Matthias:
>>Illegal drugs have always been illegal and should stay that way.<< I'm not exactly sure what this sentence means, but if you're implying that cocaine and marijuana have always been illegal, you're wrong. In the early part of the 20th century Cocaine was sold over the counter, and was an ingredient in a popular soft drink. Ever drink Coca-Cola? It originally contained extract of coca. Marijuana was a derivative of the hemp plant used for making textiles and fabrics. If you're interested, "Smoke and Mirrors" by Dan Baum chronicles the evolution of drug law.
>>Just because evil seems to have the upper hand doesn't mean that we can quit fighting it and hope it will disappear.<<
What do you define as more evil? The use in the privacy of one's own home of some "controlled substance", or the use of civil law enforcement as cannon fodder for the various drug/terror wars going on today?
>>If you make it legal, or decriminalize it, what are you really saying?<< How about, "As long as you're not hurting others, driving under the influence, or abusing your family, what you do is your own business. We have more important criminals to pursue."
>>What I am telling you is this: Ignoring it or decriminalizing it will not work. Whatever is bad now, will get much worse.<<
And what I'm telling you is this: It worked for a hundred years. We no longer know if it works because we haven't tried it for so long. What we have done is to increase the amount of enforcement, punishment, and sentencing for drug violators. The result? We have more drug traffic in this country than in any other time in our history. The increases in penalties and prison time have done nothing but make the profit increase commensurate with the risk. Look, we have been doing the same thing for 40 years, we decide that the drug "problem" must be dealt with, laws are enacted, the Constitution gets another little piece torn out of it, and drug traffic increases. The definition of insanity is to do the same thing repeatedly, each time expecting a different result. What would happen if we decriminalized drugs? We would be a freer people for it. I understand your trepidation, liberty is a scary thing. The liberty to own firearms, reload ammo, and shoot are liberties that scare others. That's why they fight so hard to abridge our rights; fear of other people's freedoms. In my opinion, it is philosophically dishonest to want to be left alone to pursue my hobby, while I seek to have others imprisoned for their personal habits.
>>I refuse to quit fighting, and I refuse to believe that there aren't lots of decent people out there.<< I commend you for that. I feel the same way. It's just that we have to be careful about what we fight for because there are power-mongers about that will happily convert our good intentions into the road to tyranny.
