CharlestonChad said:
Those said statistics are based on a speculation that a person was in danger.
Errr, I'm torn about the second line. I agree that marijuana and many mind altering drugs should be legalized, but it's hard to be in favor of saying it's okay for a young kid to buy heroine or meth.
How do you judge whether someone was in danger then? You can't, you have to take them at their word. I have no reason not to believe them, saying anything else would be a bit of an ad hominem attack.
As for drugs. Yes, drugs can be bad, they can do damaging things, but kids are already buying heroin and methanphetamine, I doubt very much that the kids who are buying these drugs would increase, because it suddenly became legal. In any case though, just because we percieve these drugs to be bad, does not change the fact that by making them illegal, we are increasing the risk of gang violence, and drug wars.
It has been shown throughout history that prohibition causes more violence than it deterrs, in such examples as Al Capone becoming rich off of illegal liquor. Crack-cocaine, heroin, and other drugs should be no different.
Also, this is a question of free choice. It is not the governments job to tell me what I should and shouldn't do to my own body, it is not their job to protect me from myself, by doing so they are taking away my freedom to make decisions for myself. As for the children, they have parents who can, and will take care of that if they see no other alternative.