Growing up in the United States, I was taught at a young age to stay away from drugs as well as the people that use illicit drugs. This lesson is taught by many parents throughout the United States because drugs and the distribution of drugs is illegal unless they are prescribed to you by a doctor for medical purposes. The prohibition on drugs started in the late 1800’s and has since then continued until the present date, and many other countries have followed this same path. Even though a criminalized drug system is in place in the United States and has been implemented for a long time does not mean that this is the best way of accomplishing goals related to creating a safer society for drug users and other civilians involved. The illicit drug system was created with certain objectives and goals to work on decreasing the growing drug problem in the United States by creating restrictions, such as fines or jail time, on the using, producing, and distributing of drugs; however, since this system was created, drug related deaths and HIV infection through needle sharing have increased. The criminalization of drugs does not create a safer environment for drug users and other civilians and actually harms them more. If a society is concerned with safety, a decriminalized drug system should be used instead of a system where drugs are illegal.

As drugs began to become more dangerous and cause more harm and deaths in the United States with no laws on drugs in place, Americans didn’t know about drugs effects on people and society, so naturally they became outlawed. Most Americans think that drugs are illegal in order to prevent harm towards the people that are using them; however, there were also other factors involved with the decision made to criminalize drugs. One of those other factors was racism. In the United States, groups with negative connotation, who take part in the recreational use of a certain drug, were often connected and used to push the drug toward illegality in an attempt not to keep people safe but to instead put minorities behind bars. Since racism was a factor during the creation of the criminalized drugs system, the system was created to harm minority groups that were linked to drugs as well as decrease the growing drug issue more so than to keep the drug users safe.   

In the late 1800’s, slavery was just abolished and racial tensions were high. Miller, the author of The Case for Legalizing Drugs and politician, believes that in the American society during the time where drugs were on the brink of criminalization, “African-Americans are superb drug scapegoats” (Miller 115). One example of a drug that has also been linked to a race and banned is cocaine. Cocaine, at first, was legal and was even sold in products door to door, such as the famous Coca-Cola (Blaine 1); however, this lifestyle soon changed and this drug too was banned. Many doctors, before it was deemed illegal, believed it to have medical properties. “In the US, cocaine abuse was associated with black men, first in the form of laborers using the drug to increase endurance while working long, grueling hours, then in the form of widespread use by Jazz musicians at scandalously racially integrated nightclubs. In yet another echo of opium’s history, the press began to spread lurid stories of “cocaine crazed Negroes” attacking white women in the southern states” (A Short History of Prohibition and The Drug War 2). Cocaine is a harmful drug, but the reason it was banned is more complicated than just banning cocaine because it can cause harm to people. 

Another drug that was linked and connected to a race was opium. During this time, there were many Chinese-American immigrants coming to America who were 

forced to work painful, low-wage jobs in big American industries in a time before any laborers rights were in place to protect workers. What these immigrants brought along with them, besides their families and the hope of a better life, was opium, an opium smoking culture, and an opium addiction ("A Short History of Prohibition and The Drug War" 1). This drug was new to the United States and, at first, stayed in small areas where only Chinese-American immigrants lived. As a result of this, Chinese-American immigrants were the majority of the people that used opium heavily at the time. White men, then, started having an interest in opium and would go to these Chinese-American opium-smoking parlors. White women began showing up at these same parlors and using opium as well. Once white women started to mix in with Chinese-American immigrants, the media produced a story saying that these Chinese men were tempting and drugging white women with opium ("A Short History of Prohibition and The Drug War." 2). A push to make opium illegal began due to this story and due to the culture and opinions of the American people at the time. 

Another drug that is linked to a certain culture or race is Lysergic Acid Diethylamide. LSD is a hallucinogen that is virtually non-toxic in normal doses. The average dose of LSD is between a hundred to one hundred and fifty micrograms (Honig 1). Since micrograms are so tiny, LSD, if only taking one dose, is virtually non-toxic to the human body. A user would have to ingest hundreds of thousands of doses to create toxic reaction (Honig 1-2). So, what is the reason why it is held at the same illegality as a drug such as fentanyl, heroin, or cocaine? Well, during the time that the drug prohibition was taking place and drugs were becoming illegal, a hippy culture was linked to using this drug, which received a negative connotation to the American general public. This group, similar to the other minorities previously mentions that are linked to drugs were direct victims of the harm, which the criminalized drug system created. 

