Should Recreational Drug Users Face Penalties, And Does Their Criminalisation Solve Anything?

No one should be put into prison for taking a drug. He/she usually has enough problems.

The laws prohibiting the use of drugs are cruel, do not achieve the proposed aims and cause more problems than they solve.

I believe they will be removed eventually. Drugs are defined as "any substance that can be used to modify a chemical process or processes in the body, for example to treat an illness, relieve a symptom, enhance a performance or ability, or to alter states of mind". Heroin, cocaine, marijuana, alcohol, coffee and tobacco are all drugs. Before you think "alcohol, tobacco and coffee are not drugs", consider the following: every year in the USA 300,000 people die due to smoking of tobacco. 150,000 die because of alcohol.

[continues 948 words]