NCJ Number
192609
Date Published
1996
Length
0 pages
Annotation
In this video, representatives of the health and law enforcement fields argue against the legalization of drugs.
Abstract
The main argument against the legalization of drugs currently illegal is that it would increase drug consumption, particularly among youth, and thus magnify the costs and behavioral problems already seen to attend drug abuse at its current limited levels. Drug abuse has negative effects on physical and mental health, thus impacting families, occupational performance, and health care costs. This in turn translates into higher costs that must be paid by all citizens through taxes and insurance premiums in order to attempt to address the societal impacts of increased drug abuse. Further, drug abuse most often leads to criminal behavior, either as a manifestation of drug behavioral effects or as a means of obtaining money to purchase drugs in the legal market. Adequate funding for the treatment of the current population of drug abusers is lacking, so it can be expected that even larger numbers of drug abusers will go untreated under a legalization scheme. Efforts at some form of drug legalization in a number of European countries have either proven disastrous or had to be modified in order to curtail the expanded drug abuse.