Drugs And Effect On Society

7 Pages 1728 Words

Drugs in general aren’t exactly something that’s completely mysterious to the public, whether they’re legal or not. Most of the drugs that fall into the “illegal” category are generally referred to as narcotics, such as LSD or marijuana, among others. The ongoing battle between drugs and the laws against it has been going on for almost as long as this country has existed, in one form or another. Early settlers dealt with the addiction of opium. Spirits and beers were on such a high rate that there was a national ban, and today there is highly profitable black market for the selling of marijuana, cocaine, and heroin. With such long standing negativity towards drugs and the violence it breeds, it’s a wonder that the general use of drugs and alcohol is even under debate, if not a much one-sided debate. In order to understand this, it’s necessary to understand just what the problem is in the first place.
A drug of any kind, whether it is Tylenol or Ecstasy, has positives and negatives corresponding to its consumption and effect by and to an individual. For example, a large dose of Advil, a pain reliever, could kill you if taken in a relatively short amount of time. This is simply evened out by having a warning of such things written on the package. In this case, the benefits of the drug far outweigh the evils of it, being a powerful headache medicine and having minimal risks if taken responsibly. That’s why they’re legal. Of course, they and all new drugs have to go through a rigorous test conducted by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) to see what benefits it claims to have and how effective they are, and to minimize its harmful effects on someone. Through this, it gets to see the light of day as a legal and “safe” drug for the publics use.
On the other hand, drugs that don’t really help out the individual, rather it is taken for almost entertainment purposes, these feel-good drugs tend to get rejected by the...