Social And Economic Benefits Of Prohibition In The United States

In every country, it is important for the government to balance the three policies that they have in place, including prohibition, legalization and decriminalization. For each of these policy, there are certain benefits and costs that makes one suitable than the others. Take prohibition for example, it is ‘’refers to a policy of criminalization, whereby the production, manufacture, growing, and possession of drugs are violation of one or more criminal statutes’’ (Faupel, Weaver & Corzine, pg. 437). In addition, prohibition helped send ‘’a symbolic message about virtues valued by most Americans’’ (Faupel, Weaver & Corzine, pg. 443). Compared to other policies, prohibition offers a few advantages that others simply do not have. For starter, this particular policy would limit the number of users who use illegal or unhealthy drugs in society. As we all know, the effects of some of the drugs are detrimental to the health of the users
As suggested by Ethan Nadelmann, prohibitionist policies have resulted in ‘’serious social and economic costs’’ (Faupel, Weaver & Corzine, pg. 444). Besides the costs in increased crime, nearly $20 billion in taxpayers’ money have been spent on DEA programs and others. Not only that, prohibitionist policies is the primary reason that drugs have become more concentrated, since they would take up less space and reduce the visibility of their trafficking (Faupel, Weaver & Corzine, pg. 447). While the costs seems to outweigh the advantages when it comes to prohibitionist policies, I still think prohibition would be a better option than legalization and decriminalization. Because at the end of the day, I’m not sure if our country is ready for a society where illegal drugs become commodities. Besides, it is literally impossible for our government to systematically regulate and control the amount of drugs on