Zon: And meaningless correlation which is irrelevant anyhow.
It is a fact that drug use was higher at one time.
I never said nor implied otherwise. You used the correlation of high usage to low usage -- comparing one to the other. Correlation is not causation. I even mocked you for trying to pass of correlation as causation.
You've shown nothing to verify causation is enforcement. At best you've shown correlation. I think the decrease in illicit drug use from 1979 is not casue by increased law enforcement...
When Lt. Jack Cole of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition ( LEAP) gives presentations at colleges he asks the audience, "How many of you don't do drugs because they're against the law?", seldom does even one person raise their hand.
So, on the one hand, I say that with legalization, drug use could increase from 6% of the population to 9%. You say it could decrease 99%. Who's off their meds?
I told you I was mocking you -- Do you realize how completely stupid what you wrote is? Mocking you:...236 -- when I wrote the absurd 99% decrease. I used correlation to mock you. You've made a futile attempt to assert that I intended it to be causation rather than me mocking your correlation.
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Law Enforcement Against Prohibition -- LEAP. Their member ship is strictly persons that are or have careers in the justice system and fought the war on drugs. Judges, prosecutors, LEOs, DEA, etc.
"Policies adopted to battle the use and sale of drugs have led to marked increases in arrest rates, in the likelihood of going to prison, and in the length of sentences for drug offenders. Between 1980 and 1997, the number of annual drug arrests tripled to a high of 1,584,000. The rate of drug arrests per 100,000 residents rose from 288 to 661. The rate of commitment to state prison per drug arrest quintupled between 1980 and 1990, rising from 19 prison commitments per 1,000 arrests to 103 per 1,000. The estimated time served by drug offenders in state prisons increased a full year between 1987 and 1996; federal drug sentences doubled."
-- hrw.org
Now, you tell me why it wasn't enforcement. And let's not forget the other half of what I mentioned -- the attitude changes in the 80's, the "Just Say No" campaign, the D.A.R.E. program and others.
Drug legalization wipes out all of that. Legalization would lead to increased usage, and that means increased harm to others.