Should we incarcerate drug users? In today’s day and age, one of the more heated debates is whether or not we should illegalize drugs, and if we do, whether we should incarcerate or rehabilitate these individuals who find themselves addicted. Both sides have many backers, and have many different reasons for their beliefs. But once you examine the evidence, you really should be asking yourself if we should take away the right from people. A close examination shows that rehab is almost always a better option, prisons might have the opposite effect if helping people, and that this should be an issue of liberty and personal choice. First of all, rehab is a much better option that sending people to jail. The idea of prison is to keep the
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Drug charges usually result in a misdemeanor or felony, depending on the type of drug and the amount. Drugs are classified by 5 different schedules, with schedule 5 being the least harmful with a low chance of abuse, and schedule 1 being most harmful according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Examples of schedule 1 drugs would be Heroin, Cannabis, and Ecstasy(DEA / Drug Scheduling). The mere possession of schedule 1 drugs can land someone a felony in many states(Steiner, Monica). And of course, any job a person applies to can see their permanent record and can see their use of drugs, which usually prevents people who get out of prison from getting a job, which contributes to desperate attempts to get money, such as crime. Odds are that once someone is out of prison, they’re not going to be off of whatever got them in in the first place. Because of the economic troubles they face, they’re often forced to go to extreme measures to afford the substance, and usually that involves some kind of crime such as blackmail, prostitution, and robbery. When addicts are in prison, they’re often around the wrong kind of people. Our judicial system is basically putting a somewhat innocent person next to rapists, murderers, robbers, and other kinds of people who they shouldn’t be around. With how the prison system …show more content…
People should have a right to make their own decisions about what they want to do with their body, regardless of how dangerous. Would you decide to illegalize cigarettes because they have a chance to give someone lung cancer? Sure, there’s a huge difference between cigarettes and heroin, but that doesn’t change the fact that someone should be able to make the decision for themselves. Our country was founded on liberty, the idea that each one of us could make our own decisions without the government coming in and policing us, yet that’s exactly what America’s doing. Society’s telling people what they should or shouldn’t do because it might kill them, and it wants to make sure they’re ok. Society says we’ve got to tell them what’s right and wrong and what they can or can’t do. I guess as a nation, we’ve chosen authority over liberty. But what if drugs were legalized? Well, each and every person would be able to make their own decisions, and decide whether or not they would want to, and no one else would have to be involved. People who wouldn’t want to use drugs wouldn’t have to, and those who understand the risks but are willing to take them anyways would be free to do so without anyone except those who should care, like family and friends, butting in. That would get all of us one step closer to a truly free
Drug charges usually result in a misdemeanor or felony, depending on the type of drug and the amount. Drugs are classified by 5 different schedules, with schedule 5 being the least harmful with a low chance of abuse, and schedule 1 being most harmful according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Examples of schedule 1 drugs would be Heroin, Cannabis, and Ecstasy(DEA / Drug Scheduling). The mere possession of schedule 1 drugs can land someone a felony in many states(Steiner, Monica). And of course, any job a person applies to can see their permanent record and can see their use of drugs, which usually prevents people who get out of prison from getting a job, which contributes to desperate attempts to get money, such as crime. Odds are that once someone is out of prison, they’re not going to be off of whatever got them in in the first place. Because of the economic troubles they face, they’re often forced to go to extreme measures to afford the substance, and usually that involves some kind of crime such as blackmail, prostitution, and robbery. When addicts are in prison, they’re often around the wrong kind of people. Our judicial system is basically putting a somewhat innocent person next to rapists, murderers, robbers, and other kinds of people who they shouldn’t be around. With how the prison system …show more content…
People should have a right to make their own decisions about what they want to do with their body, regardless of how dangerous. Would you decide to illegalize cigarettes because they have a chance to give someone lung cancer? Sure, there’s a huge difference between cigarettes and heroin, but that doesn’t change the fact that someone should be able to make the decision for themselves. Our country was founded on liberty, the idea that each one of us could make our own decisions without the government coming in and policing us, yet that’s exactly what America’s doing. Society’s telling people what they should or shouldn’t do because it might kill them, and it wants to make sure they’re ok. Society says we’ve got to tell them what’s right and wrong and what they can or can’t do. I guess as a nation, we’ve chosen authority over liberty. But what if drugs were legalized? Well, each and every person would be able to make their own decisions, and decide whether or not they would want to, and no one else would have to be involved. People who wouldn’t want to use drugs wouldn’t have to, and those who understand the risks but are willing to take them anyways would be free to do so without anyone except those who should care, like family and friends, butting in. That would get all of us one step closer to a truly free