[Entelechy]

You really don't want to deal with history do you - when all drugs were legal, and you could get heroin and morphine through mail order, it created a public health problem. The figures I cite about addicts prove this.

I have never seen any statistics that show a higher rate of heroin addicition in the early 20th century than today.

Second, you really don't want to deal with simple economics either. When the price of a thing falls, greater consumption becomes possible.

Assuming demand isn't inelastic. Drug demand is highly inelastic. Thus a drop in drug prices will only shift income from expenditure on drugs to other expenses. This will mean that poorer addicts can still feed their families. Very few kids go hungry because of a father's booze habit.

[MadIvan]

I have never seen any statistics that show a higher rate of heroin addicition in the early 20th century than today.

You are forgetting the social mores and customs of the time. Heroin use meant you were a lowlife, not a minority that the libertarians wanted to protect. If you suggest that the social disincentives to drug addictions haven't changed since then, please permit me to laugh you out of town.

Ivan