Reply #24: The people who manufacture it now, [View All]

[Ariana Celeste]

would not be manufacturing it if it were legal. Meth as the drug it is, I highly doubt, would be manufactured at all legally. Step-down drugs and similar drugs such as ephedrine pills could be made readily available, and meth manufacturers would be out of business.

If drugs were legal, regulated, and taxed, drug dealers would be out of business. There goes dealers, off the streets, and drug related violence cut down considerably.

I never said a damned thing about it being "used safely by a very small fringe element."
Everything, everything is abused. That will never end.

But legalization and regulation CAN make the streets safer, get dirty drugs off the streets, and cut down drug related violence.

Don't assume I think every little drug related problem would magically go away. Alcohol is legal and there are still plenty of problems. Making pot smokers criminals, making LSD trippers criminals, is not the answer to the drug problem. Wasting millions of dollars on a drug war that doesn't work does not help the problem.

Education, REAL education and not that DARE propaganda crap, will help the problem. Opening clinics where addicts can get the help they need will help the problem. Getting dealers off the streets will help the problem.