[Ramius]

Understood.

I certainly don't think that drugs are a good thing. I don't know where I'd draw the line. I wouldn't start doing heroin just because is was suddenly legal, but maybe that's just me. Criminalizing pot is just dumb. The harder stuff is a tougher call, I'll admit.

The money is in coke and (by association) crack. The other stuff is really peripheral. I'm guessing that if coke were available legally, crack would disappear. Crack was invented as a cheaper and more potent way to deliver cocaine.

What keeps coming back to me though, is that the genie is already out of the bottle. Drugs are already everywhere. They've already been invented and enforcement is largely ineffective. It's like trying to eliminate violence by outlawing weapons. Too late for that. Drug abuse is a medical problem, not a legal problem, and we're using the wrong tool.

[HairOfTheDog]

That is where I differ... Hard drugs are not everywhere... they are really just in the fringes. Your coworkers may be getting stoned, but I would be willing to bet they are not on meth. Nor cocaine derivatives or heroin. Because they are professional people and it just isn't done. Would that change if it were legal? - Maybe, some would try it if it felt more legitimate because it was legal. And the stuff is highly addictive. When we felt experimental, the stuff wasn't around, or was so expensive that is couldn't be addicting to a normal kid.

I don't know what the answer is. I know it is hard to stop people from doing things that sound fun to do. And meth creation as an illegal substance is actually putting my hobby at risk, because the mobile meth labs are being found in the public forests, and the cheapest answer to that is gates on the roads in. But I don't want a neighbor making it at home either, and would hate to NOT have the law on my side if they were. People explode alot making that crap.

Would the drug war make you crazy if pot were not a part of it?