I spent my youth in the heart of New York City. I guarantee that I’ve seen everything you have and at least ten times more.
It has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the legal status of drugs has no effect on the amount of drug use. Places like the Netherlands where drugs are legal have no more drug use than anywhere else. When Portugal legalized, drug use actually went down (due to the elimination of the “forbidden fruit” incentive).
All drug laws do is increase taxes, the power of government, and crime. The black market always fills in where legal markets are forbidden.
And you are correct that I wouldn’t use these drugs if they were legal. I haven’t had so much as a bottle of aspirin in my medicine-less cabinet in my entire adult life. I think you will find that likewise, removing prohibitions will not cause anyone to use drugs who would not seek them out under current conditions as well.
You like taxes, big government, and a loss of freedom, then the drug war is for you. It is not for me. I do not arrogate to myself the right to tell another human being how to pursue happiness, as long as they do not violate the liberty of others in said pursuit.
“I guarantee that I’ve seen everything you have and at least ten times more.”
You have seen ten times more? How do know that? We are both from large cities. I have heard all the arguments and studies. You use data from other countries; different societies and different morals.
“I haven’t had so much as a bottle of aspirin in my medicine-less cabinet in my entire adult life”
That tells me one thing. There is no way you could have seen first hand what you say you have. You’re exaggerating for sure. You sound like a drive-by intellectual.
So how much time have you spend inside a crack house at night with no electricity? How many times have you helped a junkie find a vein in his foot because all the others were too scarred to use? How many times have you seen wives with children in tow trying to track down their husbands on payday so that they could get some cash for groceries before the dope man got a hold of it? Have you ever mingled with the early morning crowd at the methadone clinic to see what other drugs they were willing to trade their liquid handcuffs for? Do you know anyone who left their seven-year-old daughter at the pharmacy - forgetting her as they ran off with the dilaudid prescription they just got filled?