It's cheaper than the pharmacutic equivalent. I know, let's legalize it. That will make the problem go away. Simple. Just drink and drug your worries away. You earned it, reward yourself.
It will take one problem away. You will be sick. Not a sick criminal. Addicts don't have problems. They don't know what a problem is. Maybe at one time they had a problem, maybe it was just physical pain, maybe it was the normal problems we all have. But the life of problems and problem solving are long over. We can make it illegal and add to our problems, but it won't have any affect on the addict legal or illegal. Or we can make it legal, treat it as a disease and lighten our problems. Either way it has no affect on the addict.
Depends what you have as a priority. You want to reduce the prison population, then yes, legalization is the answer. You want to help people in active addiction and/or prevent addiction, then legalization is a disaster. Societies problems will not be lighter with legalization, they will be greater. More people will die from overdoses. There will be more petty crime to deal with as addicts do what they do to support their habit. Productivity in the workplace will suffer, and there will be more workplace accidents. There will be more vehicle accidents. This doesn't even begin to address the harm done in the family structure. Violence and abuse in the home will rise. Child neglect will increase. But yes, the prison population will be reduced. The graveyards will flourish. Homelessness will be plentiful. I'm not trying to be an ass, but I know of what I speak. I personally know hundreds of addicts and alcoholics. I have met thousands. I'm in a detox with people coming down a couple times a week. I am an addict and alcoholic in recovery for many years. Thirty one to be precise. I see the end results up close and personal each and every day. I agree that much, much more time and money needs to be spent on treatment, but that's a horse is already out of the barn solution. The problem is we live in a society that eagerly accepts and advocates recreational alcohol and drug use. We live in a society that would rather drug children into nice little submissive creatures than actually do real parenting and teaching. We have a pill for everything. We tell people they shouldn't feel any emotion, ever. Yes, the majority of the population can entertain themselves in this fashion and not really suffer any real negative consequences, but there are millions who for whatever the reason(s), as yet to be truly determined, will fall into addiction. As the population grows, so grows that number. It's just a simple ration and proportion equation. There is no easy fix. Nor is there a cheap one.
It's a mess no doubt and probably only getting attention because now it is in the white suburbs. The old hanging around in the wrong crowd taking gateways no longer applies. For many today the gateway was a prescription drug prescribed by a licensed physician. If they are going to abuse anyway I see no reason to make it worse for all by also making it a crime. I would rather see the addict go to the clinic and get clean drugs in a less than lethal dose than out on the street who knows where. I'll even pay for the drugs if it beats the street price and is not for profit. The addict will either recover or die, there is no middle ground. The collateral damage and cost of the drug war is staggering and the greatest threat to our security on the southern border. As you know there is no cure, only a decision by the user. If they make that decision they go to the clinic and instead of walking in the drug room they go into the help room (which would be mandatory each daily visit) and the rest of us get some kind of stability even if they don't choose it.
This topic conflicts me the most as I can't say what the right answer is. Personally I don't use any drugs, smoke or even drink and it would be nice if everyone else was the same. But then again, I know there are people with problems. People in physical pain that need strong pain killers. People in mental pain that need alcohol and cigarettes to relax themselves. People always say the drug war doesn't help, but I can't say that for sure. They bust dealers before they get too big here in the US, so you don't get these big cartel-like dealers killing citizens left and right like they do in Mexico.
That doesn't make sense. If drugs were legal the only cartel would be pfizer and merck. No killing, no gangs other than congress. People tell all about how horrible drugs are and I ask, Why not just make them illegal?
Yes, it's a hot mess out there. Don't mistake me for a hard line, send their asses to jail type. No one should be doing prison, or even county time for simple pocession. Petty crimes where the person is obviously someone dealing with drug issues should also be dealt with in a different way other than locking them up. Considerably more money needs to go towards treatment, and yes the successful rate of long term recovery is horrible, but right now there is no cure other than total abstinence and that is a bitch to pull off in our society, especially for younger people. I'm just pointing out that legalization is not the panacea that some people present it to be.