Drug use is highly correlated with poverty, crime and teenage pregnancies; yet it is not necessarily the motivating factor behind these issues. Crime is associated with drug use due to the fact that drugs are currently illegal, and quite possibly if the ban on drugs is lifted, the crime associated with it will dissipate. "Just as culturally approved drugs have been promoted as symbols of maturity, and their habitual use as proof of competence in life's games - so culturally disapprove drugs have generally been prohibited as the symbols of immaturity, and their habitual use as proof of incompetence in life's games and hence the symptom of mental disease or moral debauchment or both.".
Next, society suffers financially from the strain on the court system caused by drug offences. As we discussed in class, the average jail sentence for a convicted drug offender is an average of 77 months. For each month that a convicted drug offender is in jail, a financial strain is put on taxpayers" shoulders. This seems somewhat needless due to the fact that a murderer will spend less time in prison then a drug offender. The government argues that drug abusers pose a threat to peaceable citizens and "the general welfare" of the nation. The United States government (at the federal, state, and local levels) expends most of its policing and incarceration efforts and dollars enforcing a policy of zero tolerance for illegal drugs. Over $40 billion are spent per year to wage the Drug War. The majority of our prison and jail population is made up of drug offenders, many of them non-violent. Thanks largely to the Drug War, the United States incarcerates a greater percentage of its population than any other developed nation. By eliminating drug laws we will effectively improve the court system. Not only would this eliminate the costs, but it would eliminate the time spent dealing with these cases. Also by legalizing drugs it would allow the government to collect on the money that is currently in circulation in the underground market.