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I would agree decriminalizing personal drug use IF (and this is a big if) we had stricter penalties for people driving under the influence of drugs and alchohol or for people who commit crimes under the influence of drugs and alchohol.

However, if we were to decriminalize personal drug use I don't see the above happening.

So along the lines the author wrote about, based on equal laws you would think without stricter laws for driving or committing a crime under the influence of alcohol, alcohol should be made illegal?

Therefore, I find it difficult to support decriminalizing drugs for that reason alone,

And for that reason alone alcohol should be made ilegal?

though on the civil liberties side I tend to agree.

So on the civil liberties side you tend to think alcohol should not be prohibited/illegal.

I don't mind giving people enough rope to hang themselves ..... just not to hurt others.

So you think stricter laws would dissuade people from hurting others while under the influence? You don't want to give them the alcohol rope because they may be negligent and hurt others and thus you think alcohol should be illegal?

Looking for consistency and rational principles. All crimes that initiate force, threat of force or fraud should be prosecuted or remedied to ensure restitution is awarded to the victim for his or her loss. An "accident" under the influence is negligence and constitutes initiation of force. Having one set of laws for alcohol and one set for drugs is worse than have one set of laws for assault and another set for assault that is deemed/proclaimed hate crimes.

Apparently you set up a near impossible scenario to achieve the legalization of drugs in which to maintain consistency you would have to make alcohol illegal. But to have consistency of, and with rational principles, both drugs and alcohol must be legal.

I think millions of people use alhohol responsibly. Also, I think millions of people use marijauna responsibly. In moderation I don't think either compromises a person's health.

However, the way to go to me is to have stricter penalties for people who don't use alchohol or drugs responsibly and, here's the key, ENFORCE the laws. Either way, I don't think we need to be putting people in prison for personal marijauna use, this just doesn't make sense and is a waste of our resources. I'm for decriminiling in either case, whether we step up punishment for crimes committed under the influenc or not, but I still promote stepping up punishment for crimes committed under the influence.

With other drugs, I would not support decriminalization AT ALL unless we had stricter laws (and the gumption to enforce them) for crimes commited under their influence. I would have highter "zero tolerance" type laws in place BEFORE I would even consider decriminaliztion (of personal use).