A Major World Problem

Nobody doubts that the world faces a major problem with the illicit use of drugs. It touches all our lives and few can claim to have been unaffected by it. We have learned of drug abuse among our friends and (1) ________, within our own families and in our own neighbourhoods. Most of us have personal knowledge of individuals who have died through (2) ________, and we all know people who have suffered because of it.

Three approaches

There are basically three (3) _______ to dealing with the drug problem: “try harder”, “get tough”, and “get soft”. The first proposes continuing with more-or-less the present system of restricting the use of “controlled substances” by a confusing combination of (4) ________, medical provision, miscellaneous taxation, and occasional criminal sanctions for unauthorized distribution and use. Despite repeated failures, it is believed that (5) ________ in the system can yet be made and the problem solved.

The second proposes “cracking down” on drugs, eliminating the problem “once and for all”. The rhetoric (though not the practice) of the so-called “war on drugs” falls in this camp. Greater police powers and tougher sentencing, it is claimed, will put all the (6) _________ behind bars and save our children from the menace of illicit drugs.

The third proposes legalizing the sale of drugs across the board, in the belief that this will make the problem (7) _________. It’s not the drug that’s the menace; it’s the laws against them. If we didn’t have the laws, we wouldn’t have a problem.

The (8) ________ reader will already have detected a degree of cynicism in my description of these three approaches. Their apologists (or so it seems to me) seldom attempt any honest evaluation of the situation, or of the merits of other options, or of the demerits of their own position. Instead they (9) _______as dogmatists, emotionally tied to a single point of view: “liberal democracy good”, so carry on regardless; “drugs bad”, so declare a moral war; “freedom good”, so legalize everything.

Today’s drug dealing is probably the world’s most (10) ________crime. The Colombian international drug (11) ______, “Kali”, which monopolizes the trade in Los Angeles and Miami, is estimated (12) _________ over 80% of the world’s cocaine and a third of its heroin.

Illegal drug syndicates are estimated to take in about $25 billion a year in the United States alone. In 1998, 59 tons of cocaine and 770 pounds of heroin were confiscated by American police (13) __________.

(Paul Birch “Analysis of the Drug Problem”)