My daddy lived in a time, when all drugs were legal, when machine guns were legal, and did not buy either one of them, and no one he knew at school, or work, or any of his neighbors did either(except for laudinum which was used for medical purposes).
Drugs actually were much less commonly used/misused back when they were totally legal.
People are no different today than they were 100 years ago, 1000 years ago, or back in the time when Soloman was writing that people dont change.
There is no reason to think that there has been a huge evolution in humans from 1900 to 2004, and that todays people are any more smarter or dumber that those of 1900, and no reason to expect that they will misuse drugs any more (or less) than the americans of 1900 when we had no drug laws.
Sure they are. And the society they created is different.
Is there a stigma to being pregnant and unmarried? There used to be.
Is there a stigma to abusing drugs? This behavior used to be kept secret.
In today's society, not only is there no stigma (hell, it might even be considered a hate crime), but WE support that behavior with social programs. Subsidize a behavior, get more of it.
Now, could it be that "Drugs actually were much less commonly used/misused back when they were totally legal", not because they were legal, but because they weren't socially acceptable or supported by the taxpayer?
First, get rid of the nanny state. Then, and only then, should we debate the legalization of drugs.