Drug Use | Course Paper

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http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/11/201111211444824612.html

Drug use and addiction is a problem found in every country in the world. In the United

States, our penalties for possessing most drugs result in criminal charges. On the other

hand, Portugal has taken the unique approach to the problem by instead lowering the

penalties. If you are caught with any illegal drug (less than 10 days supply), a person will

only receive an administrative punishment. This law does not protect dealers who are the

real problem. The idea behind this approach is to allow addicts to get help for their

problem while also trying to halt the spread of infectious diseases by giving access to clean

needles. According to the article, the law has lowered the rates of HIV infection and

increased the number of those seeking help. The crime that is committed by drug users is

primarily against themselves. The laws that we have in place to protect us from dangerous

drugs like heroin and crystal meth could also be the ones preventing the users from seeking

help. Should we be harshly punishing addicts for a problem that they can’t control? A

felony is a huge mark on someone’s record that entirely impacts their life from that point

on. This leads to many addicts avoiding getting the help they need. Our prison system does

very little to help in the way of rehabilitation. Quitting cold turkey is generally very

dangerous for the addicts to go through and they are likely to relapse after serving time. Is

it right for us to jail addicts where they cannot get the proper help that is needed? Does

partial legalization of drugs encourage more use? In this case, I think that people will make

their own decisions on what is right or wrong with little concern for what the law says. I

believe that just because the government no longer threatens users with prison time, it is

doubtful that there would be a huge influx of heroin users. Do we consider hard drugs to be

wrong because we are told they are wrong or because we are concerned for our own well–

being?