To correct the erosion of personal liberty and lessen the destruction that drugs cause to people's lives, it is prudent that they be legalized. To legalize them does not mean to endorse them, as most people who choose to abstain from drugs do so for health reasons, not because the government says they are bad. But when a drug user is only affecting himself, he should not be subject to any criminal penalties. Law enforcement agencies estimate that half of all crime is drug-related offenses, an incredible waste of the police's time and money. The illicit drug industry provides an economic incentive for poor inner-city kids to drop out of school and earn quick money.
Jails are overcrowded as well.
In 1980 there were almost twice as many violent offenders in federal prison as drug offenders. Today more people are now incarcerated in the nation's prisons for marijuana than for manslaughter or rape. The drug war is a waste of time, tax money, resources and manpower. It has been allowed to trample our constitutional freedoms and makes young people resentful and disrespectful of the law. It is a cancer on our government, and instead of treating drugs as a legal problem, we must look at them rationally from a health-based perspective, otherwise the hysteria surrounding drugs will spiral out of control even more than it does already.