Sample essay: Summary of a reading
Greg Cohen
Professor Baecker
English 122
21 January 1999
In his speech "Drug Policy and the Intellectuals," William Bennett chides intellectuals who claim that our drug problem can be solved by legalization. Bennett finds all of their arguments unconvincing. According to some intellectuals, legalization would remove the profit motive from the drug business. Bennett disagrees, claiming that most drug dealers profit very little because they are small-time "runners." Bennett also disagrees with the view that legalizing drugs would reduce the crime rate; most criminals, he says, were committing crimes before they became hooked on drugs. Some intellectuals argue that drug use would not rise upon legalization. Citing the crack epidemic as an example of what happens when a drug becomes widely available, Bennett argues that drug use would skyrocket. Some intellectuals declare that it costs too much to enforce drug laws; Bennett reasons that the cost of not enforcing them would be higher. He mentions costs to society such as drug-related accidents, lost productivity, hospitalizations, and the births of premature infants. He also cites the personal costs to addicts--the loss of dignity, of a sense of responsibility, of intellectual acuity. And drug users don't just hurt themselves, asserts Bennett: "They hurt parents, they destroy families, they ruin friendships" (519). To intellectuals who claim that the war on drugs is a lost cause, Bennett counters with examples of cities and communities in which the war is being won, sometimes block by block. Bennett calls upon intellectuals to use their mental talents to help communities combat the deadly problem of drugs.
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