re: Question for the "legalize all drugs" crowd.

Those who want to do drugs are already doing them. Those who do not are not. I don’t need a law to tell me not to do meth. If it’s legal it can be regulated to be free from dangerous contaminates, consumed in safe places, taken out of the hands of dangerous cartels, contribute to tax dollars, and move addicts from the criminal justice system to being treated with a medical problem for addiction. It also takes away a large part of the appeal for kids. Something being illegal, taboo, dangerous, and against the rules makes that thing cool for teenagers to try. Making it legal takes away that mistique.

Finally the overwhelming majority of opioid addicts didn’t jump into trying heroin. They started off as a regular person who was hurt in an auto accident, suffered a workplace injury, or sports injury and was prescribed an opioid-based pain killer following surgery. Then, by the time their prescription ran out, despite following the recommended dosage, they were hooked on the stuff and had to move to the black market to satisfy that addiction once their doctor would no longer refill their prescriptions. The prescription drug companies are nearly entirely to blame for the heroin epidemic in this country.