Solutions for the Drug Epidemic?
Picture this-- a society is consumed and overrun with drug abuse. Children are combing the streets committing serious crimes in order to get money to fulfill their cravings for drugs. Addicts and pregnant women are overdosing on crack cocaine or other dangerous substances. The authority of the government and police is slowly slipping away to a thriving black market. This is not how anyone in the United States pictures the future of our country. However, we are being forced to face the possible reality of this fate because of the rapidly growing drug problem that is permeating the streets and the lives of the American public. The debate over whether drugs should be legalized is a constant back and forth battle that seems to have no end. Is it possible to find a solution that is completely based on legalization or on criminalization? The odds to that effect are slim to none. We must look deeper into the problem in order to find the solution.
John Stuart Mills, the author of On Liberty, describes a concept that is rooted in how society and individuals should be governed. According to Mill's ideas, the individual is accountable for his or her own actions and the government has no right to interfere unless the individual's actions threaten to harm others. Freedom is defined by that sphere in which people are not prevented or forbidden from doing things even when it would be better for them not to do them. "The principle of freedom cannot require that he should be free not to be free. It is not freedom to be allowed to alienate his freedom..." (Mill 322). This concept is commonly known as the "harm principle". While the harm principle, when applied to drug policy and legalization within the United States, appears to...
More Law & Government Essays
essays:
In R. v. Malmo-Levine; R. v. Caine, the court held that the harm principle is not a principle of fundamental justice for the purposes of Section 7 of the Charter..
... principle? Why or why not?In his essay On Liberty, John Stuart Mill explains the importance of ones liberty and gives his ... pg 34. Retrieved June 16th, 20085.United Nations: Office on Drugs and Crime. http://www.unodc.org/enl/showDocument.do?lng=fr&language ...
Affirmative Action in America: Is it still needed?
... of Harvard University, explained Harvard's commitment to diversity by using John Stuart Mill, who emphasized the value of people being in contact with ... will also be able to remove the chains of oppression from women and minorities. Works Cited "Definition: Affirmative Action." Online. Yahoo. 17 Feb. ...
HIV/AIDS, Women's Human Rights and the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS: The principal obstacles for the implementation of the Declaration in Georgia
... most serious problems - drug abuse - is very important to be assessed. According to the document, there are around 4000 drug addicts, including 91 women, registered officially by the drug-abuse institution ...
"The Dangers Of Drugs And the Law and Their Importance" this was court ordered so its pollished up for the judge.
... minor withdrawal symptoms when discontinued, and is potentially harmful to pregnant women. Furthermore, being "high" produces driving hazards through slowed reactions times ...
The Brady bill and its passage
... drug users, 827 people with mental illnesses as well as 720 minors from purchasing a gun during January 1991 and September 1993. The freshman Senator from California maintained that even though her State's crime ...
Argues for the decriminalization of medicinal marijuana.
... on Drug Abuse, who has a monopoly on the drug, has ...
Title: Police Abuse. The essay includes the definition of "police abuse", the causes, examples of police abuse, relationship with racial profiling, suggestions of solutions about the problem.
... The nation must join together to eliminate repression, unjust and abusive treatment by the police in order to have a more ... brutality will continue to grow. The people should give a serious thought of what they are doing in order to avoid ...
Argument for the 5150 involuntary treatment laws.
... Treating patients with powerful anti-psychotic medications is a very serious matter. While such drugs might be crucial for treatment of a mental illness, it ...