There are so many compelling reasons for the legalization of drugs that it's hard to know where to begin. Here are the strongest two in my mind.
The first argument is based on principal. I have no business telling anyone else what they should eat, drink, smoke, stick in their arm, suck up their nose or otherwise do with their own body, and nobody has any business telling me either.
The second is based on protection. If drugs were legalized and regulated, I believe that the number of innocent people who are killed as a result of drugs would drop to a small percentage of what it is today. There would be no more street corner drug deals gone sour. Drug dealers wouldn't be having turf wars. Each of these types of events regularly results in some person completely unconnected with the dispute getting shot. I also believe that the number of people who die as a result of overdose would drop as quality and potency are stablilized, but this is a secondary concern. Overdose deaths don't bother me as much as the deaths of innocents. Moreover, the governmental resources now being spent on fighting drugs, which is a staggering amount, could be turned to protecting us from real criminals.
Those who would sacrifice an essential liberty for a temporary security will lose both, and deserve neither. -- Benjamin Franklin
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