Ridiculous. What idiot would run off and addict themselves to drugs just because they're legal? Should we make it illegal to stand on top of buildings, since we might go near the edge and fall off?
You never answered my previous question. Is it your premise that alcohol must be criminalized?
If so, then how do you suggest we pay for all the police and jails that would be needed to enforce such a prohibition? Perhaps FedGov should take 75% of our income in taxes to accomplish this wonderful drug and alcohol free Utopia?
If not, then why do you suppose that criminalizing the use of drugs other than alcohol works any better than Prohibition did?
In the Netherlands:
According to a 1998 report from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, the number of heroin addicts in Holland has almost tripled since the liberalization of drug policies - Similarly, the 1998 European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addictions overview report states that drug-related arrests in the Netherlands were up over 40 percent in the last three years, with the main offense being trafficking in so called hard drugs
- According to a 1998 report by the Office of National Drug Control Policy, when the so-called Dutch "coffee shops," started selling marijuana in small quantities, use of the drug more than doubled between 1984 and 1996 among 18 to 25 year olds.
Modern-day Netherlands is often cited as a country which has successfully legalized drugs. Marijuana is sold over the counter and police seldom arrest cocaine and heroin users. But official tolerance has led to significant increases in addiction. Amsterdam's officials blame the significant rise in crime on the liberal drug policy. The city's 7,000 addicts are blamed for 80 percent of all property crime and Amsterdam's rate of burglary is now twice that of Newark, New Jersey.U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Legalization. See also: Roques, Legalization 27 December 1994
In the US:
California decriminalized marijuana in 1976, and, within the first six months, arrests for driving under the influence of drugs rose 46 percent for adults and 71.4 percent for juveniles.
Permissive drug policy was an abject failure in the U.S. A drug criminal was four times more likely to serve prison time in 1960 than in 1980 and the incarceration rate plummeted 79%. This drug tolerant era brought a doubling of the murder rate, a 230% increase in burglaries, a ten fold increase in teen drug use, and a 900% rise in addiction rates. The peak years for teen drug use and murder were the same years that drug incarceration rates hit an all time low point.
From 1980-1997, the drug incarceration rate rose over fourfold and crime and drug use began a steady unprecedented decline. Murder rates fell by over 25%, burglary rates dropped 41%, teen drug use reduced by more than a third, and heavy cocaine and heroin use levels fell. With peak drug incarceration rates, many cities, such as New York, reached record low crime levels.
BTW, public intoxication should be illegal. That covers alcohol.