The Wall

[BananaStand]

I'm familiar with the risks and harms of heroin, probably quite a lot better than you, having lost a close family member to it. I also know far too many people with serious alcohol problems.

So what % of heroin users that you know, have died? What % of alcohol users? If you know 'far too many', I'm guessing they must have a better life expectancy.

In some sense yes, but as you can see from the chart, they have relatively similar overall addictive qualities.

The chart looks a little subjective to me, but scroll down, there's another chart that ranks drugs by harmful-ness. Once again hard drugs > alcohol.

I would think it's the most meaningful stat. What anyone does without harming others should be their own business.

Even if they have no control over it? You don't perceive addicts as 'victims'? At least to some degree?

I think the 1% of the total budget in gains is much better than 0%.

Not necessarily. If it costs you more in health care, traffic enforcement, etc, and the NET gain is negative....then I would prefer to leave it at 0%

For the society as a whole they are most likely a net loss,

So why would you seek to increase that loss by legalizing more substances?

but a lot of the burden falls to private companies who have to deal with absences from work due to illness etc.

Why does it matter where the burden falls? It's still a burden. And companies will deal with that by raising prices, or by lowering their costs (wages). Who does that fall on?

How many? Think of all the people who've never done drugs, how many of them really are only stopped by legislation?

Alot probably. Impossible to count obviously. But you're being especially glib. I'm sure you're smarter than this, so I'm not sure why you keep beating this drum. There are LOTS of ways drug use could permeate a culture if it were more widely available, and the risks associated with its use were diminished.