Sure, then he'd have a vested interest - it wouldn't just be theoretical at that point.
What if his sister had her home burglarized by a desperate addict forced to pay prices that are inflated several orders of magnitude by the war on drugs, can he have an opinion then?
Are you claiming that 'desparate addicts' will work to buy their drugs instead of stealing if drugs are legalized? I doubt that.
What if his sister was a judge in Colombia, executed by powerful and exceedingly well-funded organized criminals, then can he have an opinion?
Do you think the drug lords are going to become model citizens if drugs are legalized? I doubt it.
Suppose his sister is going broke paying higher taxes both to pay for this insane civil war and to make up the shortfall from billions of dollars flowing through the entirely tax-free black market, is he allowed to have an opinion then?
Do you think taxes would go down if drugs were legalized? Do you think the druggies wouldn't have to be sought out and arrested from some other crime committed while they were high? I doubt that.
If his sister's best friend died of an accidental overdose because her drug of choice was not labeled for potency like alcohol is, then does he get to have an opinion?
If his sister was this girl's best friend, she'd be working to get her off drugs, not to legalize them.
Drug prohibition has not prevented it.
And legalizing drugs will only make it worse.
Got it. So men have no right to an opinion on abortion, civilians have no right to an opinion on military spending, and Northerners had no right to an opinion on slavery. You've got a funny system of beliefs, anyone ever tell you that?
Are you claiming that 'desparate addicts' will work to buy their drugs instead of stealing if drugs are legalized? I doubt that.
Doubt it all you want, it's still true. You don't see people committing robberies to buy cigarettes, and you don't see flourishing black markets in cigarettes, because cigarettes are legal and (relatively) cheap. During the aftermath of World War II, when tobacco was in short supply in Germany, respectable middle-class citizens were picking cigarette butts out of the garbage, something they admitted they normally never would have done, but the restricted supply forced them into it.
The pharmaceutical cost of heroin is about $0.02 per dose. Nobody would commit a burglary (and take the risk of prison time and/or injury by an irate and/or armed homeowner) to pay for that.
Do you think the drug lords are going to become model citizens if drugs are legalized? I doubt it.
No, I think the drug lords will lose their source of funding and become powerless, just as the alcohol gangs of the Prohibition era faded away when that insane policy ended. The drug lords have power because they have an immense quantity of income, all of which would vanish virtually overnight were the black market eradicated by legalization.
Do you think taxes would go down if drugs were legalized?
Yup, just as I think that taxes are lower than they'd otherwise be if the government didn't have a huge source of income from taxing the sale of alcohol and tobacco. In my state, 3.8% of all revenue comes from taxing alcohol and tobacco. If we didn't have that income, it'd have to come from elsewhere, hence taxes would be higher. That doesn't include expenses for enforcement of any prohibition on alcohol or tobacco. If we did not have to spend money to enforce prohibition of drugs, and if we had additional revenue from taxation of drugs, other taxes could decrease.
Do you think the druggies wouldn't have to be sought out and arrested from some other crime committed while they were high?
Well, let's see. We wouldn't need to arrest people for possession. We wouldn't need to arrest people for engaging in turf wars, since the turf wars wouldn't exist. (We'd also, of course, spare ourselves the body count from such tragedies.) You seem to be under the impression that drugs take control of you and force you to commit crimes. There are quite literally millions of drug users in the United States, the vast majority of whom commit no crimes beyond simple possession.
If his sister was this girl's best friend, she'd be working to get her off drugs, not to legalize them.
Do you have any friends who drink alcohol? Do you think they'd be better off if alcohol were not labeled for potency, so they had no idea how much of the potentially-fatal drug they were consuming?
And legalizing drugs will only make it worse.
Oh, hey, if you say so. You don't need to provide any evidence or anything, just as long as you assert it, I guess that makes it so. Never mind the enormous evidence that the War on Drugs causes far, far more crimes (and deaths) than it prevents, we'll just ignore it, because you say so.