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It's hard to suggest they're not a drain on the taxpayers when the rate of welfare dependency is at 28%. Before the liberalization of Switzerland's drug laws, the rate was at 17% (Britain is 18%, Australia is 17%, US is 14%).
ROFL!!!
You rant against the use of statistics in one post yet use them in the next! What is your source for those percentages?

it doesn't change the fact that they have no idea whether or not decriminalization has actually led to diminished heroin use. And that was the main finding of this study.
They do know that decriminalization has not led to the increase in heroin use that opponents of decriminalization predicted.

Deriminalization has not led to an increase in drug use in Switzerland or the Netherlands and that is the most important fact of all. I would cite the statistics but you're opposed to statisics when used by those other than yourself.
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ROFL!!!

You do that a lot. It's like the chat-room equivalent of the Al Gore off-camera debate sneer. Very effective.

You rant against the use of statistics in one post yet use them in the next!

Of course, I realized this would be your reaction as I wrote it. I did it anyway, because I was using the statistic to counter one specific, completely unfounded statement you made about how taxpayer dollars were spent in Switzerland. Not to make an argument against legalization.

Also, I didn't rant against statistics. I said they can be used to show whatever you want them to show. Which is still true.

What is your source for those percentages?

Funny how everything I say requires a source, while everything you say should just be accepted on its face. I'll show you my sources for welfare dependency statistics when you show me your source for the stats that show all the productive junkies decriminalization has created and all the money they've saved the Swiss taxpayers. Since that was what I was responding to, I think it's only fair that you back it up with the hard data you constantly demand before proceeding with this any further.

Deriminalization has not led to an increase in drug use in Switzerland or the Netherlands and that is the most important fact of all.

Yet, it's not a fact at all. It's a conclusion one study came to based on the number of people seeking substiution treatment, giving no consideration to the possibility that fewer people might seek treatment for a drug in a society which has decriminalized said drug.

And the study says nothing about overall "drug use". It applies specifically to heroin, giving no consideration to the cyclical popularity of specific drugs.