Overall, these are three examples of drugs that have been linked to certain groups, which became one of the driving factors behind the war on drugs in the United States and the choice of the type of system to control the drug. Racist America chose the criminalized drug system not only because they didn’t know about the negative effect that would have on peoples safety but because they wanted to put the groups of people that do drugs behind bars even if its their culture. Overall, all of these drugs are prohibited for possession and distribution even though the drugs themselves vary greatly in the differences of deadliness and addiction. Since all of these drugs are illegal, regardless of what the drug actually is, proves that there is some sort of greater influence to get these drugs to be illegal. The driving influence of the decision of which drug system to have in the United States, instead of racism, should be safety because that is what is important regardless of which side you are on.  

In order to make drugs illegal, the media created stories about drugs and their connections to certain groups that have bad connotations in order to further push the drug towards illegality. In combination of these stories as well as the general public fear of drugs, racist America passed the Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914. This act made it “That it shall be unlawful for any person not registered under the provisions of this act, and who has not paid the special tax provided for by this Act, to have in his possession or under his control any of the aforesaid drugs” (Brecher 1). The current system was created and invented in order to accomplish certain goals. There are certain goals that the country is trying to accomplish through implementing a legalized drug system. 

“Drug-abuse control measures can aim for one or more of these five objectives:  reducing the number of people who use a given drug, reducing the proportion of users who fall into bad habits, reducing the length of time those habits are maintained, reducing the damage—to drug users and others—from both casual and problem drug use, and reducing the damage created both by drug trafficking and by law enforcement directed against drug trafficking” (Kleiman, et al. 15). 

So, according to these authors, these are the many reasons why the criminalized drug system was created and what it aims to achieve, but these goals are all difficult to accomplish, especially when in combination. Many of these goals, when improving one, would negatively affect a different goal on the list. An example would be, the first three goals talk about reducing the number of drug users and drug addicts; however, when attempting to improve these goals, policing of the sale of illegal drugs is increased. This increase in policing will inevitably cause damage and harm to the users and solicitors of these drugs because drug users will use the drug if they have a chance and this can lead to not only using drugs in dire situations but also putting the lives of drug traffickers and others in danger through making their habits and actions and illegal activity to do. The restrictions around the drugs are causing damage towards drug users and drug traffickers is the opposite results that people were hoping to achieve by implementing the criminalized drug system because creating more restrictions and harsher penalties is the only way to encourage drug users to stop using and distributing these drugs.

Currently, drugs are illegal in the United States due to the act made in 1914 in an attempt to create a safer society for Americans; however, drugs have become increasingly dangerous since they were prohibited in the early 1900’s. The thought process behind the prohibition on drugs was to prevent people from having access to drugs and using them, but there was still a demand for drugs in the United States, after they were deemed illegal. So as a result of this, the illegal market of drugs was created and has had an extremely negative impact the safety of drug users because now drug users have to hide their addiction from others as well as purchase drugs illegally. Since drugs are illegal for use, production, and distribution in the United States, organized crime groups were the ones who took advantage of the non-taxed market and began to sell drugs illegally. Since dope dealers were selling drugs illegally, instead of licensed doctors who have had multiple years of schooling, there was no regulation on the quality or quantity of the drugs being distributed. Organized crime groups became increasingly more dangerous and violent due to the power that the illegal drug market gave them. An ex-undercover cop, Neil Woods, says, “his experiences and subsequent research led him to conclude that decriminalization was a better way to deal with drugs than prohibition. He said: “The more you police it the nastier the OCGs [organized crime groups] get” (Clay 1). Since the prohibition on drugs, the illegal drug market has flooded the United States and has left organized crime groups with too much power because people with drug addictions can only go to them to purchase their drugs and these drugs could be any potency and any mixture of drugs since they are being sold illegally instead of through licensed professionals. Organized crime groups are not only naturally violent due to the illegality of their operations, but they have become increasingly violent over the years due to the increasing of regulation on the illegal sale of drugs. as the drug issue becomes more of an issue, the policing and restrictions around drugs has increased and has only put the people using the drug or distributing the drugs into further danger. Organized crime groups are deadly to the law enforcement attempting to prohibit the amount of drugs coming to the United States, but they are also increasingly dangerous for the people that actually purchase and use the drugs. Through the illegal market, drugs have become worse due the fact that they are unregulated by the government or scientist. Unregulated drugs are worse than the drugs themselves due to the fact that the organized crime groups are in charge of what is being sold, which could mean that the drug is laced with another, worse, drug. Since the prohibition began, drugs have become more commonly laced with other chemicals or more deadly drugs. A current example, from Asheville, North Carolina is that in the year 2012, zero people died from a heroin overdose; however that has since then increased. “14 people died from heroin overdoes in Buncombe County in 2015” (Adelson, 1). This jolt is not random or a coincidence; recently dealers have been adding fentanyl, a drug 1000 times more powerful than morphine, to heroin (Adelson 2). This addition has made heroin more dangerous. If drugs were legal, the lacing and adding of other chemicals and drugs would never happen due to the regulation of the drugs. 

