Regulation and control of the drug market can and will save lives. As Vanilla and Yvonne said, when we decriminalise drugs, drug addicts can be treated as patients. These people can be offered medical and financial support rather than a jail sentence.
Drugs, once decriminalised, like alcohol and tobacco, can be taxed and sold for less than they cost underground.

Binge drinking has increased and hospitals are treating FAR more alcohol related cases than illicit drug cases.
There are so many problems with alcohol that I find it hard to believe that it is still being advertised especially at sport events.

Yvonne, I never knew that Panadol is such a dangerous drug! That sounds scary.
Even prescription drugs can be a greater health risk than illicit drugs, if I’m not mistaken.
Heath Ledger, for example, died from an accidental overdose of prescription medications including painkillers, anti-anxiety drugs and sleeping pills, and many were surprised that he didn’t die because of an overdose of illicit drugs.

Col, “...basing acceptability on an old product standard is fraught with dangers in regard to the new variant.”
I see what you mean. But once decriminalised, drugs can be labeled according to strength and proper information can be given out about strengths and risk etc.
Once people have information they can make up their own mind about what they want to take.

the positives of decriminalising drugs are way, way outweighed by the negatives. we must ask why people, especially the very young, try drugs in the first place. is it frustration or stupidity. are they driven to drugs by the selfishness of money only focused adults ? Let's face the truth here just for a moment. what can youngsters actually do nowadays without being told "no, you can't do that !" or, do you have a permit ?, or you have to be a member, or, that'll cost you so much, or we'll play stupid music & movies till you spend your money, or if you don't win you're not good enough, your academic results aren't good enough, etc. etc. all these pressures are imposed by adults who can't see the damage they're doing to the young in their pursuit of money. just take a good look at TV or have a good listen to the radio. what do you see & hear ? crap, utter crap ! everything is a competition. there's no allowance for innocent fun. no, it's always about winning. life's not about that for a decent human being ? it's about being content. how can youngsters develop with so much idiocy thrown at them by adults trying to exploit them every step of the way. we don't need decriminalising of taking drugs, we need decriminalising of common sense & criminalise the breeding of senselessness.

This is what I meant when I asked what can we learn from the legal legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco.

Legalisation didn't alleviate alcohol abuse or cigarette smoking, why would it with other different drugs? The biggest problems with alcohol such as binge drinking and long term alcoholism are only getting worse. Legilising drugs doesn't make the problem go away and I would argue it would get worse once our social psyche adapