Originally Posted by Qwerty

So the war on drugs is an on going thing that will probably never end, so maybe we should re-think our stance on it

So here's my theory:
-Pharmaceutical companies take full control of manufacturing the drugs with Gov regulation
-Put a minimum age requirement on buying it (same age as alcohol)
-Put a really high tax on it. Example; a pill that cost $10 to make, distribute, and profit off of will cost ~20$ (maybe more)
-tax revenue generated from the sales goes to rehabilitation, prevention, education, after school sports programs, and lowering current taxes (if anything is left over :-/)

Pros:
-Drugs made buy government will have a high quality so there is less chance of people taking a drug that was improperly made, thus killing them.
-People under the age won't have access to them. Drug dealers don't care about the age when selling.
-Less tax dollars spent on drug enforcement and imprisonment, more tax revenue generated from selling.
-Mafia and other gangs get less money, starving them out of business.

Cons:
-Possible increase in use of drugs because it is freely available (but the extra cost of it may stop some people, maybe even raise the price if it gets bad)

Now you may argue that people won't buy government drugs because illegal drugs are cheaper.
-That's why it would be necessary it inform people that illegal drugs are dangerous because of the quality compared to gov's.
-Maybe tell them its more patriotic to buy government drugs because if you don't you fund terrorism, booga booga (remember the commercials they had out before).
-Some people won't want to take the chance of doing something illegal when there is a legal way
-look at alcohol. Not a lot of people make moonshine and sell it (no market for it)

any thoughts?

PS. I have no position on which drugs to legalize, but definitely weed.