Dude - Stop trying to shove your religious beliefs down my throat. My relationship with God is my business.
Besides, except for their Liberal stances on many issues, Libertarians make a lot of sense some times.
Take marijuana for example. Currently, there are approximately 1.5 Million drug arrests in the US annually. 700 Thousand are for marijuana. The cost of arresting these people is about $2.5 Billion (not including prosecution costs). The cost for housing one prisoner is about 22 Thousand per year. So, if only 10% of marijuana users go to jail for a year, the "housing" cost is another 1.4 Billion.
This also doesn't count the huge cost of our military's "war on drugs," the cost for new prison construction, or of recidivism.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/prisons.htm
It also doesn't count the intangible costs, such as when a policeman is arrresting a marijuana user, he's not arresting a heroin user, or rapist, murderer, etc.
On the other hand, the crooks are fluorishing. Just as Joe Kennedy is reputed to have done in the Prohibition era, they are cleaning up.
"The average cost of a pack of Marlboros in the U.S. is $3.15. Of that, 43 cents goes to state excise taxes. Another 34 cents goes to federal excise taxes. Throw in another 58 cents for the cost of the $206 billion settlement with 46 states a suit, the irony of which should not escape anyone, launched to recoup "lost" healthcare costs due to smoking. According to the American Lung Association, Americans consume 420 billion cigarettes per year, or 21 billion packs. Which means that between the states, the feds and the trial lawyers, smokers are coughing up $30 billion a year."
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,169517,00.html
Even if only 10% of the people smoked marijuana, we would accrue an additional $3 Billion.
Cha-Ching! That's in excess of 7 Billion a year on VERY conservative numbers. Of course, this doesn't take into account the fact that we would create an additional cash crop for the farmers.
Just a friendly observation, because I see you're new here, and maybe hadn't caught on yet.
People who start their argument with a juvenile "Dude" give the impression that what follows will be similarly juvenile. Their subsequent comments are discounted accordingly. Unfair, perhaps, but nevertheless true.
I must also note that it is not at all uncommon to see a post that begins with "dude" ending up with a call to legalize marijuana. I see you've maintained the trend.
Stop trying to shove lawlessness, addiction, and faggotry down America's throat.