Typical. Was expecting this same lame screed - Equating the WOD to Prohibition. That argument has been shot down a million times. By logical sober minded voters who DO NOT WANT legal pot.
I’m sorry you want more dope smoking in the US. I’m sorry you are at odds with Conservatives over this and other conservative issues. But I’ve FReeped with you for years over these basic conservatives values and I’m convinced you will never learn.
You will never be a conservative.
In a vast majority of the US, Marijuana is illegal. Has the drug problem gone away now, or is it even worse?
And at the end of the day, the war on drugs is really just Prohibition under a different name. The same events are taking place, enriching the criminal element, demand is increased, more potent formulations are being invented, political corruption, violent gang activity, criminal underclass. Ludicrous profit margins are driving everything.
Prior to 1937, Marijuana was legal in the US. It was largely ignored. It was used by "low class" folk, it was not wildly popular, it wasn't the "gateway" drug it's been made out to be. Chances are your grandparents may have smoked it, and somehow society didn't come crashing down either. It didn't become popular until it was forbidden.
Just like underage drinking - when you make something "illegal" you create demand. I drank a lot in High School - because I wasn't supposed to. When I turned 21 and could legally drink, there went the fun. I don't drink now, never used drugs - simply no interest in them. However, there are areas of the cities near me that I dare not go into, for fear of my personal safety. These regions are populated by gangs, drug dealers, drug users and derelicts. If drugs were cheap, available and pure - the gangs wouldn't have a money revenue stream, the drug users would hopefully OD and we could bury that problem.
All we have to do, is look at countries who have decriminalized drugs.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.html My view is fairly simple - this should be a STATE issue, and largely it is.