That people Should does not mean they Will. Supposing for the sake of argument that ruining their lives and only their lives is acceptable, then yes, legalise and let people suffer the consequences of their decisions; they are adults.
But there's often an inevitable spillover from that individual to others, say spouses and children, and bystanders (like pedestrians cos someone got pissed and knew they were safe to drive home - and alcohol is a drug, and very legal). Even non-drugs like food is blatantly abused - ever seen a morbidly fat person?
If we legalise drugs then I am coming to the conclusion that we need to take a society-wide approach, which means at the very least banning all advertising and probably banning production by privately owned companies because their job is to make money which precisely leads to their wanting to increase the number of users and their amount used - look at alcohol advertising.
I don't disagree or agree any more, I've simply lost my certainty. HTH.
But there's often an inevitable spillover from that individual to others, say spouses and children, and bystanders (like pedestrians cos someone got pissed and knew they were safe to drive home - and alcohol is a drug, and very legal). Even non-drugs like food is blatantly abused - ever seen a morbidly fat person?
If we legalise drugs then I am coming to the conclusion that we need to take a society-wide approach, which means at the very least banning all advertising and probably banning production by privately owned companies because their job is to make money which precisely leads to their wanting to increase the number of users and their amount used - look at alcohol advertising.
I don't disagree or agree any more, I've simply lost my certainty. HTH.
FYI this is short and incredibly informative: <https://www.spectator.co.uk/2015/05/the-case-for-prescriptio...