Melachi Jackson
11/18/2019
English 110 [1867]
Krystyna Michael

The Real Killer: Legalization of drugs would only bring more death to the United States

The map is showing you how many lives were taken away due to overdosing on drugs. On the map, it is showing how places that have certain drugs legalized. It becomes a gateway to people using it more and more until they used too much of it and die. Skeptics argue that drug abuse stems from people abusing the drug and not how powerful the drug is. In actuality having such powerful drugs legalized can cause many people to die. If we don’t illegalize drugs then the United States will continue to lose too many people every day.

In “Drug Use Rankings Show Big Surprises And Even Bigger Problems” author Nicole Fisher explains how the states with large populations are having more drug-related deaths the others because they have a high drug-dealing problem. “ South Dakota and Wyoming are tied for the most DEA arrests per capita in recent years, followed by Mississippi and Missouri. It is guessed that state laws pertaining to drug monitoring, as well as a number of synthetic drug and trafficking ring busts, are the culprit of the high rankings.” These states have drugs legalized and this causes people to sell and traffic drugs since it has been legalized there. This explains why West Virginia as a much higher drug death rate than West Virginia. On my map, it shows how the western side of Virginia is darker red which means there is more deaths than the Eastside.

In “Drug Overdose Deaths in the United States, 1999-2017” the authors wanted to explain how dangerous drugs really are. They inform the reader just how many people lost their life due to drugs. “In 2017, there were 70,237 drug overdose deaths in the United States”. People die almost every day of natural causes but these deaths can be avoided. This goes to show the problem has not gotten better. My map was all the deaths rates that had taken place in 2014. The number has increased tremendously over 3 years. Furthermore, the issues continuously grow and more and more people die due to drugs. “The age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths increased from 6.1 per 100,000 standard population in 1999 to 21.7 in 2017.” Not just adolescents are dying as well. Teenagers are obtaining drugs without having to need identification every single day. In all the United States is facing a crisis that is harming both the youth and the adults.

Drug smuggling has to originate somewhere and it is mainly bringing brought in by people in the state of Colorado. “Authorities say growers are using loopholes in Colorado’s legal cannabis system to produce marijuana destined for illegal export, tempted by the high prices that Colorado’s high-grade marijuana commands on the black market” Colorado is the main place people smuggle drugs because of how legal it is. This relates to the map at the start of the essay because it shows how colorado is fueling the states around it to raise their drug death. This just relates back to teenagers and how they are getting drugs. The drug dealers are getting drugs and selling them to kids. The drug rate in Colorado is much higher than it should be because of how legal it is.

Drugs related deaths are increasing and becoming more of an issue that needs to be addressed. Many states have drugs illegalized but as time goes by these drugs would be legalized and more and more people will die due to them. It will not just affect the adult but teenagers will be at risk.

Fisher, Nicole. “Drug Use Rankings Show Big Surprises And Even Bigger Problems.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 1 June 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicolefisher/2018/06/01/drug-use-rankings-show-big-surprises-even-bigger-problems/#ff09de877c2e.

Hedegaard, Holly, Margaret Warner, and Arialdi M. Miniño. “Drug overdose deaths in the United States, 1999–2015.” (2017).

Warner, Margaret. “Products – Health E Stats – Trends in Drug-Poisoning Deaths: United States, 1999–2012.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 6 Nov. 2015,

Hughes, Trevor. “When Smuggling Colo. Pot, Not Even the Sky’s the Limit.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 17 May 2016,

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