[Texaggie79]

I'm on your side with pot, because I see no threat by it's use.

However legalizing the hard drugs would be like saying it is ok for me to stand on my property and aim a gun at anyone outside of it.

With alcohol, yes, we punish those that commit crimes while on it, but the ratio of crimes committed and damage done to others by someone on alcohol compared to the amount of people that use alcohol is very very very small. With hard drugs, it is MUCH higher. Legalization will make drugs more available, more pure, cheaper, and the users will have no fear of arrest, therefor use will skyrocket and harm to nonusers will as well. Hard drug legalization would destroy our country. And the cry for Government help will increase 10 fold. Can you imagine, with all the addicts, the outcry for liberal government policies to help them? You legalize drugs and you have socialism next.

``Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness. ''

- George Washington

[packrat01]

Hard drug legalization would destroy our country.

Not if they got rid of the anti-gun laws at the same time. There'd be some adjusting, but things would soon "normal out".

Not pretty to think about, though.

[OrthodoxPresbyterian]

Legalization will make drugs more available, more pure, cheaper, and the users will have no fear of arrest, therefor use will skyrocket and harm to nonusers will as well. Hard drug legalization would destroy our country.

The laws of economics dictate the reverse.

The stronger the Prohibition, the more powerful will be the drugs.

The economics of smuggling lead smugglers to seek more concentrated forms of drugs. Thus, during alcohol Prohibition in the U.S., we had "bathtub gin" and "bootleg whiskey:" harder forms of alcohol were favored over more moderate drinks such as beer and wine. When opium was made illegal, smugglers switched first to morphine and later to heroin. When cocaine was made illegal, smugglers switched from relatively mild coca drinks to powder cocaine and later smokable (crack) cocaine. Since marijuana was made illegal, its potency has steadily increased.

With legalization, people generally prefer moderate drug usage. Since Prohibition, hard alcohol usage has declined in favor of beer and wine, which are actually beneficial to health in moderation. "Tar" content in tobacco (a legal drug, today) declined steadily after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission allowed tobacco companies to compete on that basis. When other recreational drugs were legal, relatively few users chose the most concentrated forms.