[Conservative til I die]

So if you legalize drugs, who gets to sell it?

This is a question that does really need to be answered. I've flirted with both extremes of the WOD/legalization issue, and while I agree that a lot of the excesses of current drug policy are draconian and unnecessary (people do not need to go to jail for years for posessing some dope, something which I am sure many of us have done at some point), libertarian-minded people tend to view the world like any good theorist would. The problem is, utopian theories don't work in practice, because human nature is predispositioned toward the basest behavior.

[Tailgunner Joe]

Of course it would be regulated and taxed. Essentially the government would become a dope-pusher, interested in hooking more addicts in order to raise revenue.

[VeniVidiVici]

This is a question that does really need to be answered.

You're absolutely right. And I can never get a really good answer for it.

The problem as I see it is that they may eventually go so far as to legalize pot and hash. So then where does one go to buy it? 7/11? Over the counter? Prescription?

People abuse prescription drugs now. They buy it and sell it on the street. Even though they are legal.

7/11? So then people will steal it and sell it on the streets. Mainly because HUGE taxes will be levied on it so people can then go to "government treatment centers" promised to them by the legalizers.

Anyhow, the taxes will cause a large black market will begin. Which will be filled by (gangs, terrorists, your mom, fill in any name here) who will get top dollar to plow back into their sales of illegal drugs: heroin, cocaine, meth, etc.

You want to end the war on drugs? Fine. Sell it all. Don't regulate it and don't pay for rehab. You have a tweeker family member that gets hooked on the legal meth; pay for rehab yourself.

Maybe if we don't pay for any of it once people start dying in huge numbers because the government is not paying for their rehab, they'll think it's not a good idea and drug use will drop.

Hey, this could work to lower drug use!!