Personal Freedom vs Illicit Drugs

I'm a right-wing thinker, torn somewhere between "Republican" and "Libertarian". I've been reading into legalization of drugs. Now while I definitely believe Marijuana should be legalized, I'm really torn when it comes to cocaine (and heroine for that matter).

The social conservative in me says exactly what the commercials say, drugs are bad, cocaine can kill you in just one shot, "this is your brain on drugs", etc.

But the libertarian in me says that this really doesn't affect me or my individual rights, and the amount of spending the government does towards stopping the flow of drugs is unnecessary. And while I'm against the use of any drugs due to my religious beliefs, religion and government shouldn't mix, and everyone is entitled to their own beliefs or lack there of.

Do you feel that cocaine is similar to alcohol prohibition and by legalizing it, the black market for it would be eliminated, gang crime would be reduced significantly, and it won't really be killing anymore people than it already is (if not less)? Should we even care if we're not the ones doing it and we teach our children that it is wrong? Isn't the education on cocaine already enough that anyone who doesn't know better is taking now anyways?

Or do you feel that by legalizing it, we may create a new market or opening for an already dangerous and widespread drug which will lead to more deaths in society? Would there be an increase in the addictions? Should cocaine be evaluated on a completely different level than alcohol and marijuana? Is the tax relief really worth it?

Feel free to add stats as well. I've found this.

The number of drug deaths in the US in a typical year is as follows:

Tobacco kills about 390,000.
Alcohol kills about 80,000.
Cocaine kills about 2,200.
Heroin kills about 2,000.
Aspirin kills about 2,000.
Marijuana kills 0. There has never been a recorded death due to marijuana at any time in US history.

All illegal drugs combined kill about 4,500 people per year, or about one percent of the number killed by alcohol and tobacco. Tobacco kills more people each year than all of the people killed by all of the illegal drugs in the last century.

Source: NIDA Research Monographs

No way meth kills less than 300 people per year. The final total for illegal drugs has to be higher.

Great info on tobacco, makes you think.

Some other great info would be percentage of users dying from it. Raw data only goes so far when more people are sick from tobacco than have even tried heroin, for instance.

Certain substances (cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, etc.) are highly addictive and are immediate health threats even when unadulterated. I don't think a government can get away with the moral liability of having anything that can kill you in one shot be legal. Alcohol can but only in extreme doses or when machinery becomes involved, whereas a few grams of coke can send you packing. I think that's the killer.

Also, do you mean legalized to possess and nothing else or actually sold in stores? The latter would create even more problems along the lines I was mentioning.

I personally don't know if I'd have an issue because I don't know exactly what the legislation would look like.

I think it should certainly be legal. Yes, it is addictive but its not the Goverments job to keep its citizens non-addicted. If such was true Cigs would be illegal.

I think all drugs should be legal, except for drugs which exponentially increase the chance of the user commiting a violent act on another person. A person high on coke is about as violent, if not less so, than a moderatley drunk person. I have lived around the drug for a little over two years, although I dont regularly use it(2-4 times a month), and have seen no increased violent activity among my roomate who uses it quite often.

Its a nasty drug, but overall getting it off the black market would negate any consequences of legalization tenfold.


NOTE: Could someone find the death rates from legal pharmacuticals. I believe the death rate from legal drugs is 2-3 times that of illegal drugs.

I think Rooster sums up my stance.

Coke, meth, heroin = extremely addictive and potentially one-and-done.

Alcohol, tobacco = just about as addictive, but usually takes years or superhuman amounts to kill.

Pot, shrooms, acid = not addictive, not potentially fatal in themselves.

(Driving while intoxicated is dangerous no matter what the intoxication. Hell, even driving while distracted is dangerous. Ideally, future technology in cars will require sobriety tests before ignition. Even more ideally, physically driving cars will become obsolete. For another thread.)

if 50 Million people used coke like they use cigarettes the death rate would be much higher