Quote:
Originally Posted by virus003
you never said the upsides
explain why it should be legalized
I'm interested in your opinion.
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Typically the argument for legalizing any drug is that you can bring it to the open markets, which drives the prices down and allows it to be taxed. When something becomes easily accessible, that means you won't see as many assaults/deaths associated with drug deals. Credit is a whole different animal in the black market, and it's oftentimes pretty grim. Legalizing drugs means no more situations where some poor soul owes someone $10,000, can't afford it, and winds up getting robbed/beaten/etc. Instead, you could just purchase the drugs at a much lower price from the public, legal markets. It can also be argued that fewer people in jail is a better thing. When you put someone in jail, he is not able to put any of his labor towards the economy in any way. He becomes a burden on society because taxpayers ultimately fund him. On top of that, if that person has a child, that child is now without a parent is statistically more likely to get into trouble. Legalizing the markets also means more jobs created in the wake of regulation and heightened demand and easily accessible distribution channels. Furthermore, it means bringing it to the public forefront in terms of education in terms of responsible usage.
While this all sounds great, it's an idealized view. There are problems inherent in a few of the facets I've brought up, whereas other facets are a bit more subjective/empirical, while others are plain unknown and depend on how regulation would be handled.
Marijuana isn't more harmful than smoking/alcohol. As I've mentioned, legalizing it would lower the price, provide tax revenues, cut down drug-deal disputes massively, free up the courts for other worthwhile matters, and cut funding away from potentially harmful drug dealers. There are also well-documented medical benefits to marijuana that many people currently take advantage of.