The pros and cons of legalizing narcotics?

Question by Scott: The pros and cons of legalizing narcotics?
Please do not comment if your sole intention is to stalwartly support one side over the other by using vague terms or abusive language. Instead, found your answers on thoughtful reason.

My stance: While I think drugs can be taken responsibly, many users fall victim to addiction and lose control of their lives. This happened to my former best friend, and saddens me. This is also why I don’t take drugs or hang around people who sell them.

The government pours billions into fighting drug wars, and bringing greedy individuals to justice, only to have others immediately take their place. Many lives are lost (users, dealers and cops) and at high cost.

If the government legalized drugs, then they could both regulate and tax the drugs. Therefore, narcotic-use would be safer and the taxes could be put to therapy, among other things.

Anyway, I do not know all of the details. That’s why I’m asking for more insight, so I can better see both sides.

Obviously, there is no easy solution but it seems that there will always be a demand (much as there is for alcohol and cigarettes) regardless of the given strength of any community.

Best answer:

Answer by jenabel
Taking some type to write a thoughtful answer, hang tight…

There are basically two schools of thought on the legalization of narcotics issue. One really focuses on the harm done to the individual, and the other to society, as a whole.
If you do the research, you will find that it is only a very small percentage, (3% on average) of people who consume illegal drugs, actually become addicted. Given the prevalence, this works out to be a small number of individuals each year who a. become addicted and b. let their behavior become so out of control that other people are actually harmed by their addiction.
If you factor in the legal drugs (morphine, oxycontin, adderall, etc) that in actually are chemically identical to street drugs like heroin and crystal meth, that are given out to citizens and count them as people who consume, but are not addicted to, drugs, the number of “addicts” becomes much much smaller. Realistically, most people who take opiates (morphine) in a regulated setting like for pain relief in a hospital, are so aversed by the negative effects of the drug, like gastrointestinal upset, that the positives are shadowed by the negatives. Now remember, morphine turns exactly into heroin in the brain. They affect the exact same neurotransmitters.
So, hypothetically speaking, .5% of people who consume illegal drugs become addicted. This, I figure, is a fairly conservative number, considering how many people are given drugs to control pain or ADHD (which are amphetamines). This would suggest that the vast majority of people enjoy their soberness considering how easy it is to access street drugs, even while not on the street. So is making them illegal wrong?
There’s a select few who will take advantage; I say teach them and let them make the choice, don’t give drug dealers and terrorists such a great opportunity to capitalize on such a great market.
Sorry that’s so long, but even in this answer, I barely touch on many other facets to this debate…

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!