Singer Tony Bennett calls for legalizing drugs

[MadHound]

35. We legalize everything, for reasons that I named above

Prohibition, of alcohol or any other drug, simply does not work. So why put ourselves, the public, along with addicts, casual users, what have you, through that kind of agony.

I am not saying that drugs are harmless, nowhere close to that. What I am saying is that prohibition of them is also harmful, to people and our society as a whole. So why should we inflict harm upon harm? Yes, coke addicts' lives are a train wreck, but has making coke illegal ever stopped somebody from doing coke if they want to? Stats and reality say no.

You want to help people get the treatment they need? Legalization of all drugs will help with that. First, because we're approaching the problem as a health care problem, which it truly is, instead of a law enforcement problem. People would thus be more inclined to get the help they need, themselves, easier for social services to help these people.

As far as coke and heroin dealers go, gee, if we legalized coke and heroin, meth and dope, those dealers would be gone, poof, in a day. They would be out of business, and the crimes they commit, shooting innocents, robbery, etc. etc. would also disappear. No longer would people have to worry about drive bys, or whether their home is secure, because the dealers who cause these problems would no longer be in business.

We have tried prohibition, and it has failed. It has cost us untold number of innocent lives. It has destroyed communities. It has thrown people into jail when all they needed was to get help with their addiction. It has cost each and every one of us money and our civil rights. Prohibition has failed, the War on Drugs has been lost. By some definitions, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result each time. That is what we're currently engaged in, insanity. Don't you think that it is time to stop the madness and restore sanity to our society? Legalizing drugs, all drugs, is the only way to do that.