United States: Should we end the war on Drugs?

[Scoobes]

Nautilus said:

Scoobes said:

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.

Not solved, but they're not as bad as the problems involved with illegal drug use and without all the criminal activity surrounding the banned substances. A big part of that is because they're regulated. You're far less likely to OD on prescription painkillers if you keep to a set dosage whereas when using heroin you have no clue about purity. And as they're regulated, if you do become addicted you only have a few avenues to get your fix and are more likely to get noticed and get the help needed. 

@ bolded

That assumes we treat them as we currently treat alcohol and to a lesser extent tobacco. When I say regulate it means you have to go to a health center where you get the full education shock beforehand, get limited dosage so you can't OD, make it illegal to re-sell any drugs you do get, ensure you carry a certificate whilst carrying the drugs and limit the places you can actively be under the influence etc. In exchange, you get a product with a guaranteed level of purity. 

Regulation and education are much better alternative then all the crap that we have with the war on drugs considering all the drug issues still exist but are brushed under the carpet whilst we happily let cartels and gangs profit from the violence and brutality they inflict on society.