Issue 1: If drugs were legalized, would drug use increase or decrease? Would crime and additional drug-related problems worsen or not?
             If illegal drugs were decriminalized, the same people who use drugs now would probably continue to use them. However, they wouldn't have to steal to support their habit and could live more normal lives, so drug-related crimes would likely be reduced. People who reject using drugs would continue to reject using them because the reasons why they do not use drugs have little to do with legal or illegal. They reject drug use because they have other more important things to do with their lives, such as getting ahead in the world, earning a living, and paying a mortgage. Drug use gets in the way of success. This is clearly seen in the drug statistics which show that "young people ages fourteen to twenty-five are the largest percentage users of illegal drugs, and that there is a significant drop in the reported use of illegal drugs after the age of twenty-five" (Hutchinson, 2003, p. 9). After age 25, people are often married, have families to support, and too many responsibilities to be heavily involved with drug use. They have much more to lose-their career, spouse, children, and reputation.
             Making "war" on a medical/social problem makes no sense. People who are alienated from society become addicted to drugs, as Sen. Robert Kennedy pointed out back in 1965. Solving the drug problem means "solving poverty and broken homes, racial discrimination and inadequate education, slums and unemployment" (Kennedy cited in Tree, 2003). Until these complex, hard-core social problems are addressed in a meaningful way, drug use will continue to be a problem. Drug use is a symptom of societal sickness, and making "war" on a symptom without addressing the disease itself is useless, expensive, and makes everything worse. Tree (2003) points out that "By tre...