You always hear the people who say 'if they would just legalize drugs then they could tax them and the drug war and the national debt problems would be solved' blah blah blah...and we hear about how bad the drug cartels are in Mexico that they are killing the police and the mayor and assistants left and right and everybody knows what's going on and nobody can stop them...but this is the angle that I look at and I have to wonder...here you have people who go to great lengths to murder policemen, politicians, whole families, they kidnap and recruit teenagers to do their dirty work for them and kill anybody who gets in their way. And do people just think if drugs were legalized, all of these cartel members would just shrug their shoulders and say 'oh well, at least we had a good run while it lasted'? I mean exactly WHAT would these people do if one day their business WAS shut down because suddenly the government was making it legal?

Chris Rock said it best:
"The US ain't gonna legalize recreational drugs, because the best recreational drugs aren't produced in the US." Mexico would make a killing if drugs laws in the States became permissible.

And you know, I have to agree with people, when the drug in question comes from a plant, it's something that is natural, that is grown like marijuana or the opiate poppies, how or why should that stuff be outlawed since you can't stop it from growing in the first place? I mean if you even eat the sesame seeds on a hamburger bun, you are going to test positive for something on a drug test, how do you stop growing all those things?

Manmade stuff like crystal meth and black tar heroin, okay, this stuff makes sense to outlaw, you have to make it of several things, and no matter what effects you feel from it, it can very likely kill you or otherwise ruin you for life...but plants, that's where you really have to wonder, it's natural, it comes from the earth, it's never going to stop growing, and in cases of marijuana, the government is growing its own kind so that's where the message is really lost that it should be illegal.

If government legalized any or all recreational drugs, they would only do it in minor moderation, so drug cartels would still have a lot of wiggle room to use the stuff to their advantage because few users would be satisfied with the stipulations.

Shale wrote:

Most recreational drugs are illegal.

To paraphrase Dr. Phil "How's that working for you?" It ain't as evidenced by every point in the OP.

So the real question is why are we continuing with a PROVEN mistake? Yes, it was proven to be a mistake scientifically with "The Great Experiment" which failed miserably. I'm referring to the Prohibition of Alcohol in the US. It gave us bootleg booze, the Mafia and other organized crime gangs - AND it didn't curtail alcohol consumption one bit. (Made the Kennedy's rich running Scotch).

So, what would the drug cartels do if we legalized drugs. IDK they would still have the billions of dollars that make them an above the law threat, but their income would be stopped. The Mafia was still around after prohibition ended - they all moved to Vegas I think.

It is ridiculous to make a common popular vice illegal. It is just plain stupid to continue rationalizing a failed effort.

BTW, I tried a lot of drugs in my youth and alcohol is as bad or worse than any I've tried. It too is a drug, but one that the moralists reluctantly had to concede they could not legislate away.

I really get into conspiracy mode when I think the only reason the same failed drug laws are kept is because our elected officials have been bought off. Well, we know that "lobbyists" and "special interest" always buy off our elected officials, we just don't want to admit that drug cartels are the buyer.