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Fact 6: Legalization of Drugs will Lead
to Increased Use and Increased Levels of Addiction. Legalization has been
tried before, and failed miserably.
Legalization proponents
claim, absurdly, that making illegal drugs legal would not cause more
of these substances to be consumed, nor would addiction increase. They
claim that many people can use drugs in moderation and that many would
choose not to use drugs, just as many abstain from alcohol and tobacco
now. Yet how much misery can already be attributed to alcoholism and smoking?
Is the answer to just add more misery and addiction?
It’s clear
from history that periods of lax controls are accompanied by more
drug abuse and that periods of tight controls are accompanied by less
drug abuse.
During the 19th
Century, morphine was legally refined from opium and hailed as a miracle
drug. Many soldiers on both sides of the Civil War who were given morphine
for their wounds became addicted to it, and this increased level of addiction
continued throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth. In
1880, many drugs, including opium and cocaine, were legal — and,
like some drugs today, seen as benign medicine not requiring a doctor’s
care and oversight. Addiction skyrocketed. There were over 400,000 opium
addicts in the U.S. That is twice as many per capita as there are today.
By 1900, about
one American in 200 was either a cocaine or opium addict. Among the reforms
of this era was the Federal Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, which required
manufacturers of patent medicines to reveal the contents of the drugs
they sold. In this way, Americans learned which of their medicines contained
heavy doses of cocaine and opiates — drugs they had now learned to
avoid.
Specific federal
drug legislation and oversight began with the 1914 Harrison Act, the first
broad anti-drug law in the United States. Enforcement of this law contributed
to a significant decline in narcotic addiction in the United States. Addiction
in the United States eventually fell to its lowest level during World
War II, when the number of addicts is estimated to have been somewhere
between 20,000 and 40,000. Many addicts, faced with disappearing supplies,
were forced to give up their drug habits.
What was virtually
a drug-free society in the war years remained much the same way in the
years that followed. In the mid-1950s, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics
estimated the total number of addicts nationwide at somewhere between
50,000 to 60,000. The former chief medical examiner of New York City,
Dr. Milton Halpern, said in 1970 that the number of New Yorkers who died
from drug addiction in 1950 was 17. By comparison, in 1999, the New York
City medical examiner reported 729 deaths involving drug abuse.
The Alaska Experiment and Other Failed
Legalization Ventures
The consequences
of legalization became evident when the Alaska Supreme Court ruled in
1975 that the state could not interfere with an adult’s possession
of marijuana for personal consumption in the home. The court’s ruling
became a green light for marijuana use. Although the ruling was limited
to persons 19 and over, teens were among those increasingly using marijuana.
According to a 1988 University of Alaska study, the state’s 12 to
17-year-olds used marijuana at more than twice the national average for
their age group. Alaska’s residents voted in 1990 to recriminalize
possession of marijuana, demonstrating their belief that increased use
was too high a price to pay.
By 1979, after 11
states decriminalized marijuana and the Carter administration had considered
federal decriminalization, marijuana use shot up among teenagers. That
year, almost 51 percent of 12th graders reported they used marijuana in
the last 12 months. By 1992, with tougher laws and increased attention
to the risks of drug abuse, that figure had been reduced to 22 percent,
a 57 percent decline.
Other countries
have also had this experience. The Netherlands has had its own troubles
with increased use of cannabis products. From 1984 to 1996, the Dutch
liberalized the use of cannabis. Surveys reveal that lifetime prevalence
of cannabis in Holland increased consistently and sharply.
For the age group 18-20, the increase is from 15 percent in 1984 to
44 percent in 1996.
The Netherlands
is not alone. Switzerland, with some of the most liberal drug policies
in Europe, experimented with what became known as Needle Park. Needle
Park became the Mecca for drug addicts throughout Europe, an area where
addicts could come to openly purchase drugs and inject heroin without
police intervention or control. The rapid decline in the neighborhood
surrounding Needle Park, with increased crime and violence, led authorities
to finally close Needle Park in 1992.
The British have
also had their own failed experiments with liberalizing drug laws. England’s
experience shows that use and addiction increase with “harm reduction”
policy. Great Britain allowed doctors to prescribe heroin to addicts,
resulting in an explosion of heroin use, and by the mid-1980s, known addiction
rates were increasing by about 30 percent a year.
The relationship
between legalization and increased use becomes evident by considering
two current “legal drugs,” tobacco and alcohol. The number of
users of these “legal drugs” is far greater than the number
of users of illegal drugs. The numbers were explored by the 2001 National
Household Survey on Drug Abuse. Roughly 109 million Americans used
alcohol at least once a month. About 66 million Americans used tobacco
at the same rate. But less than 16 million Americans used illegal drugs
at least once a month.
It’s clear
that there is a relationship between legalization and increasing drug
use, and that legalization would result in an unacceptably high number
of drug-addicted Americans.
When legalizers
suggest that easy access to drugs won’t contribute to greater
levels of addiction, they aren’t being candid. The question isn’t
whether legalization will increase addiction levels—it will—it’s
whether we care or not. The compassionate response is to do everything
possible to prevent the destruction of addiction, not make it easier.
 
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