By now, just about everybody knows that the war on drugs was and continues to be a tremendous failure. And yet, like a stubborn child that refuses to give up its favorite toy despite finding out that it’s dangerous, organizations – many of them American, such as the Drug Enforcement Agency, or D.E.A. – refuse to put an end to the war on drugs.
Countries like Portugal have revealed the value and importance of decriminalizing drugs, many countries still spend significant portions of their taxpayers’ money on the enforcement and persecution of drug users.
One of the ways in which the war on drugs continues to create problems rather than solving them is by continuing to criminalize more and more substances. Granted, some of the substances that have been lumped into the category of legal highs have been pretty dangerous. On the other hand, many of them are not dangerous and are far safer than those that you’ll find on the street.
Overall, the more substances that are made illegal, the more likely that there is for there to be a crime related to that substance. Thus, this aspect of the war on drugs actually increases drug-related crimes. Criminalizing a substance doesn’t stop people friom wanting it – it actually increases desire.
All in all, the practice of making drugs illegal has been rather arbitrary, especially in the United States. Drugs are often made illegal for political or corporate reasons, rather than their safety profile. Marijuana and magic mushrooms, for example, are both completely natural. They grow in the ground. And yet, they have been made illegal, and now anywhere that they grow lies the potential for criminal activity to occur.
This article will explore some of the issues associated with making legal highs illegal.
What are legal highs about?
The whole legal high industry only emerged out of necessity in the first place after law enforcement agencies criminalized drugs.
For example, someone wants to unwind after a long and stressful day of work by taking a fat, juicy hit of their favorite vice. They then remember that it has recently become illegal. This isn’t going to change their desire for the substance – they’ll just be upset that they can’t acquire it legally. Some might switch to another, legal vice, whereas others may remain determined to find a black market source for what they know they really want.
Thus, prohibition forces people to either rely on a very limited selection of legally approved substances or risk breaking the law and potentially being arrested or having to pay a fine.
Because of this, people have always been interested in finding out ways to intoxicate themselves without breaking the law.
The results of this have been varied. Some legal highs produce powerful effects that are comparable to illegal drugs. Others produce minimal to no effects at all. Some of them are relatively safe whereas others are notoriously dangerous.
Regardless of safety and potency, there’s no doubt that the legal high market will always be here, at least as long as drugs remain illegal. Criminalizing drugs does not make people want to stop doing them, it simply limits their options and creates additional hurdles for them to jump over.
Why are legal highs banned?
There are many different reasons that may have led to the criminalization of legal highs. It depends on who you ask and how deep down the rabbit hole you’re willing to go.
Ultimately, you really just have to ask yourself why any drugs are illegal in the first place. Are drugs illegal…
- To protect the safety of drug users?
- To protect the financial interests of corporations selling pharmaceuticals?
- To reduce the threat of drug addled individuals wreaking havoc in society?
- To prevent humans from taking control of their own minds and discovering their true power as creative beings?
- To prevent radical thinking that doesn’t fit neatly into any of the accepted political themes?
- Because the government authorities are afraid, after seeing the radical changes that took place during the 1960s, of drugs causing people to find fault in modern society and thus stop contributing to it?
There are plenty of reasons, and all of them are true to some degree. The whole truth is a combination of all of these various factors: some who wish to protect their profits, others worry that psychedelic drug use may lead people astray and turn them into ‘crazy’ free thinkers.
There are also, of course, those people who genuinely care about the health of others and believe that criminalizing drugs will help people get healthier. Some drugs, like heroin and crystal meth, are dangerously addictive and can cause even the strongest-willed individuals to lose control. Perhaps they deserve to be considered illegal. However, to associate magic mushrooms with the same level of danger as heroin shows a clear lack of understanding regarding drug use.
Why is it dangerous to ban legal highs?
As we have seen over the years, drug prohibition does not work. Not only does it not stop people from using drugs, it creates a whole new set of problems that are often much more severe than those inherent to drug or alcohol usage.
When drugs are made illegal, people don’t simply decide that they want to stop using them. The market remains, however, it has now forcibly become a black market. This means that it is a criminal act to engage in the buying or selling of such substances. Simply for exchanging something that was previously legal, something that one may have developed a preference for, one might end up in jail.
Most legal drug users are not dangerous criminals. In fact, they are the opposite. They use legal drugs because they want to avoid criminal activity and the people associated with it. But if someone innocent like this becomes dependent on a substance that’s suddenly made illegal, they might find themselves willing to break the law to get it because, in their mind, it should still be legal.
Criminalization also makes drugs more dangerous and less consistent. In the absence of an open market, there is no regulation at all. This means that there is no guidance or recommendations on business practices or transactions. There is no quality control. Substances sold on the black market can easily be contaminated and nobody will be able to tell the difference.
There is nothing to protect workers involved in black market trade. People raised in poverty, for example, who reluctantly turn to the black market to support their family will never be protected by workers’ compensation or insurance. Because of the high financial volume involved, people who move drugs are often exposed to physical violence.
