Step 1
In today’s free society, individuals should have the option to choose and do as they want unless their actions can harm others, even if they harm themselves. Educating people about the after effects of recreational drugs usage, controlled and safe environments where to intake recreational drugs, monitoring strict standards for sale of recreational drugs and other measures that ensure that consumption of recreational drugs remains controlled, informed and safe. With the presently legal recreational drugs like tobacco and alcohol, individuals must be allowed to make their choices. Whether they want to intake recreational drugs, and if their consumption does not harm others around them, should not get punished for their choice (Thornton & Bowmaker, n.d).
Step 2
Recreational drugs only lead to bad consequences in the lives of people and the society, as it harms the mental and physical health of individuals consuming them, in addition to the social problems caused by the use. With the legalization of recreational drugs usage, a message would be sent out that consumption of recreational drugs is now less harmful and more acceptable than in the past. With the increased accessibility and availability of recreational drugs, society and individuals as a whole would start suffering. The concept of personal freedom gets trumped with the adverse effects of recreational drugs legalization would entail (Gwartney et al, n,d.).
Step 3
While few citizens exclusively support the decriminalizing of the use of recreational drugs like marijuana used for medicinal purposes, some argue that any recreational use of marijuana needs to be a legal act. Through their arguments, the proponents of marijuana decriminalization disclose the logical fallacies embedded in the claims of people in favour of maintaining the present drug laws. The idea of people abstaining from recreational use of drugs is a legitimate proposition, but it integrates a question of value that is irrelevant to the question of policy in hand. The opponents of decriminalization make their point on the basis of the argument that the present drug policy eases the economic and social problems as results from past studies have shown that this policy worsens the problems needed to get resolved. To improve the public health and criminal justice system, federal and state governments can decriminalize the recreational use of drugs to solve community problems, or they legalize it only for medicinal purposes, sold in small or limited quantities.
Step 4
Legalization of recreational drugs would overcome the loss of personal freedom and the use of drugs will be based on individual’s moral beliefs. Prohibition does not stop or hinders the illegal use of drugs; it builds a business of drug trafficking and troubles that most politicians have been struggling to overcome for years. Having a law that forbids people to intake drugs as their choice is unfair, it is like someone prohibiting people from bungee jumping and overeating. Drug dealers sell drugs even to children, with many high school children claiming that getting their hands on recreational drugs is much easier than acquiring alcohol or tobacco. Legalization would make it possible to prohibit the sale, of recreational drugs to children and keep them safe.
With legalized drug availability, there would be certain problems that might cause further harm to any user of recreational drugs. State and Federal forces would not be able to stop the distribution of drugs that is immoral. With the ease of availability, they would be an increase in the numbers of drug customers rather than decrease. Drugs can be highly addictive and can rob the consumer of their free will. Even legalization of softer drugs such as marijuana can lead to use of harder drugs like cocaine, heroin, meth, etc.
Step Five (Conclusion)
There are obvious advantages and disadvantages of the legalization of recreational drug for the society and its people. There is no way for the government to choose between legalization or decriminalization of recreational drug use as any decision made has its pros and cons and opposition from the forces in the society. The only possibility or choice for the leaders of the country is to make a choice that is in the best interest of the society and its people. With the legalization for soft drug like marijuana, the government can test and analyze the possible impact of legalization of recreational drugs on the society and users.
References
Thornton, M., & Bowmaker , S. W. (n.d.). Recreational drug prohibitions. Retrieved May 31, 2014, from https://mises.org/journals/scholar/thornton15.pdf
Gwartney , J. D., Stroup, R. L., Sobel, R. S., & Macpherson, D. A. (n.d.). The Drug Problem. Retrieved May 31, 2014, from http://www.montana.edu/econ/hfretwell/101/thedrugproblem.pdf
