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That was an easy question, you're baiting me right?

First, I would apply legalization to all drugs. Those like cocaine and methamphetamines would be labeled "Poison" and anyone who dies as a result of their abuse will have said to committed suicide. I will expound at end...

Second, by legalizing all drugs you have done the following: Removed a lucrative black market that has turned our inner cities into factories of death. You don't see kids selling alcohol and ciggarettes on the street, and if they did.. they don't make enough money to finance gangs and their weaponry. Everybody has heard of Al Capone and for that matter Joe Kennedy (father of Kennedy Clan). You would never had heard of them if alcohol hadn't been prohibited at one point.

Third, the only reason "numbers" increased as you say they did in Alaska is because people would not be hesitant to state they used it in a survey once it was legal.

Fourth, Everyone knows where to get pot or someone who can get it. Go ask any kid of any age and they will tell you who to get it from. It's all over the place, there is no avoiding it. It is so prevailant that it would be impossible to get rid of... how has the "War on Drugs" done so far? Nothing... 100s of billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars spent... 70% of our prisoners up on drug charges... and there has never been a reduction in supply or use.

What to do if legalized:

1. Make it a felony to give drugs to minors. Just like alcohol should be. I remember it being difficult to get booze and easy to get drugs in high school.

2. All Under the influence laws would apply.

3. Tax it and spend taxes on rehab and education.

4. Legalize all drugs with massive spending on advertisements explaining what they do. Poor kids in middle America are destroying themselves with paint, gasoline, and glue... all readily and legally available.. but with no idea what they are doing to their brains.

5. Those who die as a result of drug use will have been considered to have committed suicide (no life insurance applies)

I say either make everything Illegal and show me how you prevent it from being used and being a lucrative black market that generates 80% of the crime and gun deaths in our society, or make it legal and as safe as you can. I cannot see supporting the current Status Quo at any rate... This drug legal, this drug illegal... War on Drugs that can never win given any scenario....

"Actually, if history is any guide, their numbers would increase if marijuana were legalized for adults (happened in Alaska)."

Why is it that per capita marijuana use is higher in the US than it is in Holland where they sell marijuana openly at tax paying shops? Or can we not make that comparison because Holland is far away from us and they are different than we are? Or maybe we can't compare use in Holland to use in the United States because the same survey isn't used there and here? Or we could bring up the fact that marijuana use did go up there after they started allowing open sales, even though use went up at the same time all over Europe and Holland still has average marijuana use rates as compared to the rest of the European countries (average there being lower than use here).

Use in states that have decriminalized is about the same as use in states with harsher laws. Use in countries where it is basically legal or where the laws aren't enforced is lower or around the same as use here. Your Alaska example is based on highly suspect data at best, without any other data to compare from years prior to the court decision that allowed marijuana use and growing in the home. It's certainly not smoking gun evidence that proves your point conclusively. The body of the evidence seems to point to a different conclusion and that is that the laws have little effect on marijuana usage rates. If marijuana was such an enticing drug that everyone would use it if there was no risk of arrest you would think that the percentage of users reporting past month use would several times higher than the less than 10% figures we see in states and countries where people get arrested for possessing even a small amount. Instead, per capita use is close to the same or often lower than average in places where they don't arrest people for pot. Obviously, the laws don't matter that much.