The Wall

[BananaStand]

If you think a wall would solve the problem, or even make a significant dent, it's you who's delusional

One of us is definitely delusional. And you're the one who *imagined* that I would support a wall. You do the math.

There's a massive correlation with drug abuse and social status. Diverting some of that drug war money to welfare, medical and rehabilitation would imo be the best way to help the victims.

I would bet a lung that the vast majority of junkies in the USA are already on welfare.

As has been said many times already, this isn't just about possession charges but all drug related crime. How big is the black market for alcohol in the United States? How many deaths per year by competing alcohol gangs? How about during alcohol prohibition times?

That's a false narrative. Organized crime, and it's associated violence, was heavily on the rise prior to prohibition. Alcohol just gave them something to do. If alcohol were kept legal, they would have wreaked havoc through stolen goods, prostitution, or gambling.

Right. What about after the onset.

You mean AFTER a black market had time to develop, and the ways to access it had spread through word of mouth (it's not like they could text each other, or post on craigslist, back then).....yeah, ok, it went up. That's kinda my point. It went down when everyone thought it was gone, and illegal, and had no access to it. As that changed, usage went up. So, what do you think will happen if they started selling 8-balls at Trader Joe's?

As already evidenced by the stats you've also been quoting, alcohol for example is right up there with the big boys in addictiveness, as are a lot of prescription drugs. Overdoses then?

You're making my point for me again. Prescription drugs are legal, but tightly controlled. The government decides who can sell them and who can't. Sales are heavily regulated, and taxed, exactly the way you're proposing we do for other hard drugs.

Yet there is STILL a black market for those substances. There are STILL people going to jail. There is STILL violence. People are STILL getting addicted and abusing the drug. Open any newspaper and you'll find talk about the opioid epidemic, or the opioid crisis in America. That's a drug that is exactly as legal as you're suggesting coke and heroin should be. And it's going poorly.