Should all drugs be legalised ?

Pros. 1.The billions of pounds of revenue per year would be taken out of the hands of the crimminal and given to the government which then could be used for drug education counselling and rehab. 2. The drugs used would be clean. 3. 50% of petty street crime would cease. 4. Anybody that wants to get illegal drugs seem to get them any way. 5. Immense burdens would be lifted off the police and customs saving yet more money for the tax payer. 6 Most people in the legal and medical professions say alcohol should be a class A drug. Cons. Possible increase in overall narcotic addiction. Hopefully combated with serious and honest education. ( im not convinced one way or the other, your opinions please)

I have known addicts before, and what I learned from them is that if you're truly addicted to something, you don't CARE about the legal penalties. You don't care about how it affects your family or friends. You don't even care if it kills you. You will do anything to get your next fix. In light of that, I think that the legal penalties for using drugs are pretty ineffective.

Does that mean we should make everything legal? Maybe not. Drugs like crystal meth or heroin are scary, scary things. But there are other illegal drugs that are not nearly so harmful. Our societal attitude toward pot, for example, mystifies me. Alcohol is honestly more dangerous, and it's legal! Our approach towards drug use is inconsistent and founded more on morality and fear than practicality. I think we need to overhaul our drug laws and concentrate more on treatment and rehabilitation, as well as stop wasting effort trying to restrict drug use we really should not give a crap about.

no

big fat no, not all of them.
silly to even think that heroin can be used safely if legalised.

Yup. The less government interference in people's lives the better. Prohibition never works for anything ever.

I'm not certain one way or the other, but I *would* like to clean the slate of public emotion. There's much too much knee-jerkiness when it comes to the question of drug legalisation, especially in the US.

I just got finished watching a BBC show on this subject. At least in the UK they're talking about it. There's no way a show like that would air in the US. Advertisers simply wouldn't dare be associated with something like that. We can't even talk about it here.

I guess I'd say that I lean toward legalisation. If I had greater trust in politicians, I might be able to see them like I see the kind-hearted bartender who cuts a customer off when he's had too much. However, politicians aren't kind-hearted bartenders, they're professional posturers and poseurs, so I feel queasy about letting them make decisions about people's private lives.

It would seem that making drugs illegal is saying that the government owns me and I am not free. If someone wants to fry their brain with drugs they should be allowed. It is their brain not the government's.

Well, normally the justification for anti-drug laws are cast into "protection". That is, the laws are meant to protect you from the (often mis-advertised by sellers) side-effects of drugs, and to protect others from your possibly detrimental behavior while under the influence. It's hard to get around this, and I agree that it is inconsistent with our treatment of alcohol.
One thing to point out - several of your Pros are overly optimistic. Most likely the criminal aspects would just move to providing cheaper (and illegal because not clean) drugs, and "question free" drugs that could be gotten without parents knowing.

It certainly sounds good but i doubt it could actually work in real live

It might increase overall drug use, and the current problems with it being illegal might still be there.

Other then that, I agree with legalization.

No the reason being simple, even though it is legal for you to buy, It is also then legal for someone else to buy and use on you without your knowledge.
So the cops are now busy solving crimes with no purchase leads because it is legal.
make sense.
I do however think some drugs such as asthma and bladder infection ect drugs should be available from the pharmacy without a prescription.

I think once they are all legalised you remove dealers from the equation and you put a huge dent in organised crime- you also make it easier to identify the users and you can set up help centres at the same location where drugs can be purchased. Then of course there is the huge increase in revenue for the government that has the guts to do it.

To summarise:

1. Huge reduction in drug-related crime.

2. Much easier to identify those who need help and get help to them.

3. Big increase in revenue, leading to more spending on public services and/or tax cuts.

NO
drugs are very dangrous as different drugs affect people in different ways.
many drugs are additive and cause lots of problems for people.
they cause damage to your body your brain not to mention your family. THEY NUMB THE BRAIN AND KILL THE SOLE..NEVER take drugs on less your doctor pricribes them for you.....keep safe say NO to drugs............Des

Never thought I would ever agree on anything with the chief constable of north Wales (who suggested it last week) but
yes. It is so obvious and it is only peoples fear that prevents any action. The money saved should go on re-education and rehab for addicts, oh and agent oranger for the opium fields of Afghanistan!

That would be a very bad thing.

The main pro in my eyes is if drugs were freely avalable they would be less attractive to young people because they are lured by the forbidden. It will never happen tho, and rightly so because it would lead to a whole new set of problems!

im not saying im against drugs..ha.cuz i not. but if they were made legal...we'd have to pay more for them.and ...what difference does it make if its legal..if ur smart u dont get caught.

Sure. Then the government could tax them. People are going to get them and use them anyway might as well use the taxes that they would pay on the drugs for something beneficial.

That head cop thought so, but then again the police prefer to break up a playground fight and caution two people than to deal with a nasty drug dealer, because that way they can meet their targets easier. It's all down to to Labour policy.

Never...

There are strong arguments for legalizing drugs.
I'm an American, so please bear with my quaint Colonial spelling. ;)

Your first pro is only 录 of the economic argument for legalizing drugs.

There are 4 major economic reasons for legalizing.

1: Revenue.
2: Taxes on the drugs.
3: A decrease in funds spent combating drugs all the way from smuggling the drugs into the country down to street-level police action.
4: Funds NOT spent on imprisoning drug users can then be recycled back into better programs, such as public education.

The economics alone would make it worthwhile.

Note, I don't condone the use of narcotics.
I don't use them, and wouldn't if they were legal. Unless alcohol were to be reclassified as a drug. Then that would be my drug.
But I'm not so arrogant as to think that just because I don't like something means it should be illegal.

Freedom of choice.

Yes and No.No i wouldn`t want to legalise it,for many reasons,and yes i would,as i`m getting to the point now where all these drug addicts that do burgle houses e.c.t to help with their addiction (may i add, all us hard working people that have paid for our nice things)to pay for their drugs,i say give them all the bloody drugs they want,and O.D.They make me sick.I feel sorry for the ones that have taken the suff and didn`t know about it.And i agree with you too on alcohol,it`s so damaging not only to the people who do drink but to the people who have to watch them suffer with it,as i have to watch my dad,i suffer too.I don`t drink and i don`t take drugs.

I'm ready to admit that my arguments on this subject are very contradictive, as I'm constantly undecided on it.

Right now, I'm for the legalisation of drugs... Reason being, is because alcohol is legal and that effects your behaviour etc, so why is that not criminalised?? It's also the person's fault if they're willing to take drugs.. technically its a victimless crime, since you're not actually harming anyone else but yourself, however, come to think of it, you may have secondary victims, such as family members who are distressed seeing you take drugs but that's a whole other matter, and I'm rambling on..

Maybe if it was legalised then the crime rates would decline, well crimes such as burglary and mugging etc, not neccessarily other crimes such as violent attacks and white collar crimes (which are continuously being ignored).

And like mentioned in the question, yes the drugs would probably be cleaner, would be more control over using cleaner needles, therefore less diseases such as AIDs etc.

The thing is, though, ask yourself, if illicit drugs were to be legalised, would you try them? My personal answer would be no, so if you're already against the use of drugs now, then why would you start taking them as soon they were legalised? is it because they're available and you're not committing crime? maybe, but then that would be pretty stupid.

I also think that if drugs were to be legalised, then they should put an age limit it on it, like alcohol and cigs etc.. It may not help, but then at least there's a warning.

And yeah, I pretty much agree with the rest of the questions argument.