Quote from: Oldtoker on March 14, 2012, 07:49 amQuote from: pine on March 14, 2012, 01:21 am@alwaystrying- you aren't going to get legalization of all drugs at once, at least not in today's climate.- by 'we', you don't mean the civilian population or even drug using population, you mean the government. The last point is important. The drug trade, as regulated by market forces, has certain natural limits on it's activities. e.g. people have to pay with their own money.If you research what happens with nationalized housing, food etc, you won't feel so comfortable about giving that much control to a government department. Nightmare scenarios could come true with government intervention, drugs could evolve into a method of social control quite easily. You are only looking at the potential advantages without seeing the dark side. A government lab would be able to make any drug by the ton, enough for a hundred years of users.As long as monetary incentive runs the show, this is unlikely, there is no conspiracy apart give me your money. But if political ends become involved, there's no telling where it'd wind up. Like social housing, it could start out benevolently but become cancerous over time. There's no cure that couldn't kill you.If drugs become legal it doesn't necessarily mean that the government will become both the producer and seller. For instance in the States it would probably be the tobacco company's that would assume production and sales. Would the government attempt to "Social Engineer" it through taxes? Probably but, that would be a hell of a lot better system than what we have now. Just think, in the States alone you would reduce your prison population by half. Of course, they would have to think of something else to fill all of those prison cells. After all, prisons are "Big Business", at least in the States.They are "big business" everywhere. Prison Guards are paid a hell of a lot more up here, in Canada, than in the US (government union). Whether it's public or private, there are multi-billion dollar industries built around imposing legalism on people and locking them in cages.