Legalize narcotics

From round 2: Your opinion is groundless and stems of your lack of research in this area. Saudi Arabia, for instance, boasts one of the lowest addiction rates in the world. As reported: - In 1987, based on a ruling by the ulama, drug smugglers and those who received and distributed drugs from abroad were made subject to the death sentence for bringing "corruption" into the country. - First-time offenders faced prison terms, floggings, and fines, or a combination of all three punishments. - Those convicted for a second time faced execution. - According to the police, the anti-drug campaign and the death penalty had by 1989 reduced addiction by 60 percent and drug use by 26 percent. - Saudi officials claim that the kingdom had the lowest rate of drug addiction in the world, which they attribute to the harsh punishments and the pious convictions of ordinary Saudis. People can learn, and people will by nature avoid actions which will lead themselves to harm. Current rehabilitation methods are ineffective. Why? Because the lesson is not being taught strongly enough. We cannot let children grow up in an environment where the might walk into their parents bedroom some day and find their mother lying dead on the floor from drug overdose. Where you wake up one day and your best friend has been shot over drug money. As for china, they are making extensive efforts through their police force to seize drugs coming in through the border and coastline. They are coordinating with the Philippines to intercept drugs such as "ice". Did you know that 17% of all state prisoners confessed to having performed their crime in order to gain money for drugs. 18% of federal prisoners performed their crime in order to gain money for drugs. Reducing the amount of drugs coming in through our borders and decreasing the amount of repeat offenders would contribute greatly to reducing crime rates in america, and allow police officers to pursue work in other heinous crimes. On to round 3: Ill react to your arguments on each part. "Each of these analogies is flawed. Theft, arson, and murder are all crimes that violate the rights of others, whereas drug use does not inherently harm anyone else. A drug user may steal a TV to pay for drugs, but then he should be punished for theft; outlaw the crime, not the motive. The suicide example is not applicable either; neither the government nor any other party has the right to tell a person what they can or cannot do with their own body, least of all in this manner. A person's body is their property, not the state's, and therefore the state cannot tell them what to do to themselves." Suicide and drug abuse also violate others right to pursue happiness. Our individual happiness depends greatly on our environment and upbringing. Par of that is our friends and family. Legalizing drugs would allow people to grow up where they might wake up and a family member or close friend has died. We cannot let this happen. How is letting your kid do drugs any different than letting him play with fire? How is death by overdose of drug not murder by the one who gave him the ability? And you propose that the government should make it legal. All hat does is make a government responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of people across the nation. You claim that you have shown why my solution would fail. What would yours do? People would now have access to unlimited amounts of cheaper drugs. Would you make an age restriction? Like that would ever stop children from being addicted, like they are right now. We have no choice but to fight drugs. No matter what the monetary cost, our government is responsible for providing a safe environment for its citizens, while protecting their lives and happiness. How can people be happy when death rates soar and life expectancy drops like a stone? Sure, the government receives much needed tax money to repay national debt, for what purpose? No matter how you look at it, your way helps no one, harms many, and is a completely selfish and irresponsible view. So you wouldn't do drugs yourself, and if your friends was you would only help him if he wanted it? You would let him suffer and die just because he wanted to? Sometimes you need to help people just because they need help. Sometimes you have to look beyond yourself and ask how you can change things around yourself for the better. And sometimes that means we have to better educate people about why drugs are bad. Legalizing drugs does not include any of that.