It was mentioned above that one thing that will be done away with is mothers being able to feed their kids because they are not blowing their money on super-expensive stuff. Think about what you are saying. Illegal drugs are a) incapacitating, and b)for the most part, pretty cheap. Crystal Meth is one of the cheapest around, most addictive, and probably the most damaging to people right now. It won’t get cheaper, and you can for DAMN sure guarantee that drug use will NOT go down post-legalization.

But back to the first - you are talking about creating a nation of addicts - a nation of people who are too stoned to raise kids, too stoned to work, too stoned to function. I already look around at people I know, here in the Lower Mainland, whose drug of choice is pot. They by-and-large live very messy lives, being too lazy to eat right, too lazy to clean up after themselves, too lazy to look after their kids. And when they aren’t on the pot, they are short tempered and paranoid. And that is just pot, let alone the hard stuff.

It is all fun and games to say stuff like, “you capitalists should love the idea of being able to get rich off a whole new market segment!” Sorry, the truth is that some conservatives indeed do have hearts, and actually care about the well-being of their fellow citizens. You can’t stop people from doing self-immolating things, but can sure do your best to encourage them in the right direction, and keeping dangerous products that are simply bad for people as indviduals and bad for society illegal is a step in that direction.

And before you start pointing the “hypocrite” finger at me about booze, I will say that alcohol has medicinal and healthful properties when used in moderation. I would have no problem with a law that made a criminal offence out of drunkenness. As for other drugs, most have no redeeming features. For those that have similar characteristics to alcohol - ie. they have medicinal uses (like methadone, codeine, morphine, and perhaps cannabis though I have yet to read a peer-reviewed study on its benefits that wasn’t put on by a bunch of potheads looking for an excuse to get toasted), then I would support controlled production and distribution like a pharmaceutical. But I wouldn’t be open to anyone planting some seeds or setting up their own lab. That would do nothing to help anyone, except make a few “legal” suppliers rich.

Regarding drugs specifically, you can argue that alchohal does much more damage to society today than it did during the time of prohibition (think of all the death and injury caused by DUIs alone). Yeah, the government has more control over it now (and profits grandly), but what has that solved besides better access?

I am convinced there are sinister reasons why drugs are not made legal:

- The alcool and tobacco industries would loose a good chunk of profit from OTHER made legal DRUGS
- An army in society (Cops, lawyers, prison guards, social workers) could loose their livelyhoods

Why not just pot?
Answer: Unlike tobacco which needs to be cured and flavoured so people enjoy smoking it or alcool which is dangerous to distill without either blowing you up or going blind or dead when ingested if done improperly,
Pot can be grown from seed in your backyard with minimal care. Dried, rolled and smoked, Voila! = NO POSSIBILITY TO REGULATE AND TAX THIS though!!!!
It’s not about your health it about tax returns!

BTW: I am 100% Conservative supporter. Not a hippy socialist you might have already stereotyped.

What a line of BS. There is no legitimate supply of drugs in this country but a demand for them hence the strong economic niche available for illicit drug trafficing. If it was legal there would still be a demand for illegal drug just as there is a demand for illegal TVs, but since there could be a legal supply availible at some market price the demand for illicit drugs and hence the black market size would drop.

This doesn’t mean that there will be an immediate jump in criminal activity in some other area unless there is a jump in demand for that good and it can’t be purchased by a lot of people on the open market.

All you free marketers should be celebrating legalizing drugs.

What a line of B.S. What happened after prohibition was lifted? Criminals moved on to new markets.

Gangs aren’t attached to drugs per se, they’re attached to any product that is illegal and in demand. This can be drugs, guns, stolen cars, prostitution, or a whole lot of other things.