Jason Caplin

Humanities Am
Jessica McCallum
November 16th, 2016
Drug Criminalization in America
Part 3
Core Question: Is the criminalization of drugs in America the best way to deal with the issue?
It's a well known fact that too much of anything can be bad for you and will eventually kill
you: sun, water, food, drugs, sleep and etc. These factors are essential to our mind and bodys
well being, but part of life is finding your limits and balancing your necessities versus your
wants. Drugs are used everyday, from pediatricians and parents to addicts and adolescents.
There is a buffet of different drugs, and we have found ways as a species to use these drugs for
our benefits, but we have also learned to abuse drugs to get high, regardless of the affects on
your body. However, not everyone abuses a drug, some can easily abstain. Abstinence is the
best way to avoid any negative repercussions, such as sexual transmitted diseases, addiction
and physcological damage or physical health. The best way to tackle the ever growing issue of
drug abuse in America is to reform drug laws and sentences to be more strict and to repeal
tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana legality throughout the states.
There is one sure fire way to get drug offenders to kick their addiction: by making the
punishments and fines so dire that the costs far outweigh the benefits. In An Empirical Analysis
of Imprisoning Drug Offenders (NBER Working Paper No.8489), Ilyana Kuziemko and Steven
Levitt found that incarcerating drug offenders was almost as effective in reducing violence and
property crime as was incarcerating other types of offenders. As a consequence of increases in
punishments for drug-related crimes, cocaine prices are 10-15 percent higher today than they
were in 1985. This jump in price implies that cocaine consumption fell, perhaps as much as 20
percent (An Empirical Analysis, Kuziemko). In the article, they stated, The reduction in cocaine
use begins to address the long-standing question of whether the enormous costs related to
tougher punishment for drug offenses yield similarly large benefits to society. Previous studies
suggest that the costs of current levels of incarceration across all crime categories far exceed
societal benefits. However, in the case of drug offenders, the authors find that the cost-benefit
calculations might be more favorable, because incarceration not only lowers crime, but also
drug consumption. Annual expenditures of approximately $10 billion on drug incarceration
almost pay for themselves through reductions in health care costs and lost productivity
attributable to illegal drug use, even ignoring any crime reductions associated with such
incarceration. Based on the author's findings in this study, we can assume that creating heavier
consequences around illegal drug use will increase the cost of the drug, making it less
accessible to addicts, and will reduce less serious crime incarceration rates.
It is not enough to increase consequences for illegal drugs, we also need to address those
destructive substances in our society today: alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana. Four percent of all
deaths are related to alcohol. According to Drug Free World, alcohol is more dangerous and
causes more deaths than heroin and cocaine combined. Heroin and cocaine are illegal; why

isn't alcohol? These deaths are only one of the many reasons why alcohol should be banned.
Alcohol can cause cardiovascular diseases, cancer, lung disease, pancreatitis and diabetes in
moderate drinkers. Heavy drinking, or alcoholism, is a chronic, progressive and fatal disease.
Withdrawal symptoms of alcohol for heavy drinkers can include anxiety/jumpiness, depression,
irritability, shakiness/trembling, sweating, fatigue, nausea and vomiting, loss of appetite, alcohol
poisoning, insomnia and headaches. In extreme cases it can cause hallucinations, confusion,
seizure, fever and agitation. All of this demise and destruction in one bottle, and it is distributed
and sold worldwide, and has made appearances in entertainment millions of times, buts its still
legal and so easy to acquire that the majority of youth by age 18 has used alcohol. This legal
poison aside, tobacco and marijuana (mainly ingested by inhaling the smoke produced when
the substance is burnt) are extremely harmful to the users and were found to be addictive.
Cigarette smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, including 43 known cancer-causing
(carcinogenic) compounds and 400 other toxins. Cigarette smoking causes more than 480,000
deaths each year in the United States. This is nearly one in five deaths. Smoking causes about
90% of all lung cancer deaths in men and women. More women die from lung cancer each year
than from breast cancer. Back when it was allowed to smoke a cigarette on a plane, flight
attendants and pilots all over the world were getting lung cancer from being forced to breathe in
the second hand smoke produced. Tobacco and cigarettes cause more deaths a year than any
other drug. How has it still not been banned yet? Marijuana on the other hand has been
historically illegal, and only recently has been gaining legality in some supporting states.
Marijuana contains more than 400 known chemicals, including the same cancer-causing
substances found in tobacco smoke. Studies in Australia in 2008 linked years of heavy
marijuana use to brain abnormalities (The Lancet, David J Nutt). This is backed up by earlier
research on the long-term effects of marijuana, which indicate changes in the brain similar to
those caused by long-term abuse of other major drugs. And a number of studies have shown a
connection between continued marijuana use and psychosis. However, marijuana keeps getting
legalized recreationally because it feels good to be high, but the costs outweigh the benefits, so
there should be no questions of why we need to repeal marijuana. Obviously, ignorance is bliss,
because no one in the right mind would knowingly accept the implications and consequences
along with the stoge, shot, or joint. We need to repeal the drugs as it is detrimental to society,
and to the people who make up America.
Ultimately, the general consensus is that drugs are bad and they need to be dealt with.
However, the best way to tackle the ever growing issue of drug abuse in America is to reform
drug laws and sentences to be more strict, and to appeal tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana
legality throughout the states.

Works Cited
Goodman, Janessa. "46.0." CapitalCityWeekly.com - Southeast Alaska's Online Newspaper.
Barlett, 5 Apr. 2014. Web. 18 Nov. 2016.
Foster, Jarod. "Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking." Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 01 Oct. 2015. Web. 19 Nov. 2016.

World, Drug Free. "Watch Truth About Drugs Documentary Video & Learn About Substance
Addiction. Get The Facts About Painkillers, Marijuana, Cocaine, Meth & Other Illegal Drugs."
Foundation for a Drug-Free World. NonProfit, 25 June 2006. Web. 18 Nov. 2016.