Recreational Drugs should be Legalized

Thank you for the kind words, magpie. I'm glad you decided to post a rebuttal, I thought you were going to forfeit the round. "I deduce from your handle, your choice of presidentiial candidate, and your choice of sources, that your interests are more related to your personal preferences than a desire to rid society of the drug scurge." You seem to be implying that you can "deduce" that I use drugs and that is the reason why I want them legalized; I resent that. These three things should have no bearing on the course of this debate. a) My handle is representative of the government's hypocrisy in banning a plant that no more than 70 years ago was vital to our efforts in WWII. Hemp, which farmers from all across the midwest have petitioned the government for their right to grow, has a great deal of industrial potential and my support of it says nothing of my usage of it's cousin, marijuana. b) My choice of presidential candidate is even less relevant to this "discussion. I support Ron Paul because I believe in minimal government intervention; his stance on drug policy is only a small part of the reason why I support him. c) As for my choice of sources, I really don't understand. From what I can tell, the only direct source I posted was from swissinfo.com, which I found by googling Switzerland heroin addiction to see if your claim was correct, and I found that it certainly was not. "By contrast, even though I drink alcohol, my only concern is for those who misuse drugs, thse who eventually will, and the rest of society who must endure the problems they create." Your only concern is for those who misuse drugs? Well than you must think that all prescription drugs should be banned because some people misuse and abuse them. Do you see the flaw in your logic? Your problem is that you think the government needs to protect each and every one of its citizens from...themselves really, for they are the ones who choose to abuse drugs in the first place. Rather than setting an impossible task, the government should do its best to have an informed and educated populace that is capable of making the right decisions. "The difference between attempting to ban alcohol and maintaining a ban on drugs is based on numbers." True, that is the difference. But they are similar in the fact that banning them does very little to curb their usage. "can you see my concern that drug dealers would be left with only children to sell to." I can understand where you are coming from, but you fail to consider where the drugs are initially coming from. Of course, different drugs have different origins. First I'll consider the case of marijuana, and than heroin, as they will have very different regulations and they currently come from unrelated sources. Most of the marijuana in the country comes from large illegal growing operations, not individuals growing a few plants in their basements as many may think. If legalized, it is reasonable to think that the large operations would become legitimate and sell it only to adults or licensed retailers, for failure to comply would result in a penalty, which can be easily avoided without hurting their business. So where do the kids get it from? They have two options: know somebody who grows it themselves, or have a parent or older sibling buy it for them(the same as it is with alcohol). Now unless the number of kids growing it in their parents basement rises substantially, there will be substantially less marijuana in the school system. Heroin, on the other hand, is imported. It is produced in foreign countries like Thailand and Afghanistan, and it is smuggled into the country. If the primary business - the heroin addicts - are able to obtain their drug from the doctor, the demand is going to shrink significantly. A downward shift in the demand for a good causes a decrease in the price, in the short term. In the long term, suppliers either decrease their supply and the price reaches a new equilibrium, or they cut production altogether if the demand is not high enough to justify the risk. Either way, the amount of illegal heroin in the country drops. "Additionally, any presently existing taboos that prevent the saner individuals from participaiing will disappear when children are told by their associates that "...it is ok! Even the goverment says that it is."" Not true, heroin addicts would be seen as sick individuals, and marijuana would be viewed much like alcohol. Some will refrain from using it, while others will indulge. What's important here is that only adults will be able to make the decision. So to recap, there are several reasons why drugs need to be legalized and regulated. 1) Society will benefit from less crimes related to the illegal drug trade. 2) The economy will benefit from a smaller black market, keeping more money in the legitimate sector. 3) The government will benefit from not losing money to an impossible War on Drugs, but instead possibly accruing a positive balance from taxes collected on the sale of drugs like marijuana. 4) Addiction rates will decrease when addicts are treated as sick people with a medical condition, rather than rebels who know better than the government. 5) Most importantly, the presence of illegal drugs in schools will greatly diminish, which will ultimately have the most profound effect on lowering future drug usage rates.