Howa Bill Becomes a Law
Abuseof drugs is a major problem affecting teens and young adults in thestate of Arizona. The number of drug users has been increasinglysharply in Arizona despite the existence of regulations barring theuse of hard drugs. One of the solutions that I believe can assist incombating the drug menace in Arizona include introduction ofPsychoactive Substance Act. With the act, the state of Arizona willsuccessfully regulate the availability of drugs such as heroin to theabusers since every person will be held responsible for the behaviorsthat take place in the society.
Background
Thecontinuous pouring of drugs into Arizona has contributedsignificantly to an epidemic of addiction in a generation of youngpeople and families. Existence of a promising environment for herointrafficking in Arizona has made many people to take part in not onlythe drug trafficking business, but also consumption of drugs. Insupport of this claim, many Arizona officials note that overdosedeaths are growing at a startling rate. Similarly, the Centers forDisease Control reported that deaths as a result of drug overdosehave risen sharply. The United Kingdom managed to reduce the abuse ofdrugs among its citizens through the introduction of more stringentstandards under the Psychoactive Substance Act that it introduced in2016. According to that act, every person in the society has theresponsibility of ensuring human safety. Participating in theproduction, selling, advocating as well as reckless observing of howother people consume substances with psychoactive effects is a crime(Psychoactive Substance Act 2016, 2016). Thus, any person associatedwith any of these practices is subjected to punishment by the state.Holding every person responsible reduced not only production ofdrugs, but also distribution and abuse of drugs by people in thesociety.
Accordingto Flores (2015), drugs such as heroin are ready supply and they areaccessible on the streets. In fact, the growing demand for the drugsin Arizona has made crimes related to abuse of heroin to grow by overfive-fold within eight years (Flores, 2015). As it was noted before,being tough on traffickers has proved futile in combating the drugabuse problem in this state. As a result of this, something else thathas worked elsewhere need to be tried in Arizona. Holding everyperson responsible for the availability of the drugs in the streetswill significantly reduce abuse of drugs among teens and youngyouths. The Psychoactive Substance Act by the UK states that “Aperson commits an offence if the person knows or suspects, or oughtto know or suspect, that the substance is a psychoactive substance,and the person knows, or is reckless as to whether, the psychoactivesubstance is likely to be consumed by the person to whom it issupplied, or by some other person, for its psychoactive effects”(Psychoactive Substance Act 2016, 2016, p.3). From the statementprovided, it is apparent that the passing of the PsychoactiveSubstance Act in the state of Arizona will regulate the availabilityof the drugs in the street. People who do not use drugs in Arizonawill be forced to report those involved in the trafficking as well asconsumption of the drugs in the society since the law will alsoconsider them law breakers.
Introductionof Psychoactive Substance bill in the state of Arizona will havegreat financial impact to the state. The amount used by the state inmanagement of the addicts and adverse effects of the drugs willreduce greatly. Similarly, the state is likely to save many livesthat are often lost because of drug overdose. That way, the statewill experience an increase in revenue as many teens and young youthswill become productive to the society. This bill however will havemixed reactions from the public. It will be supported mainly byadults who constitute the smallest percentage of drug abusers. Thebill will be opposed by a great percentage of teens and young adultsas well as drug cartels that benefit from the drug traffickingbusiness.
References
Flores,J. (2015). HeroinAddiction on the Rise Across Arizona.Retrieved from http://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/arizona-news/53585328-story
PsychoactiveSubstances Act 2016. (2016). Retrieved fromhttp://www.drugwise.org.uk/wp- content/uploads/ukpga_20160002_en.pdf
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