Actually, all available evidence points to the fact that legalising drugs like heroin actually decreases their usage. Would you suddenly take up heroin if it was legal? Do you know anyone who would?

This may be one of the scales you're looking for, btw:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rational_scale_to_assess_t...

Also, worth pointing out, with respect to "amount of usage", that drugs like Ecstasy see millions of users every weekend... and yet only a handful of deaths per year (generally involving multiple drugs and/or several-days-long binges). A pretty sterling safety record, I'd say.

I wouldn't use heroin if legal, but it's possible that the next generation, not being subject to mass anti-drug marketing campaigns, would use it in higher numbers.

The question is whether that matters, and that's a debate that's hard to have in an environment of politically motivated and emotionally charged scare campaigns.

In a sane world, when drugs are legalized they are also taxed, and a fraction of the revenue goes to treatment and education.

The ideal scenario involves legalizing much more research about the drug so we could find a way to "have our cake and eat it, too." I imagine there are some smart scientists who could find a way to create a non-addictive heroin-like substance. As an example, just adding a small bit of naltrexone (an opioid antagonist) to opioids seems to reduce the build up of tolerance. I can't find the company who is doing clinical trials on a drug combining the two right now, but you can see [1] for an overview of combining an antagonist with an opioid.

[1] http://pain-topics.org/pdf/OpioidAntagonistsForPain.pdf

I don't know about the legalization of Heroin, crack and Crystal Meth, I don't know enough about them to form a factual based opinion on their legalization, but I do believe without a doubt that Opium, Marijuana and Coca should be legalized immediately. The possession of a plant being illegal is ridiculous and the fear mongering around these weaker formed was unfounded in the first place.

I think it'd be reasonable to make the penalty for crimes committed under the influence to be equivalent to conciously choosing to commit the crime. This seems to solve that issue to me.

not even this study is arguing that heroin should be legalized, yet you do (and with a nonsensical argument like "it's my business")

it's quite safe to say that you can grow, produce and consume heroin for yourself pretty safely right now. it really is your business! until it's not, which is pretty fast.

     (and with a nonsensical argument like "it's my business")

Because if it's not your business, why are you so interested in telling me (and others) what to do?

But then why is alcohol and tobacco use so prevalent, since those substances are legal? Did the number of drinkers decrease in the U.S. after Prohibition was lifted?

I also wonder if we would see the same sort of safety issues if, say, alcohol was banned but marijuana and cocaine were legalized (driving under the influence, violence--not with pot, I suppose)?

If marijuana were legal I might use it. Conversely, I don't think I know anyone who uses marijuana/heroin but would stop using it if it were legal.

I haven't seen the evidence either way; I just made the point in my original post as something to consider.

This is what has happened (to some extent) in Portugal: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.ht...

Replace "heroin" with "cigarettes" and you have a one-sentence description of tobacco companies. Legalizing it won't get rid of pushing, so long as pushing is financially beneficial for the pusher.

I know quite a few people that stopped drinking so hard once they turned 21...

I smoke, since I was young, it was silly, but I'd seen others do it and was offered cigarettes from a buddy and got hooked.

Thinking about it, the only reason I would never try heroin now, is I've seen what it can do to people, from movies mostly (ironically ones that are not suitable for children to watch).

If heroin was legal, I think kids who have no idea what the hell they're getting into would be the ones to be affected.

So you're right, most adults wouldn't take up heroin if it suddenly became legal - but I bet a lot of kids would.

Are you seen you have seen that? From what I read, part of the reason heroin addicts look the way they do is that they do not buy enough food because they use all their money on heroin; they use all their money on heroin because it is so expensive, and it is so expensive because it is illegal.

Another reason is loss of appetite due to heroin addiction, but that certainly is not the only reason, and looking at programs where the government provides heroin to selected addicts, it does not appear to be the most important one.

It's possible that the number of people trying a drug might go up, but there are a number of desirable benefits to drugs being legal:

- the quality is controlled, so you know you're not snorting bleach. This reduces user harm immensely right off the bat.

- the cost of the drug can be taxed, which would give the government money to invest in treatment programs for problem users. Even if you're generally anti-taxation it's difficult to argue that the profits of the drug trade are better off with the people who currently receive them, who are generally some of the more unpleasant people on the planet.

- societies are free to treat problematic drug use as a public health issue rather than a criminal one. US jails have an extremely high number of inmates who are there for relatively minor drug infractions due to e.g. three-strike policies. This is expensive for the state and they probably come out more likely to commit serious crime than when they went in. There's a lot of evidence (apart from just plain common sense) that being able to treat drug abuse with theraputic techniques is much more effective than punishment (see Portugal, for example).