Stolen from
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-960134.html
and if you dont want to read it all, i grabbed the "best" part...
Why Illegal Drugs Should Be Legalized (copy paste)
1) Regulation. Illegal drugs are cut with all kinds of harmful substances. Legalized drugs would be regulated and so wouldn't be full of crap. This makes them much, much safer for use. The impurities in drugs are harmful and cause (extra) damage. Varying levels of concentration are also to blame for lots of OD's.
2) Tax; speaks for itself. Alcohol and tobacco more than make up in tax revenue what they cost the NHS. Something like 2 billion a year in cost, 6 billion a year in tax revenue. There is no reason why illegal drugs would be different.
3) Saves money. The War on Drugs is astronomically expensive and the police can focus time, money and effort on catching real criminals rather than pursuing addicts.
4) There is no reason to believe it will increase the number of users. In the UK when marijuana was re-classified to C instead of B, the number of users fell from 11% to 8%. In Holland, marijuana usage fell after its decriminalization. In Geneva a test program where heroin users were given safe drugs and a place to do it in caused the number of new users to fall by 80%. If you ask someone why they don't do crack it's usually because they don't want to be a crack head, not because the police might lock them up.
5) Lowers crime. I don't just mean drug possession/dealing. Drug dealing gangs are responsible for huge amounts of crime. Cutting out a major source of their income will cut crime.
6) Drug barons go bust/legit. Drug barons aren't nice people. This would put the money into the hands of CEO's instead. Not a huge improvement I must say but most CEO's aren't quite as bad as drug barons. Either that or drug barons will go legit. Not an ideal solution but it would still cut crime.
7) Free up prison space. The UK prison system is dangerously overcrowded and the less said about the size of the US prison system the better. Suffice to say that there will be far more room in prisons when we stop locking people up for having an addiction.
Hypocrisy. There is no reason why tobacco and alcohol should be legal and acceptable and other drugs shouldn't be. Far more people are killed by those two. Far more violence is caused by alcohol etc. It doesn't make sense and tradition is not a reason for anything.
9) Cheaper. If drugs are legal then they'd be cheaper (even when taxed). This would mean that drug addicts wouldn't have to steal (or would have to steal less) to obtain drugs. Lots of crime is caused by this and getting rid of it can only be beneficiary.
10) People will be less afraid of getting help for their addictions and will make it easier for people to get into rehab or whatever. As it stands, it's kind of awkward given the illegal status of drugs. It's easier to quit tobacco and alcohol because you can get lots of help from the NHS and lots of other charities. Illegal drugs don't have this.
11) Freedom. Even without the other 10 reasons (which IMO are more than enough to warrant legalization) I would still advocate legalization for the very simple reason that it is the not the government's place to tell me what I can do to myself for my own enjoyment. I can slice a razorblade across my arm, why I can't I stick a syringe full of heroin in? It seems ridiculous that there are actually chemicals which are banned. This is a somewhat backwards view for the 21st century.
We spend $50 billion per year trying to eradicate drugs from this country. According to DEA estimates we capture less than 10 percent of all illicit drugs. In this regard, I have a two part question 1) How much do you think it will cost to stop the other ninety percent? 2) Does $50 billion a year for a 90% failure rate seem like a good investment to you?
White people buy most of the illegal drugs in this country. Yet, seventy four percent of those receiving prison sentences for drug possession are African-American and other minorities. Is race a factor in the enforcement of drug laws, and if not, how can we prove that to skeptics?
Has the cost of the War on Drugs in terms of billions of dollars, blighted lives, jammed prisons, intensified racism, needless deaths, loss of freedom etc., produced any significant change in drug availability or perceived patterns of drug use?
Someone once said "Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and make crime out of things that are not crimes." How do you respond to this statement?
It is estimated that 77 million U.S. citizens have tried an illicit drug at least once. How many of the 77 million drug users do you feel we must incarcerate in order to win the war on drugs?
Why does the FDA stand up for the right of adults to smoke tobacco, which is highly addictive and causes over 400,000 deaths per year, while decreeing that adults have no right to smoke marijuana, which is non-addictive and kills no one?
Drug use is an acknowledged fact of life in every prison in the country. If we can't stop prisoner' use of drugs, how can we rationally expect to stop average free citizens from using them?
What lessons from alcohol prohibition lead you to believe that the current drug war will end in victory?
Fifty-two federal judges, the district attorney of San Francisco, The mayor of Baltimore, the vast majority of prison wardens, and numerous other respected officials consider the war on drugs an abject failure. More than a few important Americans are opposed to the drug war. Since no other US laws or policies are inspiring such resistance, shouldn't we be listening to the many voices which are saying that continuing the war on drugs may be a grave threat to the long-term health of this nation?
At a time when working people are being asked to tighten our belts in order to help balance the budget, how do you justify increasing the funding to the drug law enforcement bureaucracy? Explain why supporting a failed policy of drug law enforcement has a greater priority than student loans or drug education programs.
What do you conclude from the experience of Holland--a country where drugs fall under the jurisdiction of health agencies, not law enforcement--which has seen a decline in chronic use of hard drugs and casual use of soft drugs since de-criminalization?
If illegal drugs are so obviously harmful to people's health, why is it necessary to put so many American adults in prison to prevent them from using these drugs?
In drug policy discussions we hear a lot about the "message" that certain policies may send to children. What message is sent to inner city children who witness illegal drug sales on their way to school each day?
The modern drug war began in the 1960s, and for thirty five years it has failed to reduce drug access to school-aged children. Which is better for America during the next 35 years, prohibition with continued school-aged access to drugs OR reform policies that ease prohibition but reduce school-age access?
Drug prohibition has been one of the biggest U.S. domestic policy failures of the late twentieth century. Why is a perpetuation of this failure more desirable than serious consideration of alternative policy options?
Why should 270 million citizens continue to pay $50 billion per year to try to change the habits of 20 million people, considering that this policy has not been able to change those habits in 82 years and at a total cost of nearly one trillion dollars?
Even granting these drugs are as harmful as claimed, how does persistence in the policy which created and perpetuates the lucrative criminal markets now supplying them make any sense; especially in light of all the collateral damage done by our (unsuccessful) attempt to control them and the abundant historical record that such markets have never been controlled?
For what other health issues do we use police, prosecutors, and prisons as the primary means of 'helping' a sick person? Isn't that just as silly as using a baseball bat to cure someone of clinical depression? (Smile and get happy or I'll whack you again)
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17438347/how_america_lost_the_war_on_drugs
http://norml.org/
http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/stories/2003/12/22/whyIsMarijuanaIllegal.html
