Analyzing Criminalization's Effects on Substance Abuse: An Essay

This essay examines the impact of criminalization on substance abuse, using Canada's approach to cannabis legalization as a case study. The author argues that criminalization is ineffective in controlling drug use, often leading to more harm than good by creating black markets and limiting access to health services. The essay explores the goals of the Cannabis Act, which aimed to keep cannabis out of the hands of youth, reduce criminal involvement, and protect public health. It presents arguments against criminalization, emphasizing the potential for social exclusion and the adverse effects of legalization on individuals dependent on drugs. The essay concludes that a public health approach is essential, advocating for interventions to support current users, reduce illicit drug use, and improve their lives, such as school-based and community-based programs. The author references several studies and reports to support their claims, highlighting the importance of addressing the needs of those already struggling with substance abuse.

Running head: SUBSTANCE ABUSE
Substance abuse
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

1SUBSTANCE ABUSE
Introduction:
The illicit use of drug or substance abuse is a long-standing issue in United States and its
prevalence is increasing day by day. Abuse of substances like tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs
cost about $740 billion annually in United States because of cost related to health care, crime and
lost productivity (National Institute of Drug Abuse, 2018). One of the legislative or legal
response to control drug use involves criminalization of specific substances. However, the
position or thesis statement for this paper is that criminalization of illegal substance use do not
control use of these drugs in society. The paper defends the thesis statement by providing
argument related to the stand taken and by focusing on one or two specific controlled substances.
Effort made by government in North America to control drug use
` In North America, cannabis is one of the major substances consumed by teenagers and
youth in large numbers. The 2017 Canadian Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs Survey (CTADS)
revealed that 15% of Canadians report consuming cannabis in the past 12 months. In addition,
78% of Canadians consumed alcohol in the last one year. The alarming figure is that almost two-
third of Canadian reported consuming cannabis because of non-medical reasons (The Daily,
2017). Recent journal article by Grant and Bélanger (2017) reports cannabis as the most common
illicit drug used globally and frequently use by Canadian teenagers. The use of cannabis in young
age is associated with severe functional and structural damage to the brain. This may lead to
increase in depression, mood disorder and psychotic disorders. It results in diminished school
performance and poor lifetime achievement too (Hartman, Sreeram & Wilson, 2017).

2SUBSTANCE ABUSE
Personal position and arguments related to criminalization of illegal substances
To control use of cannabis for recreational purpose, the Canadian government took the
approach to impose strict legal framework for controlling the production, distribution, use and
possession of cannabis across Canada by the enactment of the Cannabis Act on June 9, 2018.
The three goals of the cannabis Act was to keep cannabis out of the hands of youth, reduce reach
of cannabis for criminals and protect public health. The Act also had criminalization component
as it imposed age restriction by restricting use and sale of cannabis to people less than 18 years
of age. Selling cannabis to youth and using youth to engage in cannabis related crime attracted
maximum penalties of 14 years in jail (Canada Department of Justice, 2018). Despite this form
of criminalization of drug, the personal position on the topic is that criminalization cannot lead to
control of illicit drug use. This can be said because criminalization does more harm than good for
the youths. This is because it opens many other pathways to access substances thus indulging
people to greater risk to get access to drugs. For example, such criminalization has the potential
to open black market so that people using drugs take greater risk to buy them. The research
article by Bender (2016) also defends against criminalization by stating that black market
continues to thrive in states where recreational marijuana has been criminalized. The drugs
available through black market are cheaper and poor people extremely dependent on the drug use
the black market to purchase the drug. Hence, the main purpose of criminalizing cannabis
remains unsolved unless other creative steps are taken to control drug use among already
addicted individuals.
The North America government action to strictly regulate access to cannabis by
legalizing cannabis suggests that the Canadian government has taken a public health approach to
reduce risk associated with illicit cannabis use. However, the positive benefits of criminalization

