[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.

[Know your rights]

The people that use illegal drugs are criminals.

People who circulated dissident literature in the Soviet Union were criminals.

Legalizing it won't make them legal.

People are not legal or illegal; actions are.

You do nothing for the police by making drugs legal other than increasing the level of violence they face.

No, by taking inflated profits out of criminal hands you decrease the level of violence they face.

Legalize drugs and you will have health care costs shoot through the roof as hospitals have to cope with drug related visits.

Government should stop paying those costs.

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.

But we learned that the cure of criminalization is worse than the disease.

[robertpaulsen]

"Legalize drugs and you will have health care costs shoot through the roof as hospitals have to cope with drug related visits."

Exactly.

Why should my federal tax dollars flow to the State of Washington to pay for a unilateral decision they made?

[sweet_diane]

"Treat him like he is dead because he is."

Again, I can't believe some of the things I'm reading here this morning.

[steve-b]

Your quiz for today:

Machine-gun shootouts between rival alcohol distributors were committed:

1. by the Easter Bunny
2. while alcohol was prohibited
3. while alcohol was legal
4. by Muslim males between the ages of 18 and 45