Singer Tony Bennett calls for legalizing drugs

[MadHound]

44. What is the proportion of illegal booze sold compared to legal booze?

Oh, yeah, minuscule. Same with tobacco. Thus, your argument falls flat before it even gets out of the gate.

Oh, and I'm not talking about just Portugal, but other European countries. Keep up your research, you might actually learn something.

Meanwhile, how is that War on Drugs going? How effective has it been? Has it stopped, or even slowed down the use of drugs in this country?

No, in fact just the opposite.

You must do your dope smoking in the comfort of a suburban, safe neighborhood. Try taking a look at how those, drug users and non-drug users, live in parts of this country that are rife with dealers. I lived in such a neighborhood. I heard the sounds of gunfire virtually every night. I had my car get caught in the crossfire of dueling crack dealers, and felt fortunate that it was only my car, not my body or the body of my wife. I now live in a rural area, relatively safe, but being in Missouri, still subject to the scourge of meth heads. I've had an AC unit stolen for the scrap metal it would bring. I've been run off the road while walking my dogs by meth freaks driving like bats out of hell. Oh, and down the road is a black patch back in the weeds, the remains of a meth lab that blew up, and whose toxins make the land uninhabitable.

That is all minor compared to people who have lost children due to drive-bys, loved ones who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hell, look at the violence down at the border, violence caused a drug war being raged by drug lords intent on controlling the illegal trade. Guess what, that weed you're smoking, it is a contributing factor in that violence. So while you toke up in the comfort of your own, safe home, your demand for an arbitrarily illegal drug is fueling violence that is killing innocents every single day.

Legalize drugs and virtually all that violence goes away. Virtually all that crime goes away. Kids will be safe from random bullets, citizens will be safe from robbery, and the violence on the border will be greatly reduced(no, it won't go away, because part of that violence is also being fueled by smuggling in illegal immigrants, but it will be greatly reduced).

We have tried Prohibition for decades now, and it simply hasn't worked. To continue down that path is simply madness. It is past time that we ended that madness.