Quote:
Originally posted by superart
I agree, but where do we get the money for this? By eliminating the illigal status of hard drugs, they are no longer a lucrativeenterprise for criminals. this frees up the vast recources that were being used to combat said criminals. these recources could then be pumped back into the types of programs you described.
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Simply making something legal doesn't get rid of all crime associated with it's production/distribution. So long as there is a demand for it, there will be a potential "black market" for it - especially if it's easier and/or cheaper to get that way than it is the legal way. Buying and running MS Windows is perfectly legal, but we both know there are a lot of people pirating it around the world. The only way enough funds could be removed from combating the illegal production and sale of drugs to use in rehab, would be if enough quantity of said drug was made available at a competitive price to the people looking for it. And that quantity would be FAR more than what you are thinking of distributing through your clinics.
However, legalizing pot would free up a significant amount of money from the anti-drug budget, and would create even more money from taxes on sales of it. There's 4 pages of discussion before this post about why doing such a thing would not be bad for society if done properly (see my previous posts, I'm not advocating turning pot into tobacco, it would still be restricted in many ways). And with all of that cash put back into rehab programs for all drugs (hard ones, but pot, tobacco, and alcohol as well), it just might make a significant difference.