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Regulation does not necessarily lead to no black market. It's just a guess. Think the drug lords in South America or Asia will stop selling drugs in this country just because they have competition from the government? Of course not!!

Legalization of any kind will just lead to more people using drugs at more times. Today airline pilots go to work drunk. Tomorrow they would go to work high.

Plus, the "war on drugs" would continue under new laws.

How much illegal liquor is brought in the country now?

It's all about profit margin. When drugs are legalized the drug lords will no longer have the high profits they now enjoy as an incentive to continue their activities.

The people who are most interested in keeping the War On Drugs alive are those who profit from it. Legalizing Marijuana or any of the stuff Congress likes to call controlled substances, would eliminate the multibillion-dollar profits and quickly reduce the market size. Users would be buying in stores licensed and taxed by the government, with the tax revenue going into rehabilitation programs.

Even worse for the drug barons, the glamour of doing something illegal would be gone for the teenagers, and there would be no reason left for the drug gangs to hire them to push the stuff in school yards and keep the list of customers multiplying. No more knife fights and gun battles for market territory. No more no-knock raids on innocent people. No more dealers standing on neighborhood street corners. No more confiscated property.

Legalizing and licensing knocks out the profits.

Politicians who support the War On Drugs are doing so for one reason only, they have a lobbyist funded by a drug baron slipping large quantities of cash into their pockets to keep the drug profits flowing. Their interest is in keeping the War On Drugs alive, well funded, and managed with the same bungling incompetence that has filled the prison system with bottom-level dealers and users, and left the big operators untroubled and the price of cocaine and heroin profitably high.

I believe that when the author says, "The very hardest of recreational substances ... would be regulated and distributed only by the government and directly to users", he means at a greatly reduced price or for free.

This is the only way to stop the crime associated with drugs (gangs, black market, addicts stealing and prostituting to buy drugs).

Addicts can get methadone for free, but most choose to steal to purchase herion. You don't think this would happen with government provided crap drugs? Look what's happening in Canada with government provided "medical" marijuana -- nobody wants it!

Reminds me of Lance's description of his heroin for sale in Pulp Fiction:

"Now this is Panda, from Mexico. Very good stuff. This is Bava, different, but equally good. And this is Choco from the Hartz Mountains of Germany. Now the first two are the same, forty-five an ounce -- those are friend prices -- but this one... (pointing to the Choco) ...this one's a little more expensive. It's fifty-five. But when you shoot it, you'll know where that extra money went. Nothing wrong with the first two. It's real, real, real, good $hit. But this one's a f##kin' madman."

Regulation does not necessarily lead to no black market. It's just a guess.

This is what passes for logic with drug warriors. Not trying to insult you or anything, but national policy should not be decided on "just a guess."

That's the same kind of 1-dimensional "logic" that leads people to think banning guns will eradicate crime.

Think the drug lords in South America or Asia will stop selling drugs in this country just because they have competition from the government? Of course not!!

It may not totally eliminate them (is there any policy that achieves 100% of what it seeks?), but when you take away much of the profit motive, they will move on to something else. Have you seen any bootlegging gangs lately?

Legalization of any kind will just lead to more people using drugs at more times. Today airline pilots go to work drunk. Tomorrow they would go to work high.

It's possible that there might be an increase in drug use. However, we would deal with it the same way we do with alcohol. You drink on the job, you get disciplined or worse. That hopefully will deter people from doing so on the job.

But again, you're asking for perfection, which is unattainable (and I don't think any Libertarian is actually proposing that legalization will eradicate drug use). Instead, ask yourself if overall, America will be better off with an insane drug war policy or something, anything (I'd be willing to take tiny baby steps on this) else.

Think the drug lords in South America or Asia will stop selling drugs in this country just because they have competition from the government? Of course not!!

The free market would kill the drug lords business.

A decent example is the market for liquor. Are the majority of people going to go out and buy moonshine in plastic jugs, or Jack Daniels (with all its attendent taxes, regulation, marketing, etc.), even though the Jack Daniels is substantially more expensive? The market will pay a premium for product quality.