Why We Should Decriminalize Drugs

Drugs have always been a major problem in the United States of America, a lot of people use them and many people always get in major trouble for them just because of the possession. In the United States, the most common, illegally used, drug is marijuana. Based on many different facts, and statistics, I believe that we should legalize marijuana, and decriminalize other major drugs. There are countries like Portugal who have decriminalized drugs, and the results are incredible, this is why I believe we should do this for our country, to make it a much safer, and happier place.
According to Drugfreeworld.org, “Over 94 million people in the US have admitted using marijuana at least once.” (drugfreeworld.org, June 2016) That compared to the statistics of other types of drugs, is a huge difference. Marijuana is the most commonly …show more content…
For example, cocaine, and amphetamines are the second most commonly used drug according to a survey by the GDS in 2014. What I believe we should do with these drugs is to follow Portugal, and not legalize them, but decriminalize them. Portugal has showed substantial results since 2001 after they did that, and I believe we should follow them. According to an article called by policy.mic called “ 14 Years After Decriminalizing all Drugs, Here’s What Portugal Looks Like,” Fourteen years after decriminalization, Portugal has not been run into the ground by a nation of drug addicts. In fact, by many measures, it's doing far better than it was before.” (policy.mic.com, June 2016) This article contains many facts of Portugal and how they’ve been doing since the decriminalization of drugs, and one of the most interesting ones is that drug use has apparently declined of in adolescent ages, which is just amazing because in my opinion, I believe adolescents are the ones who have been using drugs the most and making it very hard for the government to do anything about