What is your position on drug legalization?

That's such a load of crap and you know it.

Alcohol and prescription drugs are readily available in every household. They don't need the "illegal" stuff.

 

Legal or illegal is not the problem. It's the glorification of drugs by idiots who think they are OK.

 

Remember kids, don't smoke weed. You don't want to end up like:
- Our last three Presidents (at least)
- 16-time Olympic Medalist Michael Phelps
- Hundreds of accomplished and top-selling musicians
- Our Country's Founding Fathers
- Steve Jobs
- Ted Turner

I can't believe the "pot derails lives" narrative still has any steam.

 

You are showing your age old man.

 

I'm showing my wisdom and experience.

 

Oh so being older is a good thing now?

 

Okay. So lives have been ruined by drugs. Regardless of legality.

Precisely because drugs are illegal, many lives have been lost in the violence necessary to acquire those drugs.

The people who stand most to benefit from legalization are the unwilling victims in this. At the very least, the people who die from drug use were willing victims. If they want to kill themselves and ruin their lives, that's their call. But government does and should have a roll in protecting those who wanted no part of it, and they are most in harm's way by drug criminalization.

 

In all fairness, that's kind of like saying there's no need to get a college degree because neither Michael Dell nor Bill Gates did.

In other words, they were extremely exceptional cases.

 

Hardly. Those are just famous people that we know about. Among the successful people that I know who either once did or still do partake: Dentist, stockbroker, teacher, surgeon, FBI agent, attorney, author, PhD in mechanical engineering, professor, investment banker.

Half of these people are parents - good ones.

Portugal tried decriminalization, and it's a massive success: Drug Decriminalization in Portugal: Lessons for Creating Fair and Successful Drug Policies | Glenn Greenwald | Cato Institute: White Paper

One cannot claim to be a small-government conservative while supporting America's wasteful, unwinnable social engineering project: "The Drug War."