Essay Sample on Decriminalizing Drugs: Possession Prohibited but Admin Violations Only

Introduction

Decriminalization of drugs is the case of treating drugs as illegal or the taking of drugs as a criminal offence. However, there some guidelines which are also stipulated to prevent the misuse of the drugs. The drugs do not get legalized as long as they get decriminalized. This means that the possession of the drugs for any persona issues is still prohibited, however breaking of these prohibitions is considered to fully exclusive administration violations, and they are taken entirely from the realm of criminal deeds (Ammerman et al., 2015). The trafficking of the drug is still considered to be a criminal offence and is liable to face serious prosecution in the criminal realm.

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Decades ago, Portugal and the United States suffered from the struggle of illegal drugs in the countries. Hence, they decided to take action on the same to tackle the problem in the countries. They undertook diametrical directions, which were opposite on the same issue (Russoniello, 2012). In the United States, the incarcerating users of drugs got cracked down vigorously, and the country spent a lot of money on the project. While for Portugal, they get used a different method to tackle the issue in the country concerning the users of drugs, they took upon a monumental experiment; the experiment decriminalized the usage of drugs in the country from 2001; this included cocaine and heroin (Sapp, 2014). The experiment unleashed a significant campaign of public health to help in the tackling of the addiction menace in the country. From that time up to date, the addiction to drugs gets treated as a medical problem instead of a criminal issue.

Since the launching of drugs campaigns war by Nixon and President Regan of the United States in the 1970s, inclusive of the implementation of harsh laws on drugs, there is an increase of incarceration with approximately 1000% (Humphreys, 2012). The United States population is the most incarcerated in the case of the drugs in the world, it has the highest numbers, with the county having a record of over 2.2 million individuals who have incarcerated in the case of narcotics (Eastwood, Fox, & Rosmarin, 2016). To incarcerate nonviolent drug criminals, we are exposed and supposed to pay a combined tax of over $40 billion, with over 77% rate of recidivism (Shapiro, 2010). Additionally, prisons, which are privately owned by private investors, make a corporation of more than 7.4 billion in the world concerning their profits in dollars in the sector of prison (corrections) market (Robertson, et al., 2014). This paper will concentrate on the solutions that have gotten offered or recommended to get provided to cater for effects caused to the society's functions in the world through the high rate of the allied rates of incarceration in the world.

After long time speculation of when the United States policy got implemented, it has gotten found that the policy failed while compared to the decriminalization method, which got introduced in Portugal. There have been more than enough Americans who have faced death from the overdose of drugs in the country. The rate of mortality has increased instead of reducing. On the other hand, Portugal can get viewed to have achieved the goal of fighting and reducing the issues of drug addiction and usage. Currently, the government estimates that there are only about25000 Portuguese who use heroin from 100000 when the policy of decriminalization started (Pacula, et al., 2005).

Adequate research and recommendations from various scholars and researchers help proof that taking individuals who are drug offenders or criminals to programs that are for the treatment of drug addiction is much helpful to them. Instead of making the criminals/offenders to be institutionalized in prison or jail (Natapoff, 2015). The idea is not only a humanitarian act, but also it saves a lot of billions of taxpayer dollars, which could have gotten used to taking care of the prison facilities, and it also helps in the reduction of crime rate in the world. Through the research carried out by the Foundation of Rehabilitation, it has been established and found that over $5 billion taxpayer dollars can get saved if only 10% of the criminals who are addicted to drugs received medical treatment instead of being taken to prison or for a jail term (Ammerman, et al., 2015). The savings would rise to over 13 billion dollars if the offenders do not get taken to jail, and instead there get treated, the percentage that is expected or is required to raise the numbers of the savings is about 40% of the drug addicts criminals (Kreit, 2010). When the federal government is owing a lot of debts to various institutions and people, it will be advisable for the government to the option of treating the drug addicts medically instead of taking them to prison for jail terms (Greenwald, 2009). The idea will help the government to save a lot through this instead of incarceration of the offenders, which will only make a case for every person even more severely.

Conclusion

It is not a perfect solution nor a miracle. However, if the United States as to achieve the number of deaths (death rate) similar to Portugal, it would be possible to save a person in every 10 minutes (Russoniello, 2012). The number of people who could get saved from drugs could even be more than the number of lives which get lost in car and gun accidents.

References

Ammerman, S., Ryan, S., Adelman, W. P., & Committee on Substance Abuse. (2015). The impact of marijuana policies on youth: clinical, research, and legal update. Paediatrics, 135(3), e769-e785.

Eastwood, N., Fox, E., & Rosmarin, A. (2016). A Quiet Revolution: Drugdecriminalisation Across the Globe (pp. 1-51). Release drugs, the law and human rights.

Greenwald, G. (2009). Drug decriminalization in Portugal: Lessons for creating fair and successful drug policies. Cato Institute Whitepaper Series.

Humphreys, K. (2012). Will the Obama Administration Implement a More Health-Oriented Approach to Drug Policy?. Journal of Drug Policy Analysis, 5(1).

Kreit, A. (2010). The decriminalization option: Should states consider moving from a criminal to a civil drug court model. U. Chi. Legal F., 299.

Natapoff, A. (2015). Misdemeanour decriminalization. Vand. L., Rev., 68, 1055.

Pacula, R. L., MacCoun, R., Reuter, P., Chriqui, J., Kilmer, B., Harris, K., ... & Schafer, C. (2005). What does it mean to decriminalize marijuana? A cross-national empirical examination. Advances in health economics and health services research, 16, 347-369.

Robertson, A. M., Garfein, R. S., Wagner, K. D., Mehta, S. R., Magis-Rodriguez, C., Cuevas-Mota, J., ... & Strathdee, S. A. (2014). Evaluating the impact of Mexico's drug policy reforms on people who inject drugs in Tijuana, BC, Mexico, and San Diego, CA, United States: a binational mixed methods research agenda. Harm reduction journal, 11(1), 4.

Russoniello, K. (2012). The devil (and drugs) in the details: Portugal's focus on public health as a model for the decriminalization of drugs in Mexico. Yale J. Health Poly L. & Ethics, 12, 371.

Sapp, C. E. (2014). Rehabilitate or Incarcerate: A Comparative Analysis of the United States' Sentencing Laws on Low-Level Drug Offenders and Portugal's Decriminalization of Low-Level Drug Offenses. Cardozo J. Int'l & Comp. L., 23, 63.

Shapiro, J. B. (2010). What Are They Smoking?! Mexico's decriminalization of small-scale drug possession in the wake of a law enforcement failure. The University of Miami Inter-American Law Review, 42(1), 115-144.