Let's talk about drugs

[Joods]

Let's talk about drugs (in the U.S., specifically.) 

Pot should be legalized, that's a given. The other drugs though...it'd be hypocritical not to legalize them. Any negative attribute you could easily attribute to alcohol and/or tobacco as well. Let's list some of the arguments I've heard from people who want hard drugs to stay illegal:

-They are highly addictive (also applies to alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine)
-They can impair your ability to drive (also applies to alcohol)
-They can make you a danger to yourself (also applies to alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine)
-They can make you a danger to others (also applies to alcohol)


Now, all that being said, I believe that hard drugs shouldn't be legalized; just because some horrible substances are legal doesn't mean we should make more of them legal. I think we should only decriminalize them; I wouldn't really want to see stores selling meth.

But yeah, pot should definitely be legalized. Honestly, the only good argument against legalizing pot is that when the government taxes the hell out of it it'll be way more expensive than my current dealer.

To be fair, pot shouldn't be classified as a drug. Period. It is a plant. To take that further, growers of industrial grade hemp will tell you that it has many different uses. One of which was utilized by the United States government during WWII. The US Navy had rope made of hemp for their ships that were tied at the docks. My guess is, once they no longer had a need for it, they decided to make hemp illegal. Is that a stretch? Not really, because anything is possible.

If I'm not mistaken, Canada has legalized hemp farmers and those farmers make many different things such as paper and fabrics. Tobacco farmers here in the US would probably stop growing tobacco if they were allowed to become hemp farmers for industrial uses. Think of all the jobs this could create as well.

I agree with decriminalizing drug use and favor rehabilitation over incarceration, but have a problem with how the argument is presented. Your bulleted items aren't necessarily untrue, but lack the perspective of degree. Befriend a heroin addict and see if alcohol, tobacco and caffeine still register equivalent effects. The line of reasoning is unconvincing.

I know a recovering heroin addict. I can tell you the effects are not the same.