3SUBSTANCE ABUSE
cannot be achieved because of risk of the social exclusion and reduced access to health services
for those already dependent on the drug. The disastrous effect of criminalizing drug use has been
also reported by an article in America. The Human Rights Watch (2018) cited the results from
the report ‘Every 25 seconds: The human toll of criminalizing Drug Use in the United States’ to
mention how enforcement of drug criminalization law in US has caused extensive and
unjustifiable harm to people across the country. It resulted in wide scale arrest for personal
possession of drugs and every 25 second someone came into the grab of the criminal justice
system. Hence, instead of supporting people who are dependent on substance or drugs, the
criminalization tactic has the potential to destroy many lives. Due to this reason, the position has
been taken that criminalization cannot control illicit drug use. Instead it can cause more harm
than do good for peoples.
Another vital point that defends against going for criminalization to control illicit
drug use includes the adverse impact of the legalization process on health of people dependent
on drugs. Hall and Weier (2015) support the fact that legalization is likely to increase number of
new users and current users will experience several health issues and hardship because of lack of
support to reduce dependence on the drug. Therefore, it can be said that although the Cannabis
Act is effective legal step to control illicit drug use, however lack of focus on current service
users is one major drawback of the legal framework. Cannabis legalization introduces many
challenges for the Canadian government. For example, following policy change, students and
faculty will suffer from great health and social consequences (Hartman, Sreeram & Wilson,
2017). Hence, the immediate need is to introduce cannabis related or other drug related
intervention so that heaviest users of cannabis could be adequately supported and their
consumption of the drug is gradually reduced.

4SUBSTANCE ABUSE
Conclusion
The essay summarized the North America government action to control illicit drug use.
Using legalization of cannabis in Canada as an example, the paper defended that legalization is
less likely to reduce illicit drug use. Instead it is likely to cause more harm because of currents
users or those heavily dependent on such drugs are not supported through suitable intervention.
Instead lives of many such people have been destroyed as they have ended up in jail for passion
of cannabis. Hence, if public health approach to drug preventions needs to be implemented in
North America, then it is essential to ensure that current users are not marginalized and they get
adequate support to reduce illicit drug use and improve their lives. Some innovative steps that
can be taken includes introduction of school based or community based interventions where
heavy users are provided education regarding alternative option that can help them to quit using
substance and lead a good quality life. Knowledge regarding the adverse impact on health would
also play a role reducing adversities and long-term sufferings for target group.

5SUBSTANCE ABUSE
References:
Bender, S. W. (2016). The colors of cannabis: Race and marijuana. UCDL Rev., 50, 689.
Canada Department of Justice (2018). Cannabis Legalization and Regulation. Retrieved from:
https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/cj-jp/cannabis/
Grant, C. N., & Bélanger, R. E. (2017). Cannabis and Canada’s children and youth. Paediatrics
& child health, 22(2), 98-102.
Hall, W., & Weier, M. (2015). Assessing the public health impacts of legalizing recreational
cannabis use in the USA. Clinical pharmacology & therapeutics, 97(6), 607-615.
Hartman, M., Sreeram, P., & Wilson, M. G. (2017). Rapid Synthesis: Identifying the Impacts of
Cannabis Legalization on Youth, and the Responses that can be Taken by Public
Institutions. Retrieved from:
https://macsphere.mcmaster.ca/bitstream/11375/21923/1/Identifying%20the%20Impacts
%20of%20Cannabis%20Legalization%20on%20Youth%2C%20and%20the
%20Responses%20that%20can%20be%20Taken%20by%20Public%20Institutions.pdf
Human Rights Watch (2018). US: Disastrous Toll of Criminalizing Drug Use. Retrieved from:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/10/12/us-disastrous-toll-criminalizing-drug-use
National Institute of Drug Abuse (2018). Trends and statistics. Retrieved from:
https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics
The Daily (2017).Canadian Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs Survey, 2017. Retrieved from:
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/181030/dq181030b-eng.htm