12 Reasons To Legalized Drugs Essay Research — страница 2

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shoot it out with Thrift Drugs for a corner storefront? When drugs become legal, we will be able to sleep in our homes and walk the streets more safely. As one letter-writer to the Philadelphia Inquirer put it, “law-abiding citizens will be able to enjoy not living in fear of assault and burglary.” 2.It would put an end to prison overcrowding. Prison overcrowding is a serious and persistent problem. It makes the prison environment, violent and faceless to begin with, even more dangerous and dehumanizing. According to the 1988 Statistical Abstract of the United States, between 1979 and 1985 the number of people in federal and state prisons and local jails grew by 57.8 percent, nine time faster than the general population. Governments at all levels keep building more prisons,

but the number of prisoners keeps outpacing the capacity to hold them. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ 1985 Statistical Report, as of September 30 of that year federal institutions held 35,959 prisoners-41 percent over the rated prison capacity of 25,638. State prisons were 114 percent of capacity in 1986. Of 31,346 sentenced prisoners in federal institutions, those in for drug law violations were the largest single category, 9487. (A total of 4613 were in prison but not yet sentenced under various charges.) Legalizing drugs would immediately relieve the pressure on the prison system, since there would no longer be “drug offenders” to incarcerate. And, since many drug users would no longer need to commit violent or property crime to pay for their habits, there

would be fewer “real” criminals to house in the first place. Instead of building more prisons, we could pocket the money and still be safer. Removing the 9487 drug inmates would leave 26,472. Of those, 7200 were in for assault, burglary, larceny-theft, or robbery. If the proportion of such crimes that is related to drugs is 40 percent, without drug laws another 2900 persons would never have made it to federal prison. The inmates who remained would be left in a less cruel, degrading environment. If we repealed the drug laws, we could eventually bring the prison population down comfortably below the prison’s rated capacity. 3.Drug legalization would free up police resources to fight crimes against people and property. The considerable police efforts now expended against drug

activity and drug-related crime could be redirected toward protecting innocent people from those who would still commit crime in the absence of drug laws. The police could protect us more effectively, as it could focus resources on catching rapists, murderers and the remaining perpetrators of crimes against people and property. 4.It would unclog the court system. If you are accused of a crime, it takes months to bring you to trial. Guilty or innocent, you must live with the anxiety of impending trial until the trial finally begins. The process is even more sluggish for civil proceedings. There simply aren’t enough judges to handle the skyrocketing caseload. Because it would cut crime and eliminate drugs as a type of crime, legislation would wipe tens of thousands of cases off

the court dockets across the continent, permitting the rest to move sooner and faster. Prosecutors would have more time to handle each case; judges could make more considered opinions. Improved efficiency at the lower levels would have a ripple effect on higher courts. Better decisions in the lower courts would yield fewer grounds for appeals, reduing the caseloads of appeals courts; and in any event there would be fewer cases to review in the first place. 5.It would reduce official corruption. Drug-related police corruption takes one of two major forms. Police officers can offer drug dealers protection in their districts for a share of the profits (or demand a share under threat of exposure). Or they can seize dealer’s merchandise for sale themselves. Seven current or former

Philadelphia police officers were indicted May 31 on charges of falsifying records of money and drugs confiscated from dealers. During a house search, one man turned over $20,000 he had made from marijuana sales, but the officers gave him a “receipt” for $1870. Another dealer, reports The Inquirer, “told the grand jury he was charged with possession of five pounds of marijuana, although 11 pounds were found in his house.” In Miami, 59 officers have been fired or suspended since 1985 for suspicion of wrongdoing. The police chief and investigators expect the number eventually to approach 100. As The Palm Beach Post reported, “That would mean about one in 100 officers on the thousand man force will have been tainted by one form of scandal or another.” Most of the 59 have