An Essay About Gore Vidal's Drugs: A Case for Legalizing Marijuana

In an article entitled "Drugs: Case for Legalizing Marijuana" by Gore Vidal, Vidal makes a strong case for legalizing all drugs in this country. He discusses basic human nature and historical events to make this claim. Basically, Gore Vidal makes three main points about drug use. Gore Vidal tells the reader that making drugs illegal does not stop drug addiction and trafficking, why legalizing drugs would work, and why legalization is still unlikely to occur.

First, Gore Vidal explains why making drugs illegal does not stop drug use and trafficking. He explains that he himself has tried everything once, and contrary to our popular belief, he has not become a drug user or abuser. He brings to our mind the ideas that our country was founded on in that every man has the right to do what he wants as long as it doesn't interfere with his neighbor's right to do what he wants. He cites all of the irrational fears that we have such as "if everyone is allowed to take drugs everyone will and the GNP will decrease, the Commies will stop us from making everyone free, and we shall end up a race of Zombies, passively murmuring "groovie" to one another" (Vidal). He explains that while some men may certainly want to kill themselves, most men do not.

Gore Vidal then expands on his idea that legalizing drugs would work. However, forbidding drug use is absolutely the wrong way to go. It only makes people want to use drugs more. If drugs had descriptions of the good and bad on them, people would choose for themselves not to take them. If we only think of what happened during Prohibition, his case will be made. According to Vidal, Prohibition sent America off on "greatest crime wave in the country's history, caused thousands of deaths from bad alcohol, and created a general (and persisting) contempt for the laws of the United States" (Vidal). The government apparently has not learned anything from this monumental mistake. He cites an example of Mexican marijuana being curtailed by the Feds, so the pushers instead hooked kids on heroin. He blames the government for the high rates of death associated with that incident. The government makes them much more in demand by making them illegal.

Gore Vidal then explains why America will never legalize drugs. First of all, it is a matter of money. Both the Mafia and the Bureau of Narcotics know that if drugs are legalized, there would be no money in it for them. Addicts would not commit crimes for their next fix of drugs if drugs could be obtained legally. There would be no reason for the existence of the Bureau of Narcotics since they would then have nothing to do. He stresses the idea that Americans are devoted to making money. Americans are also devoted to the entire idea of sin and punishment. He says that "fighting drugs is nearly as big a business as pushing them" (Vidal). The situation instead will only become worse.

Gore Vidal very clearly makes his points in this essay. Making drugs illegal as they are and have been is not succeeding as a method to stop drug use and trafficking. By making them illegal, we are only whetting the appetite of many people who would like to try them. He cites to examples here to prove his case. Finally, drugs are money. Pushing drugs generates lots of money, and fighting drugs generates almost as much money. America is committed to money, and we are committed to the idea of punishing those who have sinned, in our estimation. That is why the problems of drug use and abuse will only continue to get worse.

Works Cited

Vidal, Gore, "Drugs: Case for Legalizing Marijuana, September 26, 1970. Retrieved

June 5, 2008 at Web Site: http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/01/home/vidal- drugs.html?_r=2&oref=slogin