[MrLeRoy]

If these substances were legal and readily available, even more would be using them.

Not necessarily; the fact that alcohol use rose during the last several years of Prohibition shows that there is no ironclad correlation between legal status and level of use. Do you have evidence to support your claim?

But I agree the war on drugs is not fair to responsible citizens. I favor legal access for those already addicted.

Legal access for those already addicted does not address my question: "how is it moral or just to impose all the costs (monetary and otherwise) of the War On Some Drugs on responsible citizens in order to protect irresponsible ones from their own irresponsibility?" That would still place the remaining costs (monetary and otherwise) of the War On Some Drugs on responsible citizens in order to protect irresponsible ones from their own irresponsibility.

[Rocksalt]

"Not necessarily; the fact that alcohol use rose during the last several years of Prohibition shows that there is no ironclad correlation between legal status and level of use. Do you have evidence to support your claim?"

No,admittedly that was just speculation,but obviously lots of people want drugs,and I feel use would likely skyrocket if they were more readily available.

"Legal access for those already addicted does not address my question: "how is it moral or just to impose all the costs (monetary and otherwise) of the War On Some Drugs on responsible citizens in order to protect irresponsible ones from their own irresponsibility?" That would still place the remaining costs (monetary and otherwise) of the War On Some Drugs on responsible citizens in order to protect irresponsible ones from their own irresponsibility."

I can't dispute what you are saying there,It would ideally be best if we did'nt have to protect people from their own stupidity/weaknesses.But is this reality-I don't think so.there is no shortage of idiots/weakness out there and I feel some people DO need to be protected from themselves.Either that or we can adopt a don't care attitude and let people drop like flys.That would do something for the population problem,but would show we really don't care about people.You are right though,there are some really good points for legalization,but I feel there are bad arguments for it too.It would be increased freedoms for some,but others would suffer negative impacts.