Quote:
Originally Posted by MattyC
Yeah, I think decriminalization of possession is more the way to go with hard, highly-addictive drugs for the reasons you mentioned.
Legalization will likely create more users, but evidence (albeit, short term) from places like Colorado is that the increase in rec use is quite marginal. However, that's hard to track without solid stats on how many users there were before. Some habitual users may actually consume LESS as they don't have to buy in bulk, which would then have them contributing more to the tax portion.
My problem with decriminalization, as I mentioned, is that it doesn't target the main reasons for looking at doing this in the first place. IE eliminating the black market for it and thereby reducing the organized crime associated with it, and allowing the people to benefit from it overall via taxation. If the strategy is to eliminate traffickers and dealers, decriminalization does nothing to combat that, and may actually increase it as usage sees a bump.
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In the harder drugs side I disagree that legalization would increase use.
If I ask people here why don't you smoke crack the answer isn't because its illegal.
For the softer drugs legalization will result in increased useage because there is definitely a segment of the population that doesn't use because of the illegality.