Legalize Recreational Substances

I gotcha.

Personally I'm far on the other side of the fence. I'm not in favor of treating people who have no self control. Nor am I in favor of coddling drug dealers and making their "choice of employment" accepted.
I don't like my tax dollars wasted on either party when I chose to work very hard for a living and take a pretty straight path.

Call me crazy but harsh drugs whether you are buying or selling and you get put to sleep permanently. World is littered with too much trash and excuse makers on why they had to turn to drugs. Mainly lazy bums who offer nothing, don't contribute their fair share to society.
And sellers likewise, stop being a lazy piece of crap and contribute something to the world that's useful and not peddling dope.

Doing away with both kinds of people costs me nor you anything out of pocket. I'm sorry but I have ZERO COMPASSION for people who can't pull their pants up.....lift their chin up......and be a man and go about life correctly and contribute.

Sigh. The "Moral Failing" model of drug addiction was debunked long ago by manifold reputable institutions and researchers. You know who they are, those individuals who have dedicated their lives to working toward greater public health, and are now vilified by a certain segment of the population as members of the "Global Elite."

Anyone can become a victim of addiction. Do a quick search on "drug addiction moral failing" and you will find those who by all other measures are paragons of virtue or highly successful achievers who have been afflicted with addiction. Here is a story of a gentleman who was in the running to become the CEO of a major company whose life was ruined by alcohol. No one wakes up in the morning and decides to become an addict. It is a gradual process that eventually takes control of a person's life. We have documented this same addiction problem in other mammals so it is not solely a human problem.

Unless I am having visual hallucinations, we are to understand that your solution to the problem of addiction is to sentence users and purveyors of illegal drugs alike to death? This is highly unlikely to ever come to pass, but if in some authoritarian dystopian future where people who believe as you do become all powerful, then they will need to shut the door on *all* intoxicants. The most popular and powerful "gateway drug" is not marijuana, it is alcohol. For a glimpse of this society, please read the Kurt Vonnegut short story Welcome to the Monkey House. (Pssst. It is really short. Only take you a few minutes. You will like it. I promise. Mr. Vonnegut was a great writer and a master of the short story.)

With regard to the drug sellers, this is pure Economics 101. If the demand is strong, the price will rise to the point where someone will fill the supply. Although we don't call Economics the "Dismal Science" for nothing, this fundamental assertion of Economics always delivers.

Last, your assertion that, "Doing away with both kinds of people costs me nor you anything out of pocket," is wrong. Although there is still some debate, the studies to date back up the assertion that it costs more to put individuals to death than it does to incarcerate them for life.

What's the old cliché? "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting to get a different result." We have been fighting the War on Drugs for over 50 years. We have spent over US$1 trillion dollars. Illegal drugs are more potent and more easily obtained than ever. Up until recently, the United States had the dubious distinction of incarcerating a greater percentage of their population than any civilization in history. (That distinction has just been eclipsed by El Salvador, where a two-bit dictator is using the War of Drugs to incarcerate innocent civilians on just about any pretense that comes to the minds of those in his administration.) We can do better. We must do better. The status quo is unacceptable.

Respectfully submitted in the hopes that we finally address the serious issue of addiction with facts and dialogue,

Padrino