Obama Ends War!

[AussieU2fanman]

legalise all forms of drugs and watch accelerated natural selection in action

 

[bigjohn2441]

Except that it's on the backs of the other taxpayers to take care of you once you have chosen what goes into your own body. In that sense, drug addiction is costly to the entire society, and would continue to be costly regardless of the criminal element, which obviously has its own separate and significant costs.

For the record, I am all for de-criminalizing marijuana. But where it comes to legalization of hard drugs, you almost never hear anyone discuss the healthcare or employment/labour issues that come with it. And let's not pretend like they don't exist.

i bet it costs less to treat someone for drug addiction than it does to house them in prison for years and years.

 

[anitram]

i bet it costs less to treat someone for drug addiction than it does to house them in prison for years and years.

That's undoubtedly true.

But you have to factor in the intangible costs as well. What is the social cost to children who are brought up in these environments and live with coked out parents or heroin addicts? What's the cost to the family unit, the community, the workplace?

No man is an island, and a person addicted to hard drugs has most likely ruined a number of lives as a result of their addiction.