I have also somewhat reluctantly concluded that illegal drugs should be legalized in order to defund gangs, reduce mayhem, and (greatly) reduce our prison population. But I have a question:
If drugs are legalized, doesn't that mean that they will be branded, marketed and sold? Will Merck come out with MadDash brand cocaine? Starball Express methamphetimine? How would the (now legal) user get his stash? If consumption were legal but distribution were illegal, you'd have essentially the situation we have now. If manufacture and distribution were legal too, then capitalist forces would end up promoting drug use. How do you resolve that one?
"If drugs are legalized, doesn't that mean that they will be branded, marketed and sold? Will Merck come out with MadDash brand cocaine? Starball Express methamphetimine? How would the (now legal) user get his stash? If consumption were legal but distribution were illegal, you'd have essentially the situation we have now. If manufacture and distribution were legal too, then capitalist forces would end up promoting drug use. How do you resolve that one?"
If drugs are legalized they won't be sold for long. The addicts will soon lose any ability to make a living and so will again resort to theft for their habits.
Then the government will step in and "give" the addicts whatever drugs they demand. This has happened in Holland and Switzerland and is going to soon be done in the UK.
And the same people here who talk about how they are for less government will have brought about the government keeping God knows how many people addicted to drugs and otherwise cared for.
It's lunacy of the first order.
One word - alcohol. We already have a model that works pretty well for the legal drug alcohol. We use that same model for these other substances. Most folks who use these things now aren't addicts, just like most drinkers aren't alcoholics. There's no reason to believe it can't work.
Prohibition demands perfection in human beings. To my knowledge, no one is perfect, so prohibitions are doomed to fail from the start. It's best to leave people to their own devices, knowing that some will stumble and fall, just like some do with alcohol. But most won't.