Another deficit due to the current system on drug control is that users and abusers are not seeking help, even when they desperately need it, because the current system is organized around imprisonment and punishment rather than focused on treatment and health of drug users. The reason for this is that the illegality of the drugs makes people create unsafe environments and situations for themselves in an attempt to stay away from legal trouble while performing an illegal activity. So, when people get into dire situations involving drugs, caused by the restrictions on drugs, civilians are scared to call the police or go to the hospital for emergency help with the threats of being arrested and/or convicted. The restrictions of drugs in a society that is implemented by a criminalized drug system creates a society where organized crime groups sell unregulated drugs that could be laced with a worse drug as well as makes the users scared to ask for help and treatment, ultimately proves that the regulations around the drugs have become worse than the drugs themselves towards Americans and users. 

Now that we have covered the reasons why the current system is not functioning and proving itself successful in accomplishing the goals of creating a safer society in regards to drugs, what could be a possible solution to this problem that has been an issue in the United States for so long? Well, the only option that is different from a laissez faire drug system and a criminalized drug system, both of which the United States has already attempted, is a decriminalized drug system. Its time that Americans realize that the current prohibition on drugs is only creating more issues for the ones they are in place to protect and we open our minds to an alternative system.

A legalized drug system would prove far more successful in creating a safe environment for drug users to exist in society. If drugs were legal, there would be many advantages compared to keeping the current system. If drugs were decriminalized, the sharing of needles would go down, the number of addicts put into proper treatment would increase, the number of drug related harms caused by organized crime groups would go down (Dominguez). Licensed doctors with degrees would distribute drugs rather than some thug pushing laced drugs in the ghetto. So, as a result of this, drugs would be controlled and regulated by the government and doctors in order to keep track of dosage and quality of the drugs. This eliminates the issues of laced drugs due to the fact that organized crime groups would still be under heavy policing. 

This legal system would work in the United States because people would be free to use whatever drug they want, while promoting safe use and treatment if necessary. Portugal in the year 2000, similar to the United States current issue, had a sudden spike in the number of drug related harms and deaths and the Portuguese government decided that there has to be a better way to have drugs in society. With the legal system, they have been able to control the drug problem in Portugal. Portugal, in 2001, decriminalized drugs at the federal level. The key to their success is the policing of illegal drugs and drug traffickers. Just because drugs are legal to buy and use in the country of Portugal does not mean that every single drug is for sale, illegal drugs are still policed heavily. Proper drug distribution centers, which have treatment centers for addicts or people that need help next door, distribute legal drugs and people using drugs instead of being fined or imprisoned you are admitted into a mandatory rehab (Dominguez). 

In conclusion, the Portuguese government is really onto something because after they implemented the legal drug system, they were able to get the drug issue under 

control in the country as well as create a society where drug users are safe. In the United States, the current system has many flaws. The restrictions around the drugs and just making them increasingly illegal and putting people in harms way or behind bars are what is making the current drug crisis remain an issue when we should be worried about the health of these drug users and putting them into rehab. Drugs should be legal because people wouldn’t have to hide and submit themselves to unsafe situations and instead would be given mandatory rehab to help keep drug users safe. If there was a decriminalized system in the United States, while still heavily policing the illegal sale of drugs, drugs would be able to exist in society safely and people would be able to seek help if they desperately needed it. So, if the United States were concerned about the safety of drug users, there should be a decriminalized drug system in the United States. 
