No, not a lame knee jerk response at all. The statements while not in total agreement are not mutually exclusive. The reason for this is that most that argue for the legalization of drugs in today's society see some utopia of being able to use drugs at certain or selected venues or either anywhere they well please. My view of drug laws is that they shouldn't have been needed in the first place. However because of the general attitude of the human race to continually push the laws of decency and morality, the laws were instituted.
...most that argue for the legalization of drugs in today's society see some utopia of being able to use drugs at certain or selected venues or either anywhere they well please....Not utopia, just a few less federal employees. If, say, we got 10 new 'drug abusers' for every drug bureaucrat or narc who was laid off (how can drug warriors speak of lost productivity when their own policies are responsible for the hiring of tens of thousands of drug bureaucrats, many of whom are probably capable of actually doing something taxable ?), I'd lay them all off in a heartbeat, ten addicts can't do nearly as much harm to society as a single narc or bureaucrat.