Gore Vidal Drugs Analysis

A sizzling pan is pictured as we hear, “This is drugs. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?” The egg is cracked and cooks over the heat. This commercial has been etched in my memory since childhood. The issue of legalizing drugs has been debated even longer. Gore Vidal wrote his article “Drugs: Case for Legalizing Marijuana” in The New York Times in 1970, a full 17 years before the aforementioned commercial hit the television airwaves. Vidal’s piece was ahead of its time, but still relevant today. Gore makes the case for dealing with America’s drug addiction problems by simply legalizing the drugs. In the article we are made aware of Vidal’s views that legal drugs could stop addiction, why he thinks it would work, and the prospects …show more content…
Vidal writes this line as reminder that we do not always learn from history. I think this is one of Vidal’s most effective points in the essay. He presents the issues that the government encountered during prohibition. Outlawing alcohol lead to spikes in crime, lethal bootleg alcohol, and led to distrust and distaste for the overreaching government. I agree that keeping drugs does the same. We have drug dealers and traffickers running in the shadows in an effort to make a buck without being sent to jail. There is no “quality control” of the drugs, and we have many stories of drugs being laced with lethal doses of fentanyl. Would government control of the drug market allow for safer drug use? That is a difficult question to answer. I moved to Illinois from Seattle, Washington. Washington was one of the first states to legalize marijuana. A friend of mine worked in one of the “Pot Shops” in town. It was fascinating to visit his store. One must be 21 years old to enter, but once inside you will see dozens of varieties of marijuana plants and edibles. The workers inside are much like sommeliers, but their knowledge is of weed and not of wine. They are able to explain the different highs, the different uses…it is fascinating. The marijuana being sold has been tracked at every step of the grow operation from planting to harvest, so there is a consistency and safety to the product that is not found on the street. It is still likely too early to draw conclusions on how the legalization of marijuana has affected these states. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing the data on how this legalization affects youth, safety, and overall usage. Perhaps this time public memory will be educational and informative in making future cases for or against