There can be no doubt that the war against drugs was lost long ago. That point came when the risk to society of making drugs illegal was outweighed by the benefits society would gain by making them legal. Certainly, the risk to society of making drugs illegal in terms of violence, supporting organized crime, costing billions to imprison users and dealers, making criminals out of many ordinary Americans, who did nothing but attempt to enjoy the freedom of using the substance of their choice in situations that presented no risk of harm to others, and the cost of lost productivity from Americans, who cannot find jobs they’re very capable of doing because of a drug conviction is far outweighed by the benefits of legalization, i.e., the tax revenue to be gained by taxing the sales of drugs, the billions saved in freeing up most prison space that could then be used to imprison criminals who commit crimes against the person and/or property of others (these crimes cost Americans a huge sum of money and more with the loss of life, etc.), the production that could be gained from Americans, who lose control of their ability to use drugs reasonably, through rehabilitation and treatment, and regaining the freedom we’ve always claimed to have but hypocritically take away (the legalization of alcohol and tobacco being a good example of this hypocrisy). For me, that should be the end of the discussion based on good, common sense. The conclusion – legalize all drugs.

You could drink water for twenty four hours straight and that would kill you too. Your argument… holds no water.

“God made grass…” Your religious inclinations seem to have messed up your ability to reason. Or maybe it’s the grass.

Or maybe the smiley at the end means it’s all tongue in cheek. In that case, very amusing.

Posted by Cali099

What ‘experts’ are you talking about? What field of study qualifies such a position? How do you know I don’t have such a background, and that my opinion doesn’t matter?

Besides, I never disagreed with your ‘experts’, except perhaps in timescale. Legalization won’t bring them down in a day, a year, or even a decade. Due to the duration of the war, this isn’t a job for them. It’s a lifestyle, handed down to them by their parents. They don’t need funding to hire “hitmen.” They are hitmen.

Right now they have money and guns. Legalize, and they have guns, but no money. I’m sure they’ll figure out ways to use what they’ve got to get what they want.

Again, I agreed with the article and your ‘experts’ – leagalization is the way to go. But we need to be prepared for the side effects.

The government must stop wantonly and without any nefarious information, the going into practitioners files, under the guise of “protecting people from unscrupulous misuse”
and deciding if a patient is ‘overmedicated’ according to them, and changing or eliminating medications from patients by using the power they have over that practitioners license to prescribe the “narcotics” in question.

For this reason, and this reason specifically, I believe this silly ‘War on Drugs’ must STOP!!! It has gone from attempts to stop drugs from being used illegally, to smuggling in of drugs to this “innocent bucolic” country, to now the easiest target, the need for medical use of these drugs. We have allowed a monster to be born and supported by us. Eliminate it, before damage done is irreversible.

In what respect is it less debilitating/risky? And based on what consumption levels?

I’m for legalization, but statements like this are are not helpful or informative. They’re simply part of the rhetorical s**t storm that surrounds any hot political issue.