From a business stand point, you’re looking at a market potentially as large and profitable as the tobacco or alcohol industries.
From a social stand point, you’re looking ending victimless crime and criminals.
From a financial stand point, less criminals means less inmates, less inmates means prison funding, less funding means less tax.
Less criminals also means less enforcement (ei. DEA & drug task forces), which means even lower taxes.
From a legal standpoint you’re looking at laws similar to those in place for alcohol and tobacco.
Everybody wins.
#1 by Matt on July 4, 2010 - 12:09 pm
Most people probably wouldn’t run their drug businesses legitimate. Could make and save more money by avoiding the taxes.
If you think about it, for it being illegal for us to consume drugs the Government has control over our minds – seeing how most drugs are mind altering.
#2 by catman on July 4, 2010 - 12:34 pm
my thoughts exactly, every time I get ……..
cannonbo, do some research, the facts don’t back up a
“10 fold increase”
check the Netherlands, Portugal and others.
#3 by 700 up on July 4, 2010 - 1:04 pm
Some drugs might only hurt the people doing them but other drugs like alcohol can put others in danger when you take them because you are doing dangerous things. Also, second hand smoke from people smoking can hurt people. It’s mostly to protect the people that don’t want to do drugs.
#4 by It Girl on July 4, 2010 - 1:05 pm
Some drugs are illegal for a good reason~they kill people, and you don’t always have “victimless crime” when it comes to certain drugs. Your argument fails.
I can’t believe the druggies giving me thumbs down. LOL. If you understood how these things work, you would know why most illegal drugs are illegal. The powers-that-be didn’t just swoop down and say “oh, let’s make cocaine illegal because it would be fun to see junkies jump for it.”
#5 by Jeff S on July 4, 2010 - 1:14 pm
Because of several reasons.First the alcohol,tobacco and drug companies don’t like competition.Secondly anyone with a few seeds can start growing their own.Kind of like bathtub bootleggers during prohibition.
#6 by Arab American is American on July 4, 2010 - 1:50 pm
Very Valid Point ! But the idea of having the access to legal heroin is a bit scary
#7 by Resistance on July 4, 2010 - 2:08 pm
From a business standpoint alcohol, tobacco, law enforcement and prison industries hate this idea and so do their lobbyists. Less crime = less cops, lawyers, prison guards, judges etc and their salaries.
#8 by dbcmpny on July 4, 2010 - 2:36 pm
10,000 die from cocaine AND heroin every year. 0 die every year from marijuana. 200,000+ from cigarettes and 150,000+ from alcohol per year. Think hard about why some addictions are acceptable over others..
#9 by 0bama Joker on July 4, 2010 - 2:52 pm
From a strictly freedom standpoint they probably should be legal.
From a financial standpoint you are only highlighting one side. There would be costs including addictions, crime (it still costs money), deaths and accidents, rehab, and a host of others.
#10 by **** * on July 4, 2010 - 3:27 pm
Most people would want you to believe what your 1st poster said. But this has already happened in Portugal, and it has actually helped. Most Prisons are privately run in America so taxes wouldn’t be affected as greatly as you might think. I can’t say I agree with heroin/crack and other highly addictive drugs being used in a non-controlled environment, but according to FACTS (See Video) it probably wouldn’t be what many might think. But it is proven marijuana has never caused cancer, and people who smoke cigarettes and marijuana are 50% less likely to contract cancer then those who only smoke cigarettes. Most of the test used by the Government during prohibition were proven wrong with the same samples and the same test shortly after 1937. But our culture has been manipulated a lot to the point that facts are irrelavent if someon in the news says they are.
#11 by JB on July 4, 2010 - 3:44 pm
I fully agree, in theory it looks fucking awesome. But in reality, it just doesn’t work. People, at first, will be buying more than your Grandma Alice. Then everyone will realize that they can just get it anywhere. Do you really want something that isn’t worth the trouble to avoid getting caught? I wouldn’t. And on top of that, is it really worth running the risk of increasing other crimes because a small group of people go out and do stupid shit like kill other people because they are so fucked up on drugs? I don’t think so. Besides, with high people doing stupid shit to themselves and others, your market is going to dry up really fast.
In short, the one thing you forgot when you thought all of this up is the HUMAN perspective. We can only be so responsible for our actions until our brains are so hyped on drugs we can’t do a damn thing about it. People will abuse it, they will lose everything, and the market will dry up faster than it already is. If you’re not satisfied with this answer, you can suck it.
#12 by GoldenFire on July 4, 2010 - 4:29 pm
We don need no stinkin coke.
#13 by Steven G on July 4, 2010 - 5:16 pm
So damn true ***…