The current trend of relaxing drug laws in Europe and the several U.S. States is disturbing. The two most popular drugs (alcohol and tobacco) have been legalized. These drugs are responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths, injury and ruined lives due to addiction every year.
Why does it make sense to further this insanity by legalizing other drugs? Those in favor of decriminalization believe that this course of action is a reasonable solution that protects civil liberties and will ultimately reduce the number of children who use it. Legalization, according to this opinion, in conjunction with effective treatment programs, is the only proven method of combating the violent global drug problem. However, there are several flaws in this argument.
The most vulnerable segment of society to relaxed attitudes thus legislation of drugs are the young. Drug use increases the chance that students will become pregnant, contract a communicable disease, perform poorly in school and attempt suicide. The teenage years are when people transition from innocent children to socially savvy adults. During this period, most have feelings of insecurity as they are developing at a rapid pace both psychologically and physically.
The need to belong to a group is strong during this time and, combined with the fact that they do not yet possess the decision-making wisdom of adults, often leads to poor choices including opting to use drugs. Teenagers are naturally curious, one of the reasons given for experimenting with drugs. They also tend to become bored easily and experience frequent emotional highs and lows, all potential factors in drug use. Legalization legitimizes drug use, marijuana included, sends the wrong message to teens.
The interrelation between drug use among teenagers and an increase in sexual activity is a widely accepted fact by researchers and the public alike. Many studies have consistently demonstrated a correlation between risky sexual behavior and drug use by students. Drug users are more inclined to take risks than do students that do not use drugs. This may be an obvious statement but a propensity to take risks with their health combined with a loss of inhibitions while on drugs and the need of all teenagers to be accepted by their peers leads to an increased level of sexual activity.
This problematic scenario also increases the likelihood of students having sex at an earlier age, having multiple sexual partners, and decreases the chances that they will use contraception than those that do not use drugs. “Teens 15 and older who use drugs are five times more likely to have sex than are those teens who do not use drugs and teens who have used marijuana are four times more likely to have been pregnant or to have gotten someone pregnant than teens who have never smoked pot” 1 More than one-third of all teenagers who are a sexually active state that they had been influenced by alcohol use to do something of a sexual nature.
Almost one-quarter of these teenagers reported that they had participated in unprotected sex as a result of drug use. Teens 14 and under who use drugs are more likely to be having sex at double the rate of those in this age group that does not. Drug-using teenagers are three and five times, respectively, more likely to have multiple sexual partners. 2
Teenagers experience more emotional fluctuations than do younger children or an adult which explains why the suicide rate is higher in that group. Teenagers that use drugs are more likely to attempt suicide. According to a study of teenagers that attempted suicide, drug abuse was the most frequently shared characteristic. Of the teenagers that took their own life, 70 percent were frequent users of drugs. Drugs could possibly magnify a pre-existing emotional problem and “may impair the judgment of teens considering suicide, making suicide attempts more likely.” 3
Teenagers quickly learn that they can readily obtain drugs. The vast majority of 10th graders in the U.S., for example, claim they can easily purchase marijuana (78 percent). Drug abuse is costly to teenagers in many physical, mental and emotional ways and also costs taxpayers in the U.S. more than $40 billion per year. Drug use and sales in schools on both sides of ‘the pond’ causes problems not only for the students but the teachers as well. Students that use drugs are much more likely to perform poorly in school, cut class, or drop out of school altogether. “Students at schools where drugs are kept, used and sold are twice as likely to smoke, drink and use drugs than students who perceive their schools to be drug-free.” 4 Stricter enforcement is required not less.
Illegal substances most frequently linked with drug-related fatalities include opiates such as heroin, cocaine, amphetamines, and barbiturates. Alcohol, particularly when used in combination with harder drugs, is also linked with drug-related deaths. Heroin and other drugs that are injected into the bloodstream are often associated with the deadly disease HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus. HIV causes AIDS, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Besides being spread from the use of shared, contaminated syringes, AIDS is also contracted by sexual contact, from transfusions by contaminated blood, and in the prenatal stages from mother to baby.
The proportion of people who inject drugs that are also currently infected with HIV fluctuates sharply from nation to nation. For example, in Britain, less than five percent fit this category. In the Netherlands and Germany, this number jumps to between 20 and 30 percent and even higher in Spain, France, and Italy. 5 The U.S, along with Britain, can boast the lowest rates in the Western world but this proportion has risen in the U.S. over the past few years.
The proportion is also rising in most other countries as well and which increases the overall rate of transmission. “Most conservative predictions by public health institutions foresee increased use of illegal drugs via injection in many countries and increased transmission of HIV among people who take drugs in this way.” 6 This type of drug use impacts the whole of society. Besides being a major contributor to the global spread of this deadly virus, it transmits other, less discussed aliments which also are of great medical and social significance. The sharing of ‘dirty’ needles furthers the transmission of tuberculosis and hepatitis along with cardiovascular and other assorted disorders. 7
The adverse physical, emotional, mental, and psychological conditions created by the abuse of drugs are a great burden to the overall wealth of nations as well as to the social structure of society including the disruption of family units and business relationships in addition to personal destruction. Legalizing drugs is tantamount to endorsing their use, therefore, encouraging children to partake in mind-altering substances. Why does it make sense to further this insanity by legalizing more types of drugs?
References:
Ault, Alicia. (2001). “Students Get Drugs at School, Study Shows.” Prevent Disease. Reuters Health. Web.
Des Girls, Don and Friedman, Samuel. (1994). “AIDS and the use of injected drugs.” Scientific American.
Harge, John. (1999). “Teen Drugs, Booze, Sex Linked.” CBS News. Web.
“Report of The International Narcotics Control Board.” (1992). Vienna: The International Narcotics Control Board.
Shaffer, D.; Gould, M. S.; Fisher, P.; Trautment, P.; Moreau, D.; Kleinman, M.; & Flory, M. (1996). “Psychiatric Diagnosis in Child and Adolescent Suicide.” Archives of General Psychiatry. Vol. 53, pp. 339-348.
“Strategy Document.” (1990). Programme on Substance Abuse. Geneva: World Health Organization.
(The) National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse. (1997). Substance Abuse and the American Adolescent: A Report by the Commission on Substance Abuse Among American Adolescents. New York.
Footnotes
- (The) National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse. (1997). Substance Abuse and the American Adolescent: A Report by the Commission on Substance Abuse Among American Adolescents. New York.
- Harge, John. (1999). “Teen Drugs, Booze, Sex-Linked.” CBS News. Web.
- Shaffer, D.; Gould, M. S.; Fisher, P.; Trautment, P.; Moreau, D.; Kleinman, M.; & Flory, M. (1996). “Psychiatric Diagnosis in Child and Adolescent Suicide.” Archives of General Psychiatry. Vol. 53, pp. 339-348.
- Ault, Alicia. (2001). “Students Get Drugs at School, Study Shows.” Prevent Disease. Reuters Health. Web.
- “Report of The International Narcotics Control Board.” (1992). Vienna: The International Narcotics Control Board.
- Des Girls, Don and Friedman, Samuel. (1994). “AIDS and the use of injected drugs.” Scientific American.
- “Strategy Document.” (1990). Program on Substance Abuse. Geneva: World Health Organization.