<span style='font-size:13pt;line-height:100%'>Wow!</span>
Don't know where to start...
It is a fairly well known fact that Washington DC was laid out to prevent invaders from easily finding the capitol. That is why it is easy to get lost there.
Narcotics (alcohol) reducing potency when becoming legal? Bologna! Everclear anyone?
The main point in most of these posts is, does doing drugs (or even wearing a bucket!) hurt people who don't do them. Obviously the answer is yes for many reasons.
People who do hard core drugs (HCD - crystal, crank, meth etc...) are not typically productive citizens. Yes, many of them hold down jobs, but with prologed usage, these jobs are lost. This is a fact.
To say that if these substances were legal, it would cut down on crime is plain ignorant. Drug users that steal to suppport their habbit are not going to stop stealing just because they can get their fix from Wallgreens rather that the local drug dealer.
People who do HCD (and do not wear lids) incurr more and higher hospital costs. Now the drug users and the helmetless riders that do not have health insurance are being cared for out of taxpayers pockets. Fact.
There is no good answer to the drug question. Making them legal is no good because most HCD users do in fact need babysitting. These people can hardly take care of themselves much less the children they produce. Don't believe me, go take a look at any of the rehab centers. Take a look at the foster homes, go to Sunshine Acres here in AZ and ask the kids why they are there.
Keeping them illegal is no good because it is filling our jails (for which we pay) with non violent offenders that have done nothing more than made some really bad choices about recreational habits. It also abridges your God given American right to screw up you life any way you want to.
I do agree that pot should probably be legal, just like alcohol is legal. The problem with pot is it stays in your system much longer than alcohol. I do not use the substance myself but have had exerience around it. I agree that I would rather be around someone who is stoned than someone who is drunk. The ratio of people getting punched by a stoner to people getting punched by a drunk is probably pretty high (conjecture and an inadvertant pun).
As far as sugar and flour being a drug... ? I'm not sure that was ment seriously but, if you get off sniffing flowers, more power to you!