[MrLeRoy]

The had legal drugs in China till the beginning of WWII. The rate of addiction was over 50% in urban areas.

The same drugs---opiates---were legal in the USA until the early 20th century, and the addiction rate never exceeded 0.3%.

[FITZ]

The same drugs---opiates---were legal in the USA until the early 20th century, and the addiction rate never exceeded 0.3%.

Since drug addiction rates are quite a bit higher than that now ---how would making drugs legal convince the addicts to clean up? I don't see the correlation ---I think back when opiates were legal before, there wasn't welfare or Medicaid ---people probably were more motivated not to live in a drug-induced haze because they had to earn their own living.

[q_an_a]

The difference is that todays version of POT is 10 times as strong as in the 6os and 70s and his every bit as "addictive" as an oppiate, not because they are the same, but because the JOY is addictive. Anyone that thinks that being addicted to pot, that is easy to get, would not lead to heron or crack is kidding themselves.

The willing market would be huge and with our VALUEs, such as family, community, and honesty much different now than prior to WWII is also kidding themselves. The sales of opiates which would be the next easy drug for a large market would be off the charts. the 2% number would be 15% easy.