Aphi is correct, well argued by the way.

The country didn't want to deal with the international repercussions of flouting the drug laws. There are a lot of international treaties that have to be considered.

When they turned the blind eye to it they had a small sharp increase in use that quickly went down again.

However, the economic costs of legalizing drugs make it prohibitive

KTsnake is correct in his statement about the billions of dollars involved.

Politcs is about moving money around and getting elected. The art of the possible they call it sometimes lol.

No politician is going to get elected by proposing legislation that is going to put 40-60 percent of law enforcement personel out of work. 40-60 percent of prison workers. Enormous amounts of support personel etc.

A lot of programs would lose funding. There are whole non-profits that would go out of business.

Huge amounts of the underground economy would cease to function . . . as well as the business they support.

Seriously, that is the issue that has to be faced before you can even have a dialogue about making drugs legal. In fact drug dealers wouldn't be supporting it lol.

Great Britain recently legalized marijuana. They've had a HUGE drop in crime and most would agree quality of life has increased. Of course that's Great Britain a completely different culture from the US. It'll be interesting to see how that plays out though.

Be wary of statistics like that, though. As long as its technically true, it can be printed. If nothing were illegal, thered be no crime...