Why is the United States backing Mexican drug gangs?

[piercehawkeye45]

Originally Posted by Cloud

there are folks who support legalizing cocaine and heroin?

At the moment, yes.

Keep in mind that I disagree with Cicero's example:

Example:
Shooting each other for no apparent reason is still wrong if a lot of people do it, and it is a drain to society's economical welfare. Legalizing it is no cure. People still hurt theirselves and die.

A better example would be the legalization of guns, excluding the entire rights issue. The best example I can think of is safe sex versus abstinence. The goal of both are to lower STD and pregnancy rates and statistics show that safe sex education produces lower rates than abstinence "education". That is why safe sex, while confusing, is more efficient at achieving that goal. Drugs could work in the same manner.

My stance is that while cocaine and heroin are extremely unhealthy and have negative effects that go past the individual that uses it, in the big picture, its legalization will be better overall than what we have today.

I have not seen any conclusive evidence that legalization of these drugs will cause a definitive increase in numbers and frequency of hard drug use. With marijuana laws loosening, we can look at those numbers as a guide to what might happen to harder drugs. And also, from personal experience, it is education about drugs, not scare tactics, that will keep teenagers off them. Also saying from experience, drugs are not hard to get. Marijuana is a joke to obtain and with those connections, cocaine and others are not that hard to get either.

Also, I would like to ask what are the goals of drug laws and the "war on drugs" and if anything has been accomplished? Drug use has not been lowered, drug businesses are doing better than ever, and we are losing money from it. I would say it is a failure so alternative methods should be explored.

That is why I am favor in legalization. Just like how abstinence only sex "education" has failed, drug laws have as well. Safe sex is proven to be superior alternative and legalization may turn out to be the same.

Obviously, public support will prevent these laws being passed but marijuana will lead the way into hopefully more rational drug laws than the ones we currently have.