I was watching the history chanel the other day about prohibition. One of the major reasons it was ended was the financial gain for the government. Legalizing alcohol helped to lead the county out of the great depression. I believe the legalization of drugs would do the same.

In my opinion, it's not about drugs, prostitution or any other specific commodity or service, it's about where as a society do you draw the line? A commonly heard statement is "you can't legislate morality," but what else are laws & regulations other than moral judgements encoded into a society's rule book. Alcohol yes, weed no, cigarettes yes (at least for now), cocaine no, men marrying women yes, men marrying men depends on where you live, $7,500 tax-payer subsidy for the Chevy Volt yes, tax break for the Chevy Suburban no.

 

These are all judgement calls made in theory for what's best for our society. Do we as a society want to tell our kids drugs are acceptable? Do we want to tell them it's OK to buy sex? I'm not sure. But I do know one thing, we tell them something with every law passed, whether we've thought in those terms or not. The utilitarian line of thinking when applied to drugs can make a lot of sense, but is it the best way to make all judgements of legality? Will using a cost/benefit analysis lead us to where we want to be? Or are some principles so important, so core to what we believe a human being ought to be, that we must stand by them at all cost?

 

Just like a sports team, every society must decide what they're about. Our founding fathers helped make some of those decision for us with the Constitution. The question is where do we go from here?

I get where you're coming from and understand your concerns. My view of the illegality of drugs is it causes many more problems than making it legal would ever do. I honestly believe the streets would be safer, jail and prison space could be used for actual criminals, the court systems wouldn't be bogged down near as much as it is, police resources would be free to focus on more serious crimes, even corruption of officials would be reduced.

 

I do not and have never viewed someone ingesting some substance as a crime, against me or society. Same goes for someone paying for sex. How does that hurt anyone not involved? It certainly doesn't affect my life in any fashion.