Hapaboy, I agree that drug use can cause significant social problems. There is an important point that perhaps you donât realize; that all the people who want to do drugs are already doing drugs. The drug war is a complete failure in restricting supply to those that want drugs, a complete failure. Legalization is not going to mean much of rise in drug use at all. (Are you going to rush and start using drugs if theyâre legalized? No? Neither are the vast, vast majority of current non-users.) Ipso facto, the problems related to drug use will also remain unchanged (not much) from their current level.
I know of the emotional argument, âbut what about the children, think of the children!â. I think itâs one of the feelgood lies non-drug users tell themselves that the âdrug warâ is protecting their children. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is pure simplicity itself for any school kid to get drugs. And get them they do. Again, itâs a case of all those wanting to do drugs are doing them. Legalization essentially changes nothing here either.
But even if I agree that we could expect some sort of a rise in drug use, there are still two compelling arguments for drug legalization.
Firstly, itâs a âlesser of two evilsâ case. So, accpeting that there will be some rise in drug use, and consequantly greater social problems, these are far, far less than the current problems cauased by restricting drugs. The drug war is outrageously expensive, it completely fails to achieve its aim and ruins the lives of people incarcerated on drugs charges. How does it achieve the third? A dealer or user, or at least the great majority of them, arenât violent criminals (on the basis of their dealing alone, that is), and yet sending them to prison virtually guarantees that they become more violent and that the are introduced to a whole range of other criminal activities and it ruins their chances of gaining meaningful employment. Compare the two evils and itâs easy to see which one is the lesser.
Secondly, like it or not, there is a great moral issue here. Similarly to how we conservatives/libertarians argue against the current levels of taxation on principles -- and expect to be taken seriously -- there is also an argument for legalization on principles. Why embrace one and not the other?
I can completely understand how you could be so against drugs as to want to execute dealers. I hate the fucking things (drugs) too. I too wish we could eliminate them. I too wish people would wise up to how destructive drugs can be. But realistically, itâs just not going to happen. Our best hope is to bring drugs into the mainstream and thus employ all resources to dealing with the problems of their use. (Better research --> better/safer drugs, and better education.)
PS â I also disagree that hard drug legalization is never going to happen. IMO, itâs just a matter of time.
