[A CA Guy]

I think then perhaps you are missing my point as well.

Because we have to deal with one problem in society with alcohol, we don't need more of them released into society with pot or other drugs.
Alcohol abuse often is connected to what is illegal in the law.

You shouldn't assume that because we can all point to the problems with alcohol, that we should also therefore be able to release drugs, bestiality, pedophilia, prostitution of any other vice into legal society as normal.

The worst thing you can do is to remove the stigma of the illegal drugs and their users.

Right now you have the Vietnam vets and hippies of the 60's that got hooked into drugs like pot. They are getting older and starting to die now.
As that generation dies, there will be an improvement in the culture in that there will be less of an open lust for drugs politically IMO.

[backtothestreets]

Bestiality and pedophilia, now there's a couple practices where I wouldn't mind changing the law. Just shoot on sight. We can hold a trial later to if an animal was accidentally shot in the process.

I don't think we would be releasing more people with problems on society if managed the same way as alcohol. They are already in our everyday lives, but living in the shadows. I want them out where I can see them. It would make it easier to spot them. They aren't all people living terrible lives. I recall the sons of a mayor and the lead narcotics detective in a California city I lived in being the biggest drug dealers around. This was before Nixon launched our present "War on Drugs". (Yeah, I'm one of those Viet Nam era, hippy aged guys.)

What would improve is that the gang violence involved in the present distribution scheme would be stopped cold. The other thing that would end is the crooked politician on the payroll. They are there, just as they were there in the days of bootlegging.

When I have a business lunch, and people in the group start ordering beer, they've helped me decide with that simple act how trustworthy I think they might be. Spending company money on alcohol is a serious issue with me. If they order a second or third, they've closed the door on future business dealings, and I'll tell them why. I have the same attitude toward drug users.

I wouldn't want to remove the stigma for any substance abuse. That goes for drugs, alcohol, and any other substance. In fact, I wish our elected would make the alcohol distributors stop glorifying alcohol and show some of what it really does. That's not likely to happen as long as the distributors keep the campaign coffers full though.

BTW, I see a lot less morality and respect in the generation following mine, so I'd expect things to get much worse before they improve.

I am glad we can discuss this.

[Know your rights]

Because we have to deal with one problem in society with alcohol, we don't need more of them released into society with pot or other drugs.

By your logic, we should reduce problems further by banning alcohol. But banning alcohol was tried and failed, just as banning drugs is failing.