Does the real data from Portugal mean nothing to you? Every drug stat is down after legalizing and treating.
I really don't understand why people are so willing to punish others (and pay dearly to do it), but not to help, even if it is cheaper and more efficacious.
Did you read what I said? The drug stats are not down. It's created more addicts.
Why? Because when drugs are legalized/decriminalized, more people are willing to try it (which makes sense).
"I really don't understand why people are so willing to punish others"
Sorry, but drugs are a personal choice. If you can't accept the consequences that come along with it, you shouldn't be ingesting mind-altering or addictive drugs.
It's just that simple. I'm not even taking about putting people in jail or having harsher drug laws, just not having my tax dollars pay for their medical expenses.
Or maybe existing addicts feel more comfortable being identified now that they aren't going to jail?
"drugs are a personal choice"
In the US, drugs are not a personal choice. I'm fine with you saying you don't want to pay for treatment of drug users, but why are so many of those same people (I don't know if you are in this category) so willing to pay to incarcerate them, which has been shown to have much, much higher costs, both in terms of actual dollars and in term of social costs?
The fact that I can go to jail for a small amount of weed says drugs are absolutely not a personal choice. But you are right, they should be.
> "The drug stats are not down. It's created more addicts."
This isn't really correct, certainly not the way you've stated it. The data you're probably thinking of point to a slight rise in "lifetime use". Almost all of that is cannabis use. The only significant effect shown by the data is that there has been a ~5% rise in the number of people who regularly use cannabis, and are expected to continue in the future.
Twisting this into "created more addicts" is a bit tabloid, don't you think?
I really don't understand why people are so willing to punish others (and pay dearly to do it), but not to help, even if it is cheaper and more efficacious.