There's a lot of different arguments. I can't remember them all, but the first one that comes to mind is the hope that legalizing softer drugs would reduce demand for harder, still-illegal drugs. Especially if legalization reduces prices of the softer drugs.

This could be powerful, for example, if we identify that a certain drug is fairly safe but its relatives are not. Legalize the safer form, not the dangerous forms, and market incentives will cause most people to favor the now-legal form. Everybody wins (Though this presumes we have "comparables" to pick between)

I won't pretend to know enough about all drugs to advocate legalizing them all, but certainly some like Marijuana aren't exactly making Amsterdam and Vancouver collapse overnight.

If you make something illegal you make them more scarce and therefore more valuable. Erase the value by erasing the scarcity and the problem actually just goes away.

For harder substances I am not certain if this makes sense.

Portugal has decriminalized all drugs in 2001.

"Serious drug use is down significantly, particularly among young people; the burden on the criminal-justice system has eased; the number of people seeking treatment has grown; and the rates of drug-related deaths and cases of infectious diseases have fallen."

Heh, I think I brought up this very point in HN, and it was pointed out that the burden had shifted to medical services now.

Better that then sending non-violent criminals into for-profit prison systems, destroying lives of the families impacted, and generally making the wrong people rich(er) for the wrong reasons.

Hemp is illegal in America for christ sake. Not because "its related to weed" either. Its because we can make anything out of hemp and that doesn't generate profit.

How anything naturally made by earth (weed, hemp, opium) can be labeled "illegal" is arrogant of the human race. What makes us think we know better than nature?

There are plenty of natural poisons out there that could kill us instantly. Why dont we make poison dart frogs illegal? Why aren't venomous snakes illegal?

In many states, the possession of venomous snakes is illegal. Same goes for poison dart frogs.

I think the nuance is that opium and weed in small amounts won't kill you (and there is evidence to suggest that weed can't kill you at all, ever. I'm not entirely sure though).

Poision dart frogs on the other hand, you don't really get a "second try". Didn't realize they were illegal but I suppose it makes sense. Its poison after all.

They need to legalize all drugs. Regulate and tax them.

Classify heavy addiction as a disease and treat it as such.

Support the addicts with the taxes from the drugs.

Support addicts... and their families and child services in some cases. I don't want to turn this into "think of the children", but in case we're talking about addicts which need to be taken care of by the government, it's unlikely that the effect will be limited to that single person only. In case that person needs to be treated in a special way, that person may affect the nearby environment too.

>it's unlikely that the effect will be limited to that single person only

It's unlikely that the effect has been limited to that single person only. We don't care about the families now when we put their parents in prison - so why would keeping parents out of prison and reducing the price and risk associated with their drugs give us more of an obligation to their families?

Imagine our elected representatives trying to come up with laws, regulations, tax policies, public health issues (think big tabacco), arrests (there are currently many more alcohol related arrests than drug related arrests).

Not saying that this isn't something that shouldn't be considered, just pointing out that it isn't without cost.

Again, what part of this is in any way worse than funneling tens of billions of dollars a year into the hands of the most violent career criminals?

When you said "violet career criminals" I thought of the military industrial complex. They are also being enriched by this, since (for some unknown reason) if it's drugs + a border that seems to mean it deserves a military-style response.

Treat them like alcohol. They already have all the answers to those questions solved for it, and, in some cases (driving while impaired, for instance), they already are treated mostly the same.