You would allow businesses to sell heroin for recreational use?
Yes.
That seems insane. Heroine is highly addictive and it kills. Heroin addicts only have a 50% survival rate.
Yes, and that's tragic. Let's solve the problem by making it illegal, thus providing incentives for addicts not to seek help for fear of retribution. Makes sense.
How about cocaine (US example) ... currently not widely available
Among emergency room visits for illegal drugs, cocaine use topped the list at 482,000 visits
482,000 sounds widely available to me. It's almost as if making drugs illegal doesn't stop people from using them.
Drugs like those are so dangerous to a population, they are illegal in every country on earth. The British tried to sell opiates to the Chinese public and that led to the Opium wars. The Chinese did not want a huge proportion of their population wacked out of their minds and a high mortality rate.
The Chinese can run China the way they want. As a citizen of Australia, I'll focus on influencing Australia the way I want.
Then there is taking heroin or cocaine and driving
... which I'm not advocating legalising.
kids finding the stuff lying about (you just made it widespread) and could OD
You mean like alcohol?
the increased risk of HIV and other diseases from sharing needles
Largely a result of drugs being illegal. Suppose heroin was legalised, and regulated so that every heroin vendor was required to offer clean needles with every sale of the drug. Imagine how much less damage could be done.
sick days as large numbers of people just don't get to work because they are sky high and don't care - there aren't many heroine addicts that hold down a 9-5 job, the huge elevation in crime because addicts will do absolutely anything for a fix.
Do you have any evidence that legalising it will increase the number of addicts? If, as you say, they will do anything for a fix, then they will find a way to obtain the drug whether or not it is legal. It's much easier to recognise and deal with such problems when they're out in the open, though.
This is a terrible idea. I'm all for personal responsibility, but I don't agree class A drugs should be legal because there are large numbers of vulnerable people and this would ruin their lives.
On the contrary, I think it would help a lot of people whose lives are being ruined now.
Also I'm a libertarian for the most part and I don't think guns should be legal either.
I didn't say that. I'm a moderate on the gun debate; as on many other issues, I advocate regulation rather than prohibition. I don't think it should be illegal to obtain a gun, but I also don't think it should be easy.
Companies suing anyone saying their products are harmful?
Human trials by pharma companies on students who need the money?
You can't make it legal and then allow business to do whatever business wants. You need to draw the line somewhere.
For fuck's sake, Thork. Did you actually read the post you're replying to? Here, let me reiterate the important part:
In all of the above cases, I believe that the role of government is not to prohibit, but to regulate
No, I don't think business should have a free hand when it comes to these things. However, I
would prefer to see heroin and cocaine being sold by legitimate, regulated, taxable businesses than by the black market.