Opinion Essay - Sara Bouzas

Governments often make many addictive substances illegal because they may hurt the health of those who take them. But alcohol and tobacco may also be dangerous to a person’s health, and they are legal. Should the government make these substances illegal?

During history, people have been taking substances that are harmful for their own health, such as tobacco, cocaine or even alcohol. The perfect solution for this issue would be to get rid of them but that wouldn’t be easy. So the question here would be if banning alcohol and tobacco would be the best choice.

There are too many factors to take in consideration for this matter. First of all, if those addictive substances become illegal people will just find other ways to obtain them, probably from drug dealers. The issue here, is that there’s a big chance that those substances will contain additives that may cause even worse effects to their health rather than the substance itself. If it’s not controlled by the government there won’t be a health control and the consequences of this may end up being lethal.

Another thing to consider is where the money goes after people buy it. Honestly, I would prefer that it went to the government even though it might be corrupt rather than ending up in the hands of some mafia or drug dealers. Because as long as there’s a demand on those products there will be someone who will sell them, and there’s probably nothing we can do about that.

In conclusion, even though addictive substances are bad for our health, in this case alcohol and tobacco is better that it’s legal and has to pass health controls than the alternative which is not having control of them at all.