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Per capita drug use may have been declining. That doesn't mean that the number of users is declining, it just means that as the population grows there are less new users. Also, these numbers, just like any other can be used by political groups, special interests, etc. pretty much any way they want. You can use percentages or raw numbers depending on whether you want to show an increase or a decrease. Heck, the number of murders per capita in Detroit has been reduced by, say 3%, over the last ten years. Law enforcement could jump up and down touting their progress in fighting crime. When in fact, the number of murders (raw number that is) may have increased by say 10%. How is that progress? I don't see it that way. From a moral perspective, keeping drugs illegal and fighting the traffic and crime that comes with it is correct. From some ideological perspectives, the money spent fighting drugs and related crime, is a waste and making drugs legal could at the least reduce the crime involved if not definitely the illicit trafficking. But is it morally correct or ethically correct to make something legal just to appease immoral members of society? If we used this line of thinking, there would be very few laws, and none that legislated moral behaviors that should be illegal. I don't want to use some silly slippery slope argument. I realize that immoral crimes that harm another individual or infringe upon someone else's rights will always be seen as necessarily legislated by Libertarians, but it still opens up a Pandora's box of immoral behaviors that could be made legal and shouldn't.

I have heard all the arguments for and against making drugs legal. Currently, I sit on the side of the fence opposed to legalization. The reason being is it upholds our societies moral integrity. I don't see the legalization of drugs as helping enough at the expense of our societies moral justifications for fighting it.

The dealers, thugs, and criminals who use drugs as their modus operandi will just find some other illicit thing or act to continue their crime.

"The dealers, thugs, and criminals who use drugs as their modus operandi will just find some other illicit thing or act to continue their crime."

Well, this is where our fundemental disagreement lies. I agree statistics can be manipulated, although it seems per capita use is still a pertinent measure. However, I think the dealers, thugs, and criminals, were in effect created by government, they did not exist before incentives were in place that necessitated their existance. This might explain this theory a bit more:

http://www.neoperspectives.com/sweatshopsandwelfare.htm