The same problems are noted with that legal drug, alcohol. And employers have every right to ban use of mind-altering substances while employees are on the job. That has nothing to do with prohibition, and everything to do with an employer's discretion on who gets hired and fired.
in addition, the corruption that follows a drug trail is bad for society.
"Bad for society" ONLY because of the legal status. My guess is that the CEO's of Anheuser-Busch and Seagram's are probably not sociopaths, because they run businesses that operate within the framework of the law. Drug kingpins, however, succeed only through utter ruthlessness, as there are no laws to serve as a framework for their "commerce".
people often times cite amsterdam as a place where drugs have been successfully decriminalized. i have been there and am disgusted by parts of the city. further, knight hawk, a freeper, has said that the drug problem has caused amsterdam to now be the murder capital of western europe, surpassing london. this from the very non-violent hollanders!
Don't know much about Amsterdam - never been there - but I am aware that Holland is a bloated welfare state that has other problems besides drugs. And remember, drugs are not LEGAL there; only possession has been decriminalized. The drug TRADE is still illegal, with all the violence associated with the black market.
I think you get the idea.
well, yes and no. i agree that if drugs were legal then a lot of the corruption would disappear and (horrors and terror!) prices would eventually come down to a stable price.
i am concerned about the second order effect of a person's actions harming another. i believe that drug many users will eventually become a drain on society, requiring government welfare and government sponsored health programs and government sponsored rehabilitation programs. further, some will resort to a life of crime to subsidize their habits -- even a low prices, if one is unemployable then one may stoop to crime.
by the way, your arguments make some sense. if the government did not dole out the benefits, if my taxes were much less (so i could give much more to charity) and churches and the private sector could deal with these social problems, i would favor decriminalizing certain drugs. but given where we are in society, i cannot jump to this solution.