Drugs have negative effects on the person taking them that alter thoughts and actions. Thomas Szasz, in his article "The Ethics of Addiction-, argues "for unless we are willing to hold ourselves responsible for our own behavior, and hold others responsible for theirs, the liberty to use drugs degenerates into a license to hurt others- (Szasz, 331). People who use drugs do not have control over their own lives, so if this is the case, how could a drug user have control over the way he or she treats others? For example, if a mother is on drugs, how is she supposed to take care of her child if she cannot care enough for herself to discontinue the use of the drug she is taking? The affects of any drug are very harmful to a woman and her child: "Women are much more likely to use crack than heroin, and if they are pregnant, the effects on their babies are tragic Cocaine harms the fetus and can lead to physical deformities or neurological damage- (Wilson, 338). Physical abuse and harm to children is just one of the effects of a drug addiction. Take the example of cocaine use. "Crack-dependent people are individuals who regularly victimize their children by neglect, their spouses by improvidence, their employers by lethargy, and their coworkers by carelessness- (Wilson, 338). Our society does not want more violence or negative consequences to occur as a result of drug legalization, so drug illegality should remain in full effect. .
Many may argue that people who have an addiction will function better in the workplace if their drug of choice is available to them whenever they want it. Many accidents may occur if the workplace is not drug free, so this is a poor argument. The lives of the workers around this drug user could constantly be in jeopardy. People do not want to come to work everyday fearing for their lives. Another problem is that "drug-dependent people have very short time horizons and a weak capacity for commitment- (Wilson, 340).
