My (short) Argument for Legalizing Drugs

...as opposed to My Long Argument for Legalizing Drugs...

After seeing shootout after shootout make the front page of the paper; seeing ghetto hoodlum and ghetto hoodlum end up in the paper, then in jail; and seeing countless other reasons why this should be I have decided to lay my argument out to the general public and see what the response is...Either way I am right and you are wrong. This blog is my world, I just let you co-exist in it. Let me state, beforehand, that I cannot verify the legitimacy of all my sources, but for sake of argument I will use the statistics provided purely as an example.


1. Taxes: Think about it, if the federal government legalizes drugs they can tax them like they do cigarettes, alcohol, clothes, cars, and anything else we choose to piss our money away on. According to NarcoNews.com, the US illegal drug trade is valued at anywhere between $100-$200 Billion. So based on that comparison lets do a little math. If we tax drugs at the same rate we tax income for a middle class salaried employee, roughly 35%, we will end up with an extra $350-$700 million in the government's coffers. Our national debt currently sits at $7 trillion, according to brillig.com. Imagine how good it would be if we used half of that money to pay off the debt, and the other half to be reinvested, on a formula based upon the student/teacher ratio, into the public schools. Then, these kids who end up spending their teenage years selling crack on a street corner, packing heat, and hoping they don't end up in jail can put their minds to greater use by having computers in school, newer text books, etc...People, at first, derided the lottery as legalized gambling, but last year the NY State Lottery put $1.9 Billion into the school system. 5% of their total funding. The stats are right here on their website.

2. Organized Crime: It is a widely known fact that organized crime is funded by a variety of activities including, but not limited to drug/arms/human trafficking, racketeering, money laundering, and so on. It is also known that a majority of these activities, atleast in the immediate past and present, revolve around the drug world. They launder the profits from selling drugs, they bribe politicians/police/federal agents to look the other way, smuggle arms into the country to arm their henchmen with the best weapons to intimidate the rival gangs/families off of their turf. Once politicians accept bribes for one thing they have it hanging over their heads and they are now under the influence of these criminals. That can only lead to further corruption. Also, these rival gangs often end up killing eachother fighting over the territory/drug profits. You take out the drug profits you take out a huge chunk of the money, and influence, they have over just about anyone. Terrorists also use drugs to fund their operations. If you think for one minute that those opium plants growing in Afghanistan aren't funding terrorism you are kidding yourself. Think about it.

3. USDA Regulation: The USDA would be able to regulate the purity of these drugs. People don't generally die from drug use, they die from the use of impure drugs, tainted needles that transmit disease, and so on. For example, cocaine is "cut" with all kinds of things ranging from baking soda, to household cleaners, to liquor. (neonjoint.com-How to Make Crack Cocaine) If the drugs are sold legally the ingredients must be listed, the needles must be sterile, the recommended dosage indicated. For all intensive purposes it makes sense to legalize drugs purely for this reason alone, aside from all the other positive benefits. If ingredients are listed there would be no such thing as a bad hit/trip, a gunned down dealer who dealt a bad batch, and so on.

4. Common Sense: If these above reasons don't convince anyone yet then I never can. I can expound on this topic endlessly, but don't want to bore you, the reader, with my unorganized ramblings. I feel I have made my point in this post. If anyone feels otherwise leave a comment and I can expand on it.