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I just wanted to respond to this, because I would imagine a lot of people feel this way. When people hear “legalize drugs” they think of crackheads running around stabbing people, and it is a valid concern. However, there are already crackheads running around stabbing people, and they will continue to run around stabbing people. Drugs are illegal for the same reason alcohol was illegal, because some of them are dangerous to use and may alter your state of mind beyond the point of rational thought.
BUT, the problem with drug prohibition is the same as it was with alcohol prohibition. It doesn’t work. It simply does not work, and it only creates more problems (like organized crime). When you make drug use illegal, it becomes something you hide, something you no longer talk about. This makes it harder to treat, harder to keep safe & clean, etc. Drugs are also readily available. It’s infinitely easier for someone under the age of 21 to buy weed than it is to buy alcohol.
Aside from that, there are billions of dollars spent on the failed drug war, and incarceration of people caught with small amounts of drugs. I like to imagine all of my tax dollars going towards the expenses of keeping someone caught with a bag of weed in prison, because it makes me realize how backwards our system is. It’s money better spent on education, science, infrastructure, etc.
Not to mention decriminalization drugs entirely has been tested, and shown to decrease drug use overall, as well as reduce the spread of HIV among users of intravenous drugs who no longer had to fear being arrested and could find clean needles to use.
Once you get past the thought of stabbing crackheads, the idea starts to make sense.
