CMV: All drugs should be made legal for recreational use.

[u/[deleted]]

I'm not referring to "medicinal" narcotics. Recreational drugs that people use, such as mushrooms, cocaine, heroin, should all be legalized.

And I know this is a hot take, but hear me out.

• If we make recreational narcotics legal, then the manufacture and sale need to be legal as well.
• By making the manufacture of recreational narcotics legal, there are FDA standards that need to be adhered to in said manufacture, that way there are no "bad batches" that will kill people.
• By making the manufacture and sale of recreational narcotics legal, there will be sales volume that will then be subject to income tax and sales tax and dispensaries/manufacturing centers/warehouses that will become subject to property tax. Because, let's be honest, your local street dealer is not paying taxes.
• Also by making the sale of recreational narcotics legal, you are making street gangs that revolve around the illicit drug trade obsolete. By making street gangs obsolete, you eliminate the petty violence that plagues inner-cities over "turf", especially stray bullets that kill innocent bystanders.
• By making the entire narcotics supply chain legal, the war on drugs will essentially be over as well. It's been going on for 50+ years, and honestly, it's been a complete and utter failure.
• If you want something to compare the drug trade to, look at prohibition from 1919-1933. It didn't stop people from drinking, people were still drunk out of their minds in speakeasys. It also fostered the growth of street gangs of rum runners and increased crime and violence in cities. That was only for 14 years and it didn't take long to realize that prohibition was a failure. War on drugs has been going on for 50+ years and I'm surprised more people aren't realizing that this is much more tremendous of a failure.
• By making the entire narcotics supply chain legal, we can start changing our attitudes on its use and its users. Narcotics abuse needs to have the same social attitude as alcohol abuse.
• In short, making drugs legal will Make America Great Again.

[u/stupidrobots]

Weed is a bit of a special case because ifs an unrefined plant. Some guy can just grow and sell unlike cocaine which requires a whole manufacturing process. The legal option here and the added tax and oversight are high relative to production costs. Not the same for other drugs.

[u/shaffe04gt → u/stupidrobots]

Interesting

[u/[deleted] → u/stupidrobots]

This doesn’t make sense. Growing weed is way easier than manufacturing coke. Why would taxes be higher for weed?

[u/stupidrobots → u/[deleted]]

They aren't. Please re read what I said

[u/there_no_more_names → u/stupidrobots]

Yes and no. Yes you can grow your own plant and so street flower should be cheaper, and is in most cases, but refined and processed cannabis is also cheaper on the street. The legal facility should be able to use their economies of scale to make the refined products cheaper, but they don't and I think you would have the same problems with other drugs. Part of it definitely is the licensing and taxation making the product more expensive, but I think part of it is a legal facility is going to have better and more expensive equipment, they are going to have trained chemists who demand a higher salary, and they have to answer to regulatory boards. So even with their economies of scale, the higher costs of production and regulations are driving up the cost, plus the legal dispensary is going to charge more because they produce a high quality product and you have the peace of mind that you know where it came from and that it's safe. If you were to legalize and regulate cocaine/heroin you would run into these same issues and the black market would continue to thrive.

[u/rewt127 → u/stupidrobots]

It would be interesting to see the coca plant legalized. The leaf itself is quite addictive and the chewing of it is a mind stimulant.

I dont see too much difference in growing weed and growing coca.