United States: Should we end the war on Drugs?

[Nautilus]

Scoobes said:

Nautilus said:

The example I gave was in reference to strong drugs, like cocain and heroin, not alcohol or Tabacco, otherwise it would be a silly example.I mean sure, it is an extreme example, but its not far-fetched.Depending on how you use it, you coukld die on 1 or 2 years, or at least have serious damages on the body, most likely permanent.Not to mention the severe social implications that using those drugs could have.Losing friends, wifes/husbands, even family members because you could have a destructive nature(read:burn the money, be agrressive, and so on).

And while yes, I would agree that, in a world that all drugs were allowed, that would creat a myriad of other problems, some even as serious as the old ones.People could lose all their money just to satisfy the addiction(that would be especially true for drugs that are highly addictive), be indebted because of that.It would cause accidents, be it with cars and whatnot, in a similar fashion that Alcohol cause them.Depending on the drug, people would be incapacitated to do any kind of work during the influence of the drug, again ina similar fashion when you are drunk(maybe even worse).And many more reasons.To be quite honest, there will be many implications that we can only predict once it happens, since Humankind can be really creative when it wants to be.

And in my opinion, and thats strictly speculation, you wouldnt decrease the number of users.I mean, you are legalizing it!What it would decrease is the crimes related to drug traffic and such, that would go down.As stated above, its not a matter of being moral or immoral(even though I do think it is immoral), its more of a matter that it would cause much more harm than good, making legal every single drug, or even making legal dangerous drugs.

A lot of the problems you've written about are directly related to the fact the drugs are illegal and therefore completely unregulated. By regulating drug use and having properly controlled dosage to help prevent OD, long-term biological damage and addiction you could greatly reduce the number of users who would suffer ill-effects. And as you've already stated, drug-related crimes which have increased greatly since the war on drugs would actually go down. 

As for reducing the number of users, the only way to do so is through education as has been seen in the use of tobacco in the developed world. 

Really?So accidents caused by alcohol abuse has been "solved" around the world?Or cancer developed by smoking is surely a rarity?Or even addiction of legal drugs are few and far betwenn?We already have numerous problems plaguing the drugs we are allowed to use.Just because lets say cacaine is legally allowed to use, do you believe that problems are going to dissapear from thin air?Do you trully believe South America will create clinics especific to use this drug, in a controlled enviroment?Or Asia?Or Africa?Or even the USA?Netherlands and a few other countries in Europe are the exception, since they have a really high social responsability.Legallizing drugs would solve mostly drug traffic related crimes, like murder, drug mules and so on.But it would create so many more problems, like drug abuse in parties(imagine the abuse it would have in university parties if that were legal to use?), drivers under the influence of strong drugs which could be even worse than alcohol, and many, many more.And how can you better control long-term biological damage from those illegal drugs, if even we have problems dealing with the legal ones?It would just pile up.

To be quite honest here, neither solutions are ideal.The best one of all would be to ban acess to the hardcore drugs, like cocaine and meths for example, but at the same time give a proper education to the masses.Not just drug-related, but overall.When you know more, you are less propensed to do stupid things.The reason governments dont do it/hardly do is because its a long-terms plan.Educating the society takes time and effort, and politicians prefer the results to be shown while they are in power for their own gain.