When these things are made illegal, this also creates a stigma against their usage. This means that people are less likely to seek treatments because they don’t want to be judged or ostracized because of their habits.
This stigma also causes a divide in our society. People addicted to drugs occupy one extreme end of a spectrum of social behaviors; on the opposite end are those who adhere perfectly to the rules of society, both spoken and unspoken.
Even people who are employed in sectors that have turned compassion into a career – nurses, doctors, counselors, and so on – tend to judge drug users very harshly. However, very rarely do these judgments extend to those who are addicted to prescription medications or those with functional addictions to legal drugs like alcohol. It is merely the societal stigma, the utterance of an authority proclaiming that “This is Wrong, but That is Right.”
As it stands, though, the current policy is basically to criminalize anything that can be used recreationally. The result of this is that numerous substances have been banned despite being relatively harmless.
What can be done?
What, then, can be done about this rampant criminalization of drugs?
The first and most important thing is to properly educate people. In relation to drugs and the law, there are many different areas that people need to be educated.
The most obvious area is pharmacology. People need to know what these drugs are, how they work, how they interact with the brain and body, and how they produce their desired effects and side effects. A comprehensive understanding of drugs is necessary for anybody prior to them being able to make an accurate assessment about the safety of a substance.
However, people also need to be educated about the social and psychological impacts and associations of drug use. People need to understand what is lacking in our society that leads people to rely on drugs as support.
Most people are often reluctant to look at the shadow side of their society. Instead they prefer to push it under the rug which is why you see so many people brushing off drug addicts. In reality, nobody can fully understand how our society is running if they aren’t willing to deeply consider its unpleasant aspects – such as substance abuse – and the causative factors.
People must also be educated about the various corporate, political, and government institutions and the stakes that they hold in the war on drugs. It would be nice to believe that all of the authorities in our society held our best interests at heart. However, this is far from the truth, and people who believe this to be the case are shining examples of why more education is necessary.
Many institutions act not in the best interest of the public or the general population, but in the best interest of themselves. Their primary goals are to facilitate or perpetuate their own growth and expansion, or, at the very least, their existence. Thought is given to the entire institution as if it were one single organism, rather than the individuals who make up such an institution. Individuality is forgotten which leads to corporations taking abominable actions in their own self-interest.
The next step would be decriminalization. If people were properly educated about drugs then decriminalization would probably emerge naturally. People would simply recognize that drug use is not criminal. It is not inherently dangerous to either the drug user or those around them except in extreme circumstances, and that often these extreme circumstances are reflective of personal issues that the individuals struggle with already. Certainly, the drugs exacerbate these issues, but to pin them entirely on the abuse of drugs is to miss the point entirely.
We could have people understand that drug and alcohol abuse is a symptom of a societal or community problem. They would see that punishing or disregarding people for using drugs and alcohol is the equivalent of punishing someone for compulsively shopping, overindulging in sugary treats, or self-isolating and socially withdrawing when they feel anxious.
In the context of addiction, it may not be a healthy coping mechanism, but that is what it is. It is an individual’s attempt to cope with some difficulty that they’re struggling with.
Lastly, we must work together to improve our society and remove the various issues, imbalances, and other problems that leave people feeling unfulfilled, unhappy, isolated, disconnected, without purpose, or otherwise distressed enough to justify using drugs to the point of abuse.
An interesting study was done thata proved the effect that a loving community has on addictive behavior. Although the study was done on rats, one can easily see how this could apply to humans. The study found that rats living in healthy and supportive communities are much less likely to engage in drug use, even when their preferred drug is readily available.
In this experiment, rats were made to be dependent on morphine. Naturally, when morphine was available in the rats’ water dropper, they would drink hungrily from it to fulfill their cravings. When the rats were in a healthy community, they were far less likely to drink from the morphine water and instead preferred to engage with other rats or activities.
People likewise need a community that understands them, acknowledges them, and recognizes them as individuals. Society should serve as a safety net upon which one might fall if they need to. People who lack the feeling of community support or networking often seek a similar feeling any way that they can.
For some, this might mean seeking validation through the constant pursuit of romantic relationships. Others seek validation through direct chemical stimulation by using drugs. Others overexert themselves through work or fitness in an effort to reach an unrealistic standard. These behaviors may seem very different from one another, but they are all indicative of a similar issue: not feeling accepted for who you are.
So this is one of the last and most important things that we must do if we are going to put an end to the destructive and costly war on drugs and begin to focus on developing a society that prioritizes individual self-esteem, mental health, and wellbeing. The natural result of this would be a sharp decline in the rates of drug addiction and drug-related crime.
Numerous community resources could be reallocated and dedicated to other programs such as mental health support or proper drug education. Individuals struggling with addiction presently will no longer deny seeking help because they will understand that their community is there to catch them when they fall.
Conclusion
There are lots of different reasons that authorities continue to criminalize drugs. Some of these reasons are legitimate, others are selfish and serve to protect the authorities and instititutions rather than the people.
In either case, it’s obvious that we need better drug education and more support for those people who struggle with addiction.
