Massive withdrawl symptoms from people you might not expect?
Don't forget that many of these drugs still have legitimate medical benefits. MJ is an excellent Nausea suppressant and appetite stimulant. Works well for some cancer patients, for example. While not a true painkiller, it can also help some in extreme pain because it puts the user into a state where they just don't care as much. Cocaine is still occasionally used as a painkiller by optometrists. Opium is turned into Morphine and use as a painkiller.
Convicted murderers already have knives so we should go ahead and make it easy for them to get guns too.
Rabbi, you're entitled to your opinion, but you're showing a disconnect with most of the rest of us.
It appears to me that you associate drug users exclusivly with criminals. We don't. While the abusability of various drugs vary, MJ is our 'poster child' for a reason. In most respects it's comparable to and even better than Alcohol and Tobacco.
I personally believe that legalization* would allow us to finally have a crime rate comparable to Europe. Kids today rate illegal drugs as easier to get than the legal age-restricted two. We'd be defunding various organized criminal institutions. We saw it when prohibition ended, crime dropped like a rock. The WoD has been the biggest infringement on our rights.
Believe it or not, legalization would actually give the government more control over these drugs. Use market forces to drive the drug dealers out of business, keep the product as safe as possible, and use the tax money gained to run treatment centers and give most of the money used to fight the WoD back to the people or use it to clean up violent crime.
*I don't like this 'decriminalization' stuff. If you still outlaw selling it, possessing more than an ounce, etc you're still going to have illegal dealers that you can't really regulate.
