. Lastly, we have corruption that is closely related and associated to underground economy. Thus, the country believes that if the endeavour is implemented it will be at a better standing than it was in the past (Anderson, Hansen, and Rees 230).
- Explain any fallacies in the reasoning?
The fallacy in the reasoning is that recreational drugs do not affect the minds and behaviors of persons. First, recreational drugs like any other drugs affect the functionality of the brain. The brain is the engine in human body that controls or gives directions to the rest of the body parts. This means that an individual whose brain is affected by the consumption of drugs will not act the same way like a normal person. Second, this infers that the life of a person will be affected by the usage of some of these drugs and to some extreme end leads to loss of memory. Second, there are many cases that have been reported of people using drugs thereafter commit suicide. Lastly, it is fallacy that the mind is safe with the use of recreational drugs (Anderson, Hansen, and Rees 229).
- How good is the evidence?
Evidence provided is sufficient to guarantee implementation. However, there are loopholes that need to be blocked to avoid loss of life. Thus, the endeavor has both positive and negative effects. The positive side of the evidence is as follows. The first thing is that evidence uses data provided by government departments on the rate of death. This means that research has been done and found that recreation drugs can be allowed for trade. The next advantage is that evidence tends to connect individual life to the society hence determines the relationship. Third, Individuals who use the drugs and are able to coexist with fellow human beings form clear evidence that the drug is harmful. Lastly, drugs have been used for medical and other purposes. The cons of the evidence provided are that it fails to ascertain and outline the benefit of drugs to human body. The next disadvantage is that it falls short of medical backing that is essential in determining viability of drugs (Anderson, Hansen, and Rees 228).
- What are the rival causes?
There are numerous rival causes that attributes to legalization of drugs. They will be outlined below. The first cause is to reduce crime in the community. This can be explained through financing of various activities that endangers people lives. An example of these activities includes the sale of guns and other explosive devices by drug barons. They defend themselves through holding arms and intimidating security offers and community leaders. Thus, they are able to go on with their work undisturbed. Another rival’s cause is the need to meet the demand for recreational drugs in the community. In the recent past, drug abuse has increased tremendously hence increasing demand that accelerates illegal trade (Lynne-Landsman, Livingston, and Wagenaar 1501). Lastly, improved economic state will be based on unethical businesses.
- Are the statistics deceptive?
Some of the statistics provided do not represents the prevailing situation hence deceptive. For example, the number of drug related deaths from illegal and legal substances is incorrect. The statement that says “The statistics stands at 45% for the cases of prohibited drug abuse reported compared to 9% of legal drug abuse accounted for (Lynne-Landsman, Livingston, and Wagenaar 1502)”. The reason behind this is that the number of prohibited drugs affiliated deaths was higher than the ones provided. This is because of the fact that some cases were not reported to the authority. Despite being left out; they count as well to the total number of deaths happening in the country. The second reason is that non-prohibited drugs are categorized differently. This means that the statistic did not take care of the different categories of drugs as observed in the community or as applied by users. Third, the categories contribute diverse percentage of chemicals into the body hence cannot be generalized and grouped as legal drugs. For example, we have medical drugs that are applied in hospitals while others are prescribed by health practitioners in chemists. Lastly, their effects vary in magnitude and disease healed hence different from each other.
- What significant information is omitted?
Significant information was omitted in the research such as medical report and individual behavioral record. This information could have offered an insight into the negative and positive effects of using and applying the drugs at various levels in the society. In addition, information about age difference and growth development and effects hitherto could have shed some light into this problem and help come up with a formidable decision. As a child grows, his or her brains also develop and capture images from the surrounding. If the brain is not developing, then there is a problem that needs to be addressed by a medical practitioner. It is also the same case that happens to adults. Thus, the medical effects and implications derived from utilizing recreational drugs should be outlined and analyzed to assist researchers analyze drug trade. Moreover, the number of accidents caused by people under the influence of recreational drugs would also have offered new perspective into this research. This is because most of the fatal accidents reported in the world have been caused by people who have used or are known to have used recreational drugs. This information is vital to a country that is just about to make critical decisions regarding the use of some of the drugs that were previously prohibited. Lastly, we have the number of prisoners who find themselves behind bars for committing crime being controlled by drugs (Lynne-Landsman, Livingston, and Wagenaar 1501).
- What reasonable conclusions are possible?
These issues cannot be concluded by relying or leaning towards one direction. Thus, a comprehensive study of the general and specific effects and cases must be evaluated to ensure that the conclusion made is inclusive. First, government is expected to look at all the factors involved in order to help decisions makers outline certain proposition from existing data. For example, when government says it is losing almost $1billion per month in the underground economy it should provide statistics that shows or implies that this money was exchanged. This means that hypothetical data will not be used by institutions bestowed upon to make decision that are binding to the whole country. Thus, a good conclusion for the study would be that legalization of drugs is better off than criminalizing the trade of recreation substances. This infers that room for change is created and provided to various parties to come up with formidable suggestion that facilitates the decision making process. Second, the country will be safe more when the decision does not completely back one side rather leaves a space for alterations when need arises. In so doing, the community will leap the benefit of engaging in such endeavors (Lynne-Landsman, Livingston, and Wagenaar 1501).
Works Cited
Anderson, D. M., Benjamin Hansen, and Daniel Rees. “Medical Marijuana Laws and Teen Marijuana Use.” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 33.1 (2014): 221- 232. Print.
Lynne-Landsman, Sarah D., Melvin D. Livingston, and Alexander C. Wagenaar. “Effects of State Medical Marijuana Laws on Adolescent Marijuana Use.” Am J Public Health103.8 (2013): 1500-1506. Print.
Reid, Malcolm J., Lisa Derry, and Kevin V. Thomas. “Analysis of new classes of recreational drugs in sewage: Synthetic cannabinoids and amphetamine-like substances.” Drug Test. Analysis 6.1-2 (2013): 72-79. Print.