Prohibition WORKED for it’s stated purpose. All of the effects of excess consumption were significantly reduced, both the personal effects and social.
It also brought in a whole new set of ills. Organized crime being the most well known. And disdain for Law Enforcement.
I agree. There is no right answer because too many people simply can’t control themselves and society is unwilling to increase the penalties to the point of deterrence. I live in WA and so far crime has not dropped after legalization. There is also good evidence that more people are using the drug. The state is simply happy to collect tax money from it, but they don’t enforce their own laws so people are growing it and selling it in violation of the state law. It has for all intents and purposes, despite what they said to pass it, been treated as full legalization.
There is no increasing the penalty to the point of deterrence.
A single does of heroin can kill a person.
Does that stop the heroin addict from injecting?
Let’s ask Philip Hoffman.
We live in Washington also. You are absolutely right. As soon as it was “legalized” the police immediately started looking the other way. All sorts of people are growing and selling it and not paying any taxes on it, and not getting in trouble for doing it either. Even out in the open. Nothing that they promised to get it legalized was true. And usage is not just up, at least where we live... it has sky rocketed. You can't go anywhere without smelling it in the air.
A friend of mine hired his nephew to help him with his pest control business. As soon as marijuana was made “legal” the nephew decided he could do a lot better growing and selling marijuana. Growing it and selling it is simple; but it is hard to figure out how to do it legally, so of course he makes no effort to do it legally. There used to be some risks involved, but now the kid doesn't even bother to make an effort to conceal what he does. And he has been making money hand over fist. What do you think the chances of him ever trying to get a real job are after this?
Secularization cannot bring a right answer.
Banning alcohol was never a truly Christian thing in the sense that it is a truly Islamic thing.