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“They’ll cheer the federal drug war, and then bitch about the federal abuse of power over things like the Endangered Species Act, or federal “hate crime” laws.”

Here are my options:

1. Deal w/ drug abuses like we have been doing. We fill up the jails, have drug wars (akin to Al Capone’s alcohol wars in the 1930’s), and basically don’t solve the problem.

2. We follow the Amsterdam example. We legalize it, grade it, tax it. We then get drug parties in parks, still get theft and violence, and still have people ruining not only their lives, but the lives of their families. We still don’t solve the problem.

So, yeah, I’d love to legalize MJ. I don’t smoke it, although I tried it a few times and I DID inhale and I kinda enjoyed it. Still, can anyone show me where we can legalize the stuff and not have MORE problems than we have now?

Doesn't anyone remember the idea of a Republic, or the Founder's idea of the "laboratories of democracy" anymore? Why is it people automatically assume that whatever the solution to a particular problem is, it has the be the same solution for everyone?

2. We follow the Amsterdam example. We legalize it, grade it, tax it. We then get drug parties in parks, still get theft and violence, and still have people ruining not only their lives, but the lives of their families. We still don’t solve the problem.

No, but even in the heavily-controlled environment called prison "the problem" is not solved. People ruin their lives and careers over all sorts of stupid things (Edwards, and one could hope for Redfriend and Strident).

I'm not as notoriously libertarian as W.F. Buckley though I've subscribed to his magazine for more years than I have digits but... this solution is not only not working, it's fueling other political/social elements even more poisonous to and destructive of our culture.

Legalization has its problems. It's fair to say that one boundary on the extent of the issue was set in China in the 1900s with the ban on opium.

U.S. leads world in substance abuse, WHO finds

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States leads the world in rates of experimenting with marijuana and cocaine despite strict drug laws, World Health Organization researchers said on Tuesday.

Countries with looser drug laws have lower rates of abuse, the researchers report in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine.

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0125478320080701

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Here are my options:

1. Deal w/ drug abuses like we have been doing. We fill up the jails, have drug wars (akin to Al Capone’s alcohol wars in the 1930’s), and basically don’t solve the problem.

2. We follow the Amsterdam example. We legalize it, grade it, tax it. We then get drug parties in parks, still get theft and violence, and still have people ruining not only their lives, but the lives of their families. We still don’t solve the problem.

You are missing an entire part of the equation. Let me give you your two options again:

1) We have a country with drug problems AND an unconstitutional police state.

2) We have a country with drug problems, but no associated police state, and we actually treat the Constitution as if it matters.

Is the choice still difficult to make?