But legalizing drugs like weed, cocaine and heroin would kill the market for their even worse synthetic substitutes.
You make a good point. But I still don't see that as a good reason to legalize some drugs. Heroine, meth, crack for example. LI have seen too many times what happens to people use the three I mentioned for me to be convinced there is a good enough reason to legalize them.
I believe that all drugs should be legal. My reasons are thus:
1. The law has not been an effective deterrent against their use, and countries that have legalized drugs have actually shown a decrease in drug use, among both "soft" drugs like weed and "hard" drugs like heroin.
2. Even if the law was an effective deterrent, the black market resulting from criminalization creates unacceptable levels of violent crime. We recognized this with alcohol back during prohibition, it's time we recognized it with other drugs now. We could solve half of Mexico's crime problems overnight just by legalizing drugs.
3. Criminalization causes us to look at drug use and addiction as a criminal problem instead of the medical problem it is, and makes addicts less likely to seek treatment. In Portugal, which decriminalized all drugs in 2001,
"illegal drug use among teens in Portugal declined and rates of new HIV infections caused by sharing of dirty needles dropped, while the number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction more than doubled." Further, criminalization ensures that these drugs are only available on the black market, which is by its very nature unregulated. Even something as harmless as weed can fuck you up if it's been sprayed with pesticides, and that's nothing compared to what cocaine and heroin are cut with, or what meth that's been made wrong can do.
4. From the legal side of things, I believe that if the U.S. Constitution's inherent right to privacy includes the right to medical procedures like abortion, it also includes the right to put whatever substances you want into your body, and that nothing in the Constitution gives the federal government the power to criminalize the possession of a plant or substance.