I've been following the political board here for quite some time, though admittedly without actually participating often, and am curious what everyone's view is on the legalization and taxation of recreational drugs (not just marijuana). I don't remember coming across a similar thread, barring a few comments here and there in unrelated topics. My apologies if this has already been discussed at length somewhere, I completely missed it.

 

Personally, I believe that all "hard drugs" should be legalized and regulated with non-violent drug offenders released from prison. This would free up over 50 billion dollars a year federally and over 40 billion between the states from a combination of lack of expenditure and estimated tax income. It would also cut the number of inmates in this country by almost half. (The average drug conviction costs almost $210,000. $30,619.85/yr to house an inmate with an average drug conviction of 82 months.)

 

On top of everything, ever since ~1970 when the drug war began, the addiction rate has hovered right around 1.5%.

 

So all in all, it's costing almost 100 billion dollars a year to not lower addiction rates, overcrowd prisons, and give cartels all of their power. Maybe it's just me, but I don't see any positives here. Anyone care to discuss from either side?

 

Let me know if you'd like sources for any of this, I can dig them up if anyone is interested. I originally found most of this for a college paper a while back.

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