Drug legalization

"Well I can almost assure you, and I am sure you agree, that if they were illegal many new people would have the urge to quit even if they didn't have one before." Well, illegal drugs are illegal yet still people use them. "The reason the law is set up the way it is, is to give people reasons not to want to do things that are illegal. Thats why you get fines for things that you do that are illegal. Its an incentive to stop." The problem is that reasoning just doesn't work in practice. The government can discourage drug use through anti-drug laws all it wants and people will still use drugs. My point is that in part because of this, as a society we would be better off having them be legal. "Even if people are doing drugs regardless of the law not to, it does not mean that the law should be abolished. The truth is everyone has the option of doing drugs. Its just that if you do certain ones your gonna have to expect the consequences. Like fines, jail, and mental instability. Again the reason that drugs are illegal is to give incentives to people not to do them." So if drugs are so bad, why does the government need to add extra incentive not to use them? I don't need the state to tell me what I should or shouldn't put in my body. As an adult, I should have the right to make those sorts of decisions on my own. Even if I become addicted, isn't that penalty enough, do I really deserve criminal punishment on top of that? What about alcohol? That causes more deaths than all illegal drugs combined, yet it is not only legal, but celebrated. Why is it legal? Because we found out that alcohol prohibition just doesn't work@! People still drank, and because of its illegal status it was much more dangerous to do so. The same goes for other drugs now, people still use them, and because of their illegal status, it is far more dangerous to do so. "As for your statistics on people using cocaine and other drugs and dieing, even if the number was 1 in a million who die, would it not be better to have no one die from the side effects of these drugs?" Here is where you have completely missed the point. If no one ever died from drugs, yes that would be better, but its completely impractical. Even with drugs being illegal, people still die from them, so for you to simply say you'd prefer a drug free utopia shows the complete sillyness of your argument. It is a fact that the illegal nature of drugs has caused many people to die from them because of uncertain purity. This would not happen if drugs were legal. "America is set up how it is for a certain reason. We don't want drugs to ruin us the way it has ruined many other countries." Name me one country that has a drug problem worse than the US. The only countries that possibly fit that description are countries whose drug problem is derived not from heavy usage but from supplying drugs to America: Mexico, Peru and Colombia. The problems suffered by these countries are not inherently drug-related, but instead related to the policies of the so-called "war on drugs". Why do you think Mexico has taken steps to legalize marijuana and tried to legalize cocaine? Also, this debate isn't about what I personally think about drugs, its what I think would be best for the country I love: the United States of America. You seem to be concerned with the number of people who are killed by drugs, yet you completely dismiss the fact that undoubtedly there would be fewer drug-related deaths if drugs were legalized. As I've stated in the previous posts, illegal drugs are responsible for the black market. Why do you think so many of our cities have been hurt so much by the influence of gangs? If drugs were legalized, gangs would no longer be able to traffic and deal them. Without the illegal drug market gangs could not thrive--there isn't a single other illegal vice that is NEAR as profitable as drugs. You can't argue with the fact that a marjority of drug-related deaths are related to the trafficking of drugs rather than their use. All of these homicides would be eliminated completely if drugs were sold through legitimate means. You can't argue with the fact that a large proportion of overdoses and drug-use related deaths are related to the uncertain purity of drugs bought off the street. It cannot be disputed that a far fewer proportion of the already small number of drug users who die from their use would die if they were able to buy there drugs through legitimate means. In conclusion, legalized drugs would mean fewer drug-related deaths, increased government revenue, the ending of the incredibly wasteful "war on drugs" which has gone through billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars but hasn't had any impact on the availability of drugs, and would give responsible adults a choice of what recreational mind-altering substance they wish to use besides alcohol (which is just as addictive as any hard drug).