Debate around laws concerning harmful and illicit drugs has been an important stumbling block for governments and societies for a long time. Which drugs should be legalized? Which drugs should be regulated ? These are the questions policymakers and advisers such as Mark Kleiman, a professor of Public Policy at UCLA, has tried to answer. Kleiman argues that there are some drugs that should be completely prohibited due to the potential to cause extremely negative societal consequences. He includes cocaine and heroin on this list. However, he regards “less harmful” drugs, like marijuana, very differently.
This past Thursday, Kleiman spoke about these issues in a discussion held in Rockefeller Hall at Dartmouth College. He focusedfirst on legal drugs in the United States and then transitioned to drugs that are currently illegal. Drugs such as caffeine, tobacco and alcohol are legal in the US largely because of the ideal of personal liberty, and the notion that each individual has a right to decide what they consume. These drugs are also widely associated with positive social experiences. Unfortunately, tobacco and alcohol have serious adverse effects that aredetrimental to society. Kleiman noted that: “Alcohol is responsible for 100,000 deaths a year, most of them from victims of homicide, automobile accidents and crime.” In the 1920s the US government banned entirely the consumption of alcohol, but quickly reconsidered due to a variety of unexpected negative repercussions. It not only increased peril in the streets and catalyzed the creation of organized crime, but also increased by two thirds the amount of people diagnosed with cirrhosis.
Kleiman noted several methods of alcohol regulation that might be less extreme, and more successful, than prohibition. He suggested that a person’s “drinking license” be revoked in addition to their driver’s license in the case of DUI– allowing bartenders and liquor stores to stop providing alcohol to these people. Kleiman noted that a general increase in the price of alcohol, especially beer, might combat the tendency to abuse alcohol.
Kleiman noted that: “alcohol is responsible for 20% of all the incarcerations in the US”. He questions why other drugs with fewer demonstrated negative effects, such as marijuana, are illegal while alcohol is not. Kleiman asserts that marijuana is less destructive than alcohol which is why it should not be any problem to legalize it. Moreover, Kleiman asserts that heavy taxes could be imposed on a legal marijuana trade, creating revenue for the Federal Government that could later be used for drug education and serve as stimulation to the national economy. “It would reduce fatal automobile accidents by 2,000and homicides by 1,000 a year. State and Federal legislatures most taxes are destructive, this is a tax that would improve other things as well.” Kleiman stated.
Kleiman highlighted the importance of confronting issues relating to marijuana, cocaine and heroin. It is necessary for the federal government to invest in way that it would stop drug-related violence and educate the entire population to stop consuming them.
