Softening the Drug Policy to Become Effective

Softening the Drug Policy to Become Effective

America's drug prohibition policy in place today closely mirrors the reasons for the prohibitions of alcohol our nation had in the 1920s. Alcohol Prohibition as Mark Thornton's acknowledged in his article, -was undertaken to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems… and improve health and hygiene in America (1991). With the same issues we once dealt with nearly a century ago, the same issues have been making its reprise through our current drug prohibition laws. This essay, will explain why Nadelmann's approaches, taken from Commonsense Drug Policy, is used successfully to soften our drug policy. It will also protect our nation from the epidemics of the addiction and the negative effects that go along with it.

Also, Nadelmann explains about harm reduction innovation changes on drugs that I highly agree that could help lead our country to the right direction. The first change he states deals with preventing the ongoing & future spread of HIV in this country and the future caused by sharing needles. To help prevent this, sterile syringes must be used. To make this effective, Nadelmann explains how readily available sterile syringes should be available to users and dirty needles to be collected at local pharmacies. With this in effect, it will also remove and clean up our environment up from dirty needles thrown out in streets. Even if not all users are taking advantage of this dispensary there are those who are and with those do it is one less contaminated needle out of contact from us.

The second harm reduction innovation is a step that we must not ignore. This innovation we must implement in order to help our society is to make methadone treatment more available for users in need. It is proven that addicts using Methadone has yielded in numerous beneficial results for both our society and the individual. From numerous documents read, I have come to believe that methadone when given to addicts is the key to obtaining a healthier social environment. Although currently legal in our country, Methadone has been poorly advertised and informed to the people of this nation of its existence. The use of methadone has have research shown extremely positive results. Outcomes of these studies all improved and showed: lowered drug usage, HIV, crime rates, individual functioning improved. What is remarkable about this pill is how it completely changes and reverts the heroin addict's lifestyle to a non-users lifestyle when taking