Just the other day I was pondering this sort of thing. Apparrently, during Prohibition in the US, several interesting things happened, only some of which I already knew:
- Alcohol consumption went up.
- Spirits became more popular, since they were easier to smuggle.
- Cocktails were invented, for the same reason.
- The entire organised crime industry sprung up to service it, and branched out into other areas (violence, drugs, theft, etc).
Subsequent to the re-legalisation of alcohol, consumption has remained at its prohibition-era levels, and organised crime hasn't gone away either. The pitfalls of legislating morality...
So I wonder what effect legalising most of these drugs would have. There are obvious ones: Fewer overdoses and better treatment due to higher quality drug production, better treatment for addicts, tax income for governments, a decrease in organised crime as the bottom falls out of the market, etc. But I wonder what the non-obvious side effects will be? |
