Samuel,
Legalizing drugs won't solve the problem of people using drugs. However, it will solve the problem of drug cartels in our 230 cities with their army of street pushers. If you legalizing something, you bring it out in the open to be dealt with in a civil way, as there's no 'oh man, they're gonna jail me when they find out I'm on X!' mentality.
Much of the crime and problems associated with drugs aren't their exact usage, but the distribution networks that are involved. How many drug pushers (not users) are killing eachother, and going to jail?
Yes, if you legalized drugs, prices may still stay high, but they'd be lower than now, and you'd take the inherent profit out of the business, so cartels would have to close up shop in the US....Why buy pot made in some nerds dingy basement when you can go to Walgreens and pick up a carton of marijuana cigarettes?
The saddest part of this war on drugs is how many people are dying in it. More people have died in Mexico in a year than US soldiers have died in Iraq and Afghanistan combined since the wars started.
I am the most anti-drug guy there is...Never have done them, never will. As a youth pastor, I am totally against all forms of bad substances - alcohol, tobacco, and harder substances. Yet despite that, I don't get why we can have so many bad things like alcohol, and suddenly say 'hey, lets build up illegal cartels! It's a great idea!'
Prohibition didn't work because it allowed our home-grown mobs to become very powerful, as they were the only ones able to create & distribute booze. Problem was, a lot of the operations created some horrible drinks like moonshine, which is the leading cause of death due to lead poisonings (80% of lead deaths come from moonshine)....Drugs are the same way. In people's desire for drugs, they've created worse, more risky, and more powerful drugs in an effort to get a faster, better high that is more transportable to avoid detection...Banning them caused this. That great video either Mafoo or Akuma shared by Milt Friedman was great in explaining this stuff.
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
