Drugs!

Thursday’s lecture about drugs initiated the debate as to whether or not drugs, especially hallucinogenic and amphetamine drugs should be legalised? As we discussed in the lecture, making drugs illegal does not seem to have solved the problem of people abusing drugs and becoming addicted to them. To a certain degree I do agree with this suggestion, however, if drugs were to be made legal I think this would simply increase the problem of people abusing and also becoming addicted to them. I suppose if they were to be made legal, it may decrease the number of drug dealers that are on the streets, and stop them from making a huge profit from other peoples addictions. It may also decrease the appeal to teenagers taking drugs, as it would not appear so cool if they were legal. Another positive factor for legalising drugs would be to those people who use drugs such as cannabis, for pain relief of certain medical conditions.

On the other hand legalising drugs could cause a drug epidemic and increase the likelihood of future generations becoming drug addicts. I think there are a number of pros and cons for this idea. Although some people may disagree with me, drugs are dangerous and can kill you, especially drugs like ecstasy and cocaine. Some people react badly to taking these types of drugs. I am of the opinion that legalising drugs would be a ‘bad idea’. According to the UK drug website 'FRANK', even short term use of hallucinogenic and amphetamine drugs can cause paranoia and panic attacks. Even drugs that can aid pain relief, such as cannabis have awful side effects. I personally do not see the appeal of taking drugs, you only have to look at the people that appear on the ITV programme Jeremy Kyle to see what effects drugs can do to people who use them long term and illegally.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/feb/11/ecstasy-downgrade