Something to think about

Coming from a close-knit, structured, christian family, I was brought up to be responsible, to study hard and to not do drugs. I have always perceived illicit drugs as taboo. This morning a very challenging and eye opening discussion came about our psychology class about the use of legal and illegal drugs. Drugs were essentially created for diseases/ailments as a form of treatment, therefore ensuring long and healthy life. But as we all know, people always have the tendency to abuse such things and later regret the consequences. The result however, as imposed by the system is imprisonment. Well, initially I did not see anything wrong with that because as a young child, drugs have been instilled in my mind as bad, harmful, addictive, and could ultimately ruin one's life. According to our professor, and the text we are diligently assigned to read, some illicit drugs have the same content as those drugs available over-the-counter, even the ones precribed by a physician. Makes you really think and analyze things over again.

Who then can tell whether drugs are illegal or not? The answer is right up on our noses. The big, filthy rich, pharmaceutical companies, who by the way funds the congress and who lives of the poor and vulnerable. It all comes together now. They are the ones who tell us that this drug is bad, for the obvious reason that they could not get any profit out of it. This on the other hand is good, because we said so, so empty your pockets and buy the darn thing. Coming back to my point, people,especially those with low socio economic status get busted for the possession and/or use of illicit drugs and are sent to jail, while the upper class roam free. People use drugs as a way to cope with things they are dealing with emotionally and physically. If they are sent to jail for using drugs, it only worsens the problem. The point my professor was trying to make is the freedom of a person to choose whether it is beneficial or harmful to take these drugs and have full control over his/her well-being or self-destruction. Marijuana for example is a forbidden drug but was first used as a form of herbal medicine for relaxation. There has been no statistics to prove of any violent crimes brought about by its usage. There's even no evidence of its toxicity. Alcohol on the other hand, which is very much legal, have been the cause of many deadly crimes and accidents. Point is people choose to drink or not to. And if they do, they will experience the painful consequences it could offer and eventually be willing to be sober and restore their lives, in oppose to just locking them up in jail and giving them no chance at all to start over.