There are plenty of things that are physically addictive and still legal: caffeine, alcohol, cigarettes and a cornucopia of various pharmaceuticals (both prescription and over the counter). Also, there are an abundance of illegal drugs that aren't physically addictive such as LSD [1], psilocybin mushrooms [2], DMT [3], mescaline [4], or MDMA [5]. So that's a pretty bad argument. I've not once said I have an "every man for himself" belief system. From your language, it seems that your may be assuming I'm a libertarian. I'm not. Not that it matters if I was because there's a solid case to be made against prohibition. Honestly that doesn't even make any sense in this context. We should give people unbiased information and let them make their own decisions. Society has no place telling me or anyone else what they can put in their body. Just like we do a wide variety of other things we consume and make use of daily. Should we take acetaminophen (Tylenol) off the market because 500 people per year overdose and die from it? [13] How about caffeine? That kills people too and is physically addictive. Should we go back to prohibiting alcohol, which kills 75,000 people per year in the United States alone? [14] How about tobacco which kills 5 million people per year? [15] What about all the research chemicals that no one knows the side effects of because they haven't been studied like the more popular drugs? They get banned and all you have to do is change a couple molecules and it's a new drug. heroin deaths are a pimple compared to alcohol deaths, a couple thousand per year most. And how much of that is because of a dealer who gave bad, impure product to a customer that required them to shoot up a ton to get a high? Who knows. I'm going to preemptively stop you. Don't you dare say that if heroin was legal that significantly more people would die from it. No one wakes up one day and says, "Gee I think I'd like to buy some China white heroin." If something like Naloxone, which is a drug used in hospitals as a counter to heroin and other opiate related overdoes was allowed to be sold everywhere I'm sure you would see that number go down, as well. [18]
The drug war is a colossal failure that has done nothing but contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people (most likely millions worldwide, but I don't have stat for that.) and ripped families a part. In Mexico alone between 2006 and 2012 drug related violence hit 60,00 deaths. That's in Mexico alone in only a few years. [6] as well as make a select few richer. Statistics show that it disproportionately effects those in the African-American community. [7] You obviously haven't seen your father ripped from your arms for possessing an ounce of weed, a sheet of acid, or a couple grams of cocaine. History is a major indicator that the war on drugs is not going to get better. It's only going to get worse. Legalize and regulate drugs and you will see crime go down across the board. Not to mention that you can then control the quality of drugs. When you can produce heroin in a grade a chemical facility and not some guys shed you can make a drastically healthier product.
You're making the assertion that making drugs illegal makes them go away. Simple put: that's false. People who are physically addicted to drugs such as heroin can't seek out help as it currently lies because they are treated as criminals if they relapse and are sent to prison.
Portugal decriminalized a wide array of drugs including heroin, LSD, marijuana, and cocaine and they saw:
- More people opted to seek out treatment for their drug problems [8]
- Reduction in HIV among drug users by 17% [9]
- Drug use among adolescents declined [10]
- Decreased value of street drugs [11]
For more see See Drug Decriminalization in Portugal by Glenn Greenwald [6]
Further more I want to touch on the fact that the way scheduling is handled in the United States, several important drugs are kept from being studied by scientists in universities. That is absolutely ridiculous. Drugs like MDMA are going to pave the way in treating things like depression and PTSD. [16] LSD has been known to help alcoholics see the light and give it up. [17]
Marinol, a synthetic form of THC that costs thousands of percents more than the price of marijuana, is allowed to be prescribed and sold, but marijuana is illegal. That's messed up.
You're way of thinking is dangerous and is irrational and your certainty not being reasonable.
[1] http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/lsd/lsd_basics.shtml
[2] http://brown.edu/Student_Services/Health_Services/Health_Edu...
[3] http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/dmt/dmt_basics.shtml
[4] http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/mescaline/mescaline_basics.s...
[5] http://www.dartmouth.edu/~healthed/groups/dapa/otherdrugs/md...
[6] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-10681249
[7] http://newjimcrow.com/
[8] http://www.beckleyfoundation.org/bib/doc/bf/2007_Caitlin_211...
[9] http://www.idt.pt/PT/IDT/Documents/Ponto_Focal/2009_National...
[10] http://www.beckleyfoundation.org/bib/doc/bf/2010_Caitlin_211...
[11] http://www.beckleyfoundation.org/bib/doc/bf/2010_Caitlin_211...
[12] http://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/greenwald_...
[13] http://www.fda.gov/drugs/drugsafety/ucm239821.htm
[14] http://www.nbcnews.com/id/6089353/ns/health-addictions/t/alc...
[15] http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fast_...
[16] http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/dec/27/mdma-ecstasy-p...
[17] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17297714
[18] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naloxone
Edit: Some formatting and thanks to klearvue for bringing a prevalent spelling error to my attention. Sometimes I get ahead of myself.