| The Ghost of RubangB said:
And some people can't handle driving cars without running over kids and old ladies. Do we make driving illegal for everybody because some people can't handle it? Or do we put an age limit on it, restrictions about driving sober, and make registration/insurance/gas really expensive and tax the hell out of all of it? You're more likely to be killed by a psycho with a car than a psycho with a drug problem. But I think both should be legal, regulated, and taxed. IF our laws are just about safety and not about freedom, then we need to get rid of cars, alcohol, tobacco, and fast food immediately. |
Driving is a poor analogy as the lack of universal public transportation makes cars a necessity to modern life for many. Comparing something which is almost a requirement of existence in today's world to a recreational drug is overboard. Even worse is the fact that there are thousands of car related fatalities every year proving that such laws, while not entirely ineffective, are not entirely effective either.
Also, right now drug dealers are risking a huge punishment in order to push their wares. Making it legal and taxing it is essentially saying to them that you are not only making their business legal but also lowering the penalties of their current business methods from possession/distribution of an illegal substance to mere tax evasion. I don't see what incentive that gives them to allow the government to tax them. Heck, by making the penalties less severe if they get caught you're almost encouraging them to do business as usual. Unless you'd like to talk mainstream retail distribution as an incentive to legalize that is. However then you deal with the thought of having drugs sold in your local Walmart which isn't very comforting at all either.
