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LSD, Cocaine, Heroin, Marijuana, Ecstacy, and all other currently illicit substances would STILL be "off-limits to your kids" in the event of legalization. In fact, it would be harder for them to get, since licensed dealers would lose their licensing if found to be selling to minors. Current dealers have no such worries, and I can tell you from personal experience that even ten years ago, it was easier for a high school student to find and purchase marijuana than beer on the weekends.

The Wo(s)D as it is currently fought does nothing to lessen the availability of drugs to minors, nor address the potency of the drugs available. Legalization/regulation would accomplish both of those things.

And to go ahead and cut off the next two contentions:

1) I don't personal use drugs of any kind, alcohol/tobacco included, and haven't for several years, and

2) the black market that Wo(s)d-ers insist would still exist if these substances were legalized is currently non-existent on a national level with regards to alcohol and tobacco.

accomplish = address Personal = personally Must be all the caffeine I've pumped into my bloodstream today...

This is the point that the libertarians never seem to want to discuss -

I believe that the situation is complicated by the nature of addiction, which is all encompassing, and often blurs reasoning and the ability to respond appropriately to the threat of punishment and the pressures brought by the court system. Addiction is not just a physiological or psychological phenomenon, but a moral dysfunction as well. It drives those under its influence to engage in the most decadent behaviors, criminal and otherwise.

And arguments like this one do not sway me -

LSD, Cocaine, Heroin, Marijuana, Ecstacy, and all other currently illicit substances would STILL be "off-limits to your kids" in the event of legalization. In fact, it would be harder for them to get, since licensed dealers would lose their licensing if found to be selling to minors.

Yes, because we see how compliant they are about not selling cigarettes to teens when fines and licenses are the issue.

Narcotics cannot be discussed in the same light as alcohol because the effects of addiction are not the same. If you doubt it, compare the alcoholics you know with the drug addicts you know. To continue to argue that drug legalization will have the same effect as the removal of Prohibition is disingenuous.

the black market that Wo(s)d-ers insist would still exist if these substances were legalized is currently non-existent on a national level with regards to alcohol and tobacco.

Don't you think the main reason there is no black market for these products is because they are widely, legally available and competitively priced?

And there are black market cigarettes in cities where the per pack taxes are too high (these are stolen cigarettes, not hand rolled ones) and Moonshiners still exist. Granted, neither of these constitute problems approaching the illegal drug trade, but they do exist. The only way a black market wouldn't exist for legalized drugs would be if those drugs were competitively priced. Would you want that?