Let's legalize meth, and every other such recreational drug.

[GatorLarry]

33. WARNING: May Cause Disgareement.

But I have some serious questions.

First, I fully support legalizing marijuana and taxing it like alcohol and cigarettes. I'm not so sure about heroin, and disagree that meth should be legalized. Meth destroys your body (and probably your mind) faster than most anything else I believe.

I also agree that we have lost far too many liberties in the so-called War on Drugs and its newest cousin, the War on Terror.

But my question is this: Does the U.K. (which someone said legalized heroin) have a welfare framework like we do here in the U.S.? Or does any country that has legalized drugs? I see a huge potential problem with people who are addicted being chronically on government assistance while they stay high. There is already a small percentage that has no intention of ever doing anything but staying on government assistance and it seems this would only increase that number.

I agree that drug addiction should be treated as a health issue rather than a criminal matter . . . but who pays for that? The in-patient facilities are there to make big profits and we can't afford to add that much more to our gigantic deficit. Should we have government drug addiction facilities? And what about the ones that just refuse treatment and chose to stay addicted?

I know we could do so much with only a fraction of the bloated defense budget. Is that where we should be looking?

I'm not trying to stir the pot, just asking some questions that I hope can start a discussion.