[vijayr]

It is not just the politicians - the amount of disgust among the general public for people who use drugs is unbelievable. I understand it is an insanely big problem, nobody wants drug addicts in the society. But it will happen, legalization or not, prison or not. People are going to use drugs anyway. So why not make life easier for everyone by legalizing it, setting up help centers to help those who want to be helped, reduce stress on cops/prison system and so on? By now it is very clear that any number of tough laws on this problem is not going to work - why not try the alternative?

[bko]

The funny thing is that, in my experience, even if you ask active drug users if drugs should be legalized (apart from marijuana), they often say no. People tend to sympathize on the personal level but society makes things so unpersonalized. For instance, if I was at a party and saw someone using cocaine or some other drug in a peaceful manner, I wouldn't call the police or be happy if he was arrested. When I point out the irony that the person is committing a crime that he believes should be a crime, he usually says, oh that person is doing it responsibly, its those other people. It's always "those other" people. Whether you're stocking up on antibiotic or saving prescription strength pain killers for future use, that's fine, even discussed openly in the workplace. But "those other" people can't be trusted with doing so.