Yet we have millions of Americans that are carrying concealed firearms at this very second, and have incredibly few incedents of firearm accidents or supposed shootouts with these said firearms. Go look at crime rates in states that passed concealed carry laws and castle doctrine laws. You don't have the types of crime you are claiming would happen.

Alternatively, the lack or prevalence of firearms in a nation has litterally no correlation with actual crime. America is always pointed out and laughed at because of our firearm ownership and crime rates, yet the fact is, our crime rate has nothing to do with firearm ownership - crime has been going down considerably since the early 90's, while firearm ownership has been on a steady increase since the 60's. Furthermore, states that have stricter laws on gun control have higher incedents of overall murders than those with lax laws - the Brady Campaign (an anti-gun program) proved this by releasing their Brady Score for all US states, and states with stricter laws had a much higher murder rate than those that didn't.

The reality is that the causes of crime - and gun crime - have far more to do with education, income disparity, and other economic motives than they do access to deadly weapons. For example, the county I live in has a lower murder rate than any nation in Europe, yet we have one of the highest concealed carry rates in our state (meaning more people are carrying handguns on them at this second than many other places in the state and nation).

Pidegeonholing the problem to firearm ownership is just as idiotic as saying banning drugs helps improve the problem - they have no basis in statistical reality.

Not really thinking about a teenager drugs like pot but the other ones like heroin, meth and crack .  America is a larger population then Portugal and has a chaotic country run by drug cartel in Mexico that Portugal luckily doesn't have. 2009 statistics: drug arrest in the USA 30,567  Murdered in the USA 15,290 drug death in the USA 63,846 while Portugal drug death is only 290 kind of makes you wonder.

I think it would make it worse in the USA if you legalize it there's a domino effect to it like gambling crime goes up across the board United States culture different from that to western European's culture but not as bad as Russia's or Mexico's thou.

Just because we have a larger population doesn't mean that we wouldn't experience Portugal's meteoric decline in drug violence. Why do you think Portugal's drug deaths are only 300/yr? Portugal was seeing far more people die from drug usage prior to de-criminalization (about 600-700/yr).

Why would there be a domino effect that would increase crime due to legalization? I am looking for a sound explanation, because you've offered no factual data points to argue that, whereas I've already pointed to Portugal's significant decrease in criminal activity. When we have a few examples that say 'This works', and you argue that won't be the case here, despite lacking any evidence to point to this. You have no actual data to support your position, outside of opinion. I don't think that is a reasonable stance to take on such an important topic.

Furthermore, we can take the historical American precedent of prohibition and crime - we find that when prohibition was enacted, crime rates jumped significantly during the the active enforcement of the law. Why did they increase? Because users of alcohol had to turn to criminals to get their fix, instead of reputable establishments. The same can be said for drugs - look at marijuana dispensaries in states that have legalized it. Did they increase in crime? No. So if they didn't increase, why should we expect an increase which is directly contrary to any and all data that is available on the issue.

Highest death by drugs in Portugal was 368 not 600 to 700. Domino effect is this people who are addicted to drugs can't keep their jobs so how will they live? On welfare? I think robbery will go up, prositution will go up, and murder rate will go up. But then again my opinion i  got NO FACTUAL DATA on it but just don't see any positive to legalizing it. Too many people lives are destroyed by it why legalize it?

There are statistics that prove you wrong yet none to support you. Isn't it time for Captain Obvious to accept the truth?

Nice, thanks.

Well i know California would be the first State to legalize drugs i want to see if it works in the States before jumping in the bandwagon.

Good luck with that. Big Pharmas bought out your politicians.

I am sorry but I can't let you prop up alcohol while dissing other drugs.  Alcohol is a drug.  There are plenty of alcoholics in the USA.  There are about 75,000 deaths per year in USA due to drunk driving, cirrhosis of the liver, etc....  "Excessive alcohol consumption is the third leading cause of preventable death in the United States after tobacco use and poor eating and exercise habits."  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6089353/ns/health-addictions/t/alcohol-linked-us-deaths-year/

So tobacco and alcohol are in the top 3 of leading cause of preventable deaths.  Amazing that these are legal but if they were made illegal all hell would break out again just like it did during alcohol prohibition.  Find me the death rates of marijuana.  Pretty hard to find because you can't overdose on it.  Did it lead to car crashes?  I am sure but it hard to pinpoint since THC can stay in your system for a few weeks sometimes.  They can see you had THC in your system but they don't know if you were actually high.   Here is a Speedvision study (just 1 person) that actually drove better stoned than sober.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z5jkYvKscw

Anyways, stop acting like alcohol and tobacco aren't drugs.  They are drugs.  Least weed is grown naturally and is one of the safest drugs on this planet.  Captain Obvious you sound like you need hit on your head to return to your obvious state.  Also, you stated that drugs are different monster than alcohol.... LOL... You fucking crack me up!!!  I am sure there are zero alcoholics that are hooked on alcohol till they die.  I am sure that no one can give up drugs once they start.  You sound so misinformed and disillusioned.

California has a pretty big legalizing movement going on i see them legalizing pot in 5 years.