If drug dealing wasn't illegal would it be so bad? We condemn these guys that are drugdealing but we may fail
492030
Study the history of alcohol prohibition and crime.  \n\nStudy the history of drug prohibition and crime.  \n\nGet the picture?
973486
We aren't honest about the problem.  For the most part, this is a national security issue having to do with mexico.  Quite literally, mexico has created a black market industry that rivals oil exportation as its main source of revenue.  This has horrible consequences for both us and mexico.  Drugs have a direct effect on our population but the money sent back to mexico creates a situation where the most heinously evil people have tons of power.  We are seeing the result right now as the mexican government is only a few short steps from being overthrown and being replaced with a communist/totalitarian government fueled by drug money.  Mexico has become the type of place where you are out dancing at a club, minding your own business when all of a sudden a group of gunmen burst in and toss a bunch of severed heads on the stage as a warning to people.\n\nSolving this is quite direct.  Shut down the border and seal it tight.  The methamphetamines issue is even simpler to solve.  Get rid of certain OTC cold medications and it becomes very difficult to manufacture them.
848273
The sooner they are *in* prison and *out* of business, the better for everyone.\n\nUnfortunately, this seems to be one of those economic niches that, no matter how many times you clean them out, more scumbags arise to fill it.\n\nStill, I'd rather legalize drugs to make room for predatory lenders in our prisons, than vice versa.
737513
Well the amount of money in taxes would certainly be a major factor....it's also arguable that crime on one hand would be significantly reduced for obvious reasons (decriminalisation) but then again would there be an increase in users and therefore crime related to obtaining money for these drugs?? Many criminal gangs working in the drug industry would be put out of business and a lot of profits from this activity funds other crimes such as people trafficking. A combination of selling certain drugs through licenced premises and a liberalisation of trade barriers for certain substances could actually benefit certain drug production for some of the world's poorest people.\n     It has been proved with the lowering of cannabis to grade C that usage has actually dropped....maybe an effect of making it less desirable as it doesn't carry the same position in youngsters minds (demand dropping when level of legality falls). Check out New Scientist Magazine for figures.\n    How would nation/ health care react  ...probably extremely negatively and in many cases for good reasons. Could it work? well for such a complicated matter with so many issues it would require a huge cost/benefit analysis and to implement such a system i would imagine is too expensive monetarily speaking. Read a bit of "Mr.Nice" for info on drug trafficking industry and ideas advocating this theory.
362252
It may help the US, because the idiots that use the drugs illegally here will go to Mexico to live so they can use the drugs legally, taking them off "our" welfare system, and reducing non-paying hospital patient visits, which will ultimately reduce the medical cost to those that do pay and have insurance.  Go help pack their bags and take them to the bus station. Adios! (it is like sending your good-for-nothing brother to live with your sister)
627540
That could make it difficult for the drug dealers to sell drugs at a expensive cost and the should do the same for the US.
387318
Well of course, by criminalizing the drug trade you force it to organize along certain guidlines, even if you legalize the drug trade it would then still be organized by the government. Im an American and the government is the biggest drug dealer i have ever seen.
333048
not very. thats why we get good drugs in america.
549747
Not if you're going to support illegal activities?\n\nWould you go to a drug dealer rally?  What they do is illegal, no?
511039
I don't think that decriminalizing drug possesion by Mexico is a good idea because not only will you have mexican using and smuggling more you will have americans crossing over to take advantage of it.
421894
Yes. The war on drugs is a failure. There are more prisons than schools and this has not solved the problem. My state Oklahoma spends $48000 on average per year for each inmate and $3000 on every student. The majority of these are non-violent drug offenders and need help not incarceration. Do we remember Prohibition? Violence increases when you make things illegal and let's face it you can get drugs as easy as you can cigarettes and liquor. Having said this IT MUST BE REGULATED. On the black market who knows what you're buying MUCH MORE DANGEROUS because it's cut with all sorts of bad stuff. Make cash from TAXES and let it help the problem. I do not condone drug use, but I do not believe the government should be able to regulate what goes into my body. Where does it end. Can't have dessert cause it causes obesity and heart problems? There will still be a drug problem as long as people take them, but making it illegal has made the problem worse despite all good intentions.
216319
The war on drugs has been such a huge failure. Think about this: what if all the money and resources spent between 1992-2001 spent fighting a war we can't win had been spent infiltrating and neutralyzing Islamic extremists ? 9/11 would have never happened. Instead, to this day, we fight an herb put on this earth by God which has never killed anyone. A war which we can never win.
983489
Not yet it isn't but there are thoughts of doing so, and the costs will rise year on year. It's been tried in the past already. We will get addicts becoming more dependent. Doctors inundated with work. What if some people pretend to be addicts so that they can get supplies in order to get young children 'hooked' on drugs? What if some Doctors start drug dealing? It is open to all kinds of abuse. Money would be better spent trying to prevent people taking drugs in the first place and getting addicts off drugs.  This is a typical example of what's wrong with this Country. What are we trying to do? Give the Police less work? We want a visible Police Force with more manpower to tackle crime, not a nanny force.
776473
making smoking illegal is impractical.  with our overburndened criminal justice system, from the cops up to the judges, there is no way it could handle a larger scale 'war on drugs' . with smoking illegal, we would be promoting massive profit for gangs and mafias.  \n\nviolence would increase, as these gangs battled over who would control the illegal and profitable trade in tobacco.  children, who for the most part now have diffculty buying tobacco while it is under government regulation, would have easier access since drug dealers on the street don't ask for ID.  there would also be no regulation on additives in the tobacco, so that dealers could lace it with cocaine, speed or other hard drugs.\n\nthe US already has the highest percentage of its people in prison in the world. this would only increase if smoking were illegal.
443356
There should be no illegal drudge.  There are all kinds of medical uses for every drug created but in the US we have illegal drugs that your Dr. cannot prescribe for you even if it would save your life.  Heroin is used routinely to treat severe cancer related pain in other countries.  LSD was developed to treat alcoholism, marijuana has several uses. Cocaine also has several uses.  I think the hype surrounding illegal drugs is just a propaganda thing of the politicians to have a platform to get our votes.  There are just as many abuses of legal drugs as there is of illegal drugs.  And what about alcohol & tobacco?  They are legal & are the worst of them all.  Anyway,  my point is, if they were legal there would be no war on drugs.  We'd save all kinds of tax money.  Do away with DEA,ATF, RENU & a lot of idiot stupid laws.  I don't even & never have done drugs but if everything were legal, then tax the h--- out of the recreational drugs & set up rehabs etc. for the druggies.
767562
a ban can only lead to illegal trading of whatever substance you ban where gangs can muscle in in a very lucrative market, engendering violence and eventually to damage to innocent by standers. just because you ban something does not mean that they will disappear. they'll just go underground and thereby creating more problems. what we need is to make people more aware of the dangers and be more responsible for their health and their lives. we can't nanny  people forever to protect them from themselves. if they want to drink or drug themselves to death, that's their choice. it's a free country.
1048414
There you go Pussycat, you answered your own question. You gotta stop doing that, you're wasting 5 points. The governement could care less about the people coming over here, it's one less thing for them to worry about! If thier government themselves werent so far gone (drug wise) perhaps they'd have a reasonalbe person over there making correct decisions! the entire governement is made up of crack heads and greedy men! Do you think they care what happens to anyone other then themselves??