Should the US legalize drugs?

[The Ghost of RubangB]

@bardicverse, do you think that if heroin was legalized MORE people would want to do it?

That implies that there is a group of people that really wants to do heroin, and the only reason they won't is the law. That doesn't make sense. If you want heroin, you find it and do it immediately. It's easy to find anywhere.


It's like this one wacko who called a radio show and said prostitution should stay illegal because if it was legal, every single woman in the world would instantly become a whore for easy money. The host asked him exactly if that was what he meant, because he couldn't believe him, and the caller said yes.


I don't think legalization promotes usage. Not every tourist in Amsterdam does every drug and prostitute in town just because it's legal and they've been waiting their whole life to get it out of their system. They might just buy one pot brownie or something, or nothing. Alcohol is legal and I know tons of people who are smart enough not to drink it. If alcohol was made illegal, I wouldn't stop drinking. If heroin was made legal, I wouldn't start shooting. The law on these sorts of things doesn't affect people's behavior.

But making it legal makes it easier to help the people who need help. In fact, if you have the rehab clinic in the same building as the dispensary, with a clean needle exchange, it's really really easy, and in countries that do legalize harder drugs, more people actually quit.