Quote:
Originally Posted by flamesfever
I see prostitution as a parallel to the marijuana industry. Organized crime is involved. Underage people are affected. Soft and hard drugs are associated etc. By and large it has been controlled by using the same methods used to control marijuana i.e. prosecute the users as well as the dealers. I believe there are many people who refrain from marijuana because of the fear of being caught, just the same as the people who would otherwise use prostitutes.
Making pot legal would be a first step in making hallucinogens legal. And although pot is one of the mildest of the group, I fear it may lead to the gradual, step by step, increase in use of many of the more harmful drugs. e.g. cocaine, amphetamines, etc. I believe studies have shown that the highest users of marijuana have a much greater risk of using the harder drugs, in order to achieve the higher highs.
It seems as soon as any substance or activity, that take advantage of the weakness in people, is legally commercialized on a large scale eg. cigarettes, alcohol, gambling etc. that some segment of society pays the price. Shouldn't we draw the line at the number of things?
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Some segmant of society pays the price wether or not something is illegal or legal. The real question that needs to be asked is whether the increase in problem use do to the product being legal outweighs the reduction in harm by it being legal. This equation ignores completely in assignment of moral value to a behaviour and also my strong libertarian sentiment that you should be able to do what you want to your self.
So for pot I think the sides of the scale are pretty one sided. 500 million in reduced court and police costs 6 billion in additional taxes to target at the problems legalization causes. Reduces organized crime, making it more difficult for kids to access etc etc. On the other hand you likely have increased use and with increased use comes increased problem use probably at a much lower % of total users. And the risks of problem use of marijuana are low. So you have a pretty one sided scale.
As you creep up the drug scale I think you have to re-evaluate at each drug.