[Gabz]

No one will ever legalize drugs in America because there would be no excuse to ever RAISE TAXES again!~}

I disagree.........Just legalizing marijuana alone, and treating it like alcohol and tobacco (restrictions on age and taxing it) would reap financial windfalls at all levels of government.

First would be the criminal justice system would not be overburdened with petty stuff, thus saving taxpayers dollars better used for prosecuting more important stuff;

Second would be freeing up law enforcement to actually deal with the real criminals that neeed to be dealt with by the rest of the criminal just system, thus saving tax payer dollars;

And finally, by eliminating the black market and collecting taxes on it like alcohol and tobacco, any time the state needs a quiet way to balance a budget they can just up the excise tax on it, just like they now do to alcohol and tobacco.

Sounds like a winning proposition all the way around. It seems to me

[funkywbr]

So you dont disagree then?

PS, and yes Pot would be enough.

Also I remember years ago reading about this judge at the time who few in on his private plane x amount of pot.

He was 1 gram short of the felony!~}

[IrishCatholic]

The people that use illegal drugs are criminals. Legalizing it won't make them legal. The same people that choose to behave that way will do so. You do nothing for the police by making drugs legal other than increasing the level of violence they face. You free up nothing. Criminals use drugs because they want to. They don't work because they don't want to. They victimize people because they want to.
Also, ignored by the anything goes crowd is the cost of drugs in medical care. Legalize drugs and you will have health care costs shoot through the roof as hospitals have to cope with drug related visits.
Finally, there is the misery associated with drugs. It eats people alive. Look at alcohol, it is legal and look at the misery it causes. I'll give you an example, (True): A bank executive tries cocaine at a party. Doesn't tell the wife but soon is selling everything and stealing and embezzling just to keep going. Finally runs out of money but the bank hushes it up and puts him in rehab. He gets out on a day pass to go to his sons Christening. He seems happy. With the family there he takes the car to go get ice cream for the party and doesn't come back. Trades the car for crack and ends up having a heart attack in a hotel three days later. Survives. But not really. The drug ate him alive. His wife is there with the new baby and the in laws and all agree that she must cut him loose. Treat him like he is dead because he is.
No, legalizing does nothing but create misery. It has nothing to do with taxes, nothing to do with a "failed war on drugs" It has to do with having some standard in society.
I do not romanticize drugs. They are just chemicals. But their affect on society is horrendous. Do you want your twelve year old on meth? Dipping into your coke you keep on your bedside? Stoned in his room all hours of the day? Is that what all the people on this thread are advocating?
The war on drugs is a resounding success because it says to society that drugs are bad. That is the point.