Essay No.2
I think the way to cope with drugs in Holland is better than that in the U.S. There are two reasons why I chose it. The first reason is that some people who get addicted to drug can more easily return to their community because there're more methods to cure them and more people can accept them as normal persons not as dangerous persons in Holland. I'll try to take an instance to show the result in U.S. concretely. If one person who was addicted to drug are not accepted in his community and exiled, he lost the opportunity to restart working though he makes many efforts to get able to return and live there. Then he lacks the money with which to live and suffers from withdrawal symptoms for lack of treatment, finally he may restart to take drug or commit crimes, for example larceny, robbery, violence, murder, and so on. To sum up, the environment in the U.S. drives drug addicts into criminals on the other hand the one in Holland helps them get normal persons.
The second reason is that in U.S. some kinds of drugs, like heroin, opium, are illegal and the use, possess and trade of them are strictly prohibited on the other hand some drugs cigarette, alcohol (taking account of their addictive property, I define them as drugs) marihuana are legal and the use and possess of them are allowed. (But the personal product of them are strictly prohibited the same as illegal drugs) Why is there the difference between illegal drugs legal and ones? I didn't know the detail but I presume that this difference is the compromise of the U.S. government between healthy problem and tax. This sentence means that the government wants their citizens to be in good health because illness from drug result in the cost to cure them and loss of the work force on the other hand it wants to gain much money by taxing the trade of drug. In other words, the government looks on tax more important than citizen's health because it consider only tax, money. I don't like the nation (the U.S.) that chooses its stated principals and real intention, so that I prefer the nation (Holland) whose principals are coherent.
I chose the way in Holland but the way in Japan is more similar to one in the U.S. Does this mean that I dislike my own country?
I would like to think about the reason why putting addicts (means people who are addicted to drugs or other) who use cocaine in prison are not useful of curing their addiction but accelerate their addiction. This reason is in following sentences. Many of them are addicted to crack cocaine, which is extremely addictive cocaine and illegal, and too poor to be under medical treatment, so without other people's help they cannot cure their addiction nor return to their community by starting to work. Then they restart to take the crack and get arrested, and finally they return to their start point, prison. Briefly, the reason is a vicious circle.
If so, what's the reason for it? The answer is that many of them suffer extreme poverty. Then, why are they so poor? It's because more than a half of them have no job or low-wage earner. And then, why cannot they find jobs? There're mainly two reasons that I found. First one is that not only they but also their parents are so poor that they cannot have enough education and training. Second reason is that the U.S. government permits tacitly crack cocaine to be brought from foreign, not control smuggling strictly. (We can find that about 15 years ago the possess of powder cocaine is not so serious crime) And the government said, “Just Say No”, the campaign against the drugs, meanwhile it sold drugs to get much money. They are so contradictory. Third reason, that I think main reason, is that the discrimination against minorities, especially the blacks, exists to high degree. It interferes with their looking for jobs, and deprives them of the same opportunities to get jobs as the whites.
To sum up, poverty and discrimination (and unemployment because of them) keep the minorities poor and in bad situation where crack cocaine are always sold. So, to break the vicious circle and to solve drug problem, first of all we must solve these problems. 戻る