Replies

I think this story offers a glimpse into what might happen should drugs be legalized here. Many who support such an idea argue that drug trade related crime and gangbang activity would come to a screeching halt. I have always argued otherwise. I don't think the gangs would just go away. Drug dealers would simply cater to a demand that laws would still prohibit- selling to underage users, supplying more powerful drugs, etc.

Legalization of drugs will always leave some new designer drug off the market (either outright banned or prohibited by the FDA until it has been tested). Snakeoil salesmen will be permitted to sell whatever cancer/AIDS/aging cure they want if we do away with the FDA.

And as long as there is an age restriction on drug use, there will be an underground market among those 8-18/21.

If we "legalize it and then tax the hell out of it", the DEA then moves under the ATF and the game becomes that of the revenuers against the bootleggers.

If you can manufacture a drug in your own home (grow pot, cook up meth, etc.) you will be "denying" Uncle Sam those "high tax" revenues (even if it is for personal consumption).

And I can see no validity in legalizing these substances before the Federal social safety net has been eradicated so that those who become addicts are not permitted to become a financial leech on society.

I'm not against the legalization of these substances but some people are short sighted in what it entails (not to mention that there would be Big Crack attempting to market this now legal product in other countries just like Big Tobacco does and McCrack paying South American farmers to stop raising produce for local consumption so that they can raise a bigger cash crop of recreational drugs). If you think that the world dislikes America for our stance in the Iraq war, just wait until they spout their venom for us turning the rest of the world into "drug addicts".

I think this story offers a glimpse into what might happen should drugs be legalized here. Many who support such an idea argue that drug trade related crime and gangbang activity would come to a screeching halt. I have always argued otherwise. I don't think the gangs would just go away. Drug dealers would simply cater to a demand that laws would still prohibit- selling to underage users, supplying more powerful drugs, etc.

Yep -- look at tobacco; it's still legal, but a huge black market has arisen in high-tax states like mine. Unless you make legalized drugs dirt-cheap, and sell them to everyone, including minors, there will always be a black market.