Why? The societal harm of drugs are: -the violence associated with the production and delivery of it. - Solved by legalization, just plug it right into the Walmart Supply Chain System. -the addicts robbing people to buy more due to cost. -Solved by legalization, due to lower price. -the astounding cost of imprisoning and enforcing the laws - Solved by legalization. -the destruction of an individuals life by use of drug - I do not believe it will increase due to legalization. What is the case of criminalizing it?
Your last point might actually DECREASE with wide spread legalization because those who know they have a problem but are afraid to step out of the shadows would be more willing to and the added revenue of taxation of those products can go to treatment facilities. The few herione addicts that I know, KNOW they have a problem.
Drug legalization doesn't clear all cases like this because presumably there'd be laws against driving while high or having some form of open container... The most sobering thing about these stories is that the presumption of innocence goes through the window when you plea or are convicted. It's a hundred times harder to clear your good name after the initial trial. Some people don't even lawyer up in the interrogation room and subsequently mentally break down and confess to whatever in order to make it stop...only to have their lives ruined for decades plus.
All of them. As evidenced by the prescription trial in Switzerland, even heroin addicts can be productive members of society when they aren't marginalized by a society which condemns them to a life of crime because of their choice of intoxicants.
Meth would nearly disappear overnight if pharmaceutical grade amphetamines (like those we give our pilots) were available. Nobody makes "bathtub gin" anymore because they can go buy Grey Goose at their local liquor store.
