Without getting into a debate over the merits of the govt's drug policy I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. IMO, it's a cash drain. Prohibition does not work. For booze, guns or drugs. Or illegal monkies. If someone wants something and are willing to pay for it, someone will sell it to them. I have friends who are local and federal law enforcement. I know that we spend billions world-wide to stop maybe 10% of the drugs that come into this country.
However...
I am a deputy county prosecutor in a poor rural county in Arizona. For the last two years I have prosecuted juvenile crime. Sure I see a bunch of kids who get busted for having joints or pipes or a small bit of weed. Are they hurting themselves any more than I did in high school where I was drinking at parties just about every weekend? No, probably not. But then I also see kids who have no future because of drugs. They're parents have so fried their brains with meth, pot and God knows what else that they recieved no guidence or supervision. And what didi the kids do? They same things they saw their parents do. So they're out smoking pot, huffing paint and doing meth. And now I look at them and know that there is no future for them. Just one drug convcition after another. If they don't get to the point where they are commiting crimes to support their habit. And if it were legal? Then they'd still be sitting on the sidewalk stoned out of their minds until they spent all their money on legal drugs and went out to commit crimes to pay for them.
Yes, I have friends who are recreational pot smokers. Educated, well-to-do, suburbanites. Are they at risk to end up meth-addicts because they smoke a joint every now and then? Nope. Not by a long shot. And of course you can say that these kids wouldn't be at risk if their parents were better, if they had better schools and education and job opportunities. And you'd be right. But what made their parents ****ty, stoned idiots? They didn't take advantage of the education opportunities they had. And they're not interested in a job. They just want to turn on and tune out.
What would happen if drugs were legalized tomorrow and taxed and regulated like tobacco or booze? Crime might decrease. There would be a rise in tax income to the gov't to pay for programs. But would there be a rise in addicts who are no longer productive members of society and end up having to be taken care of by the system? I'm afriad the answer is yes. In my county, despite the efforts of law enforcement, drugs are so easy to get they might as well be legalized. And the effect is crime and poverty. I can't really see how more of that would be good.
Perhaps we'll never know until we try it. But, what do we do if it creates a disaster? That's one genie that you'll never get back into the bottle.
