The real results of drugs
I'm amazed at your facile, superior ignorance of the results of drug use. Here in Florida, we're on the battlefield itself of the war on drugs. These are NOT "victimless crimes". Alkaloids like heroin and cocaine are astonishingly addictive, I have seen people hooked - really hooked - in just a few days. Teenagers try things, they push the limits, and sometimes their choices aren't very good.
Alkaloid addiction takes a year to cure - and the success rate isn't wonderful because there is a lot of recidivism. People who are hooked will do ANYTHING for their next fix - burglary, robbery, assault, doesn't matter, they are quite literally out of their minds, desperately, frantically searching for the next fix and the next and the next. Physiologically, alkaloids are the "perfect" drug for humans - there's no such thing as "I can quit any time" here.
I've had people tell me "I snorted my Mercedes, my home, my marriage, my kids, I didn't care, I needed it and needed more." I've had rental houses I have owned turned into crack houses and be demolished by the junkies - and then condemned and torn down by the city - and these were NICE houses in NICE areas, not inner city slums. So I have been a casualty in the war on drugs, I have personally had losses in this battle.
I've spoken to law enforcement, they tell me they are spending huge amounts of time chasing crackheads, trying to find and arrest dealers, writing up burglary reports - all of this drug related. Needless to say, the victim's homeowner's insurance goes up or is even canceled because of the claims, and if you have a mortgage, you MUST have homeowner's insurance, no matter what the price. There's another cost of drugs, house values go down in "high crime" areas.
I've spoken to lawyers - they spend hours and hours in court on drug related cases, and their fees are paid by the state - out of our taxes. ("If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be appointed for you.") Or do you prefer we just let people rot in jail or simply die?
Drugs have a HUGE cost to society, and anyone who denies this is ignorant and deliberately obtuse and stupid.
While the war on drugs is expensive and divisive, NOT having the war on drugs would be incredibly worse. After the first hit or two, the drug user no longer has a choice - they are HOOKED - they CANNOT QUIT - and they destroy their lives and the lives of the people around them and the lives of everyone they come in contact with - all to feed the monkey on their back. "Legalize it and tax it" won't begin to work, who do you think is going to be bothered with paying the taxes? Why not also legalize and tax rape and murder?
We need to redouble our efforts, work smarter and harder, eliminate the sources of production, destroy the lines of supply, dismantle the cartels, and get SERIOUS about this war - because WE ARE LOSING right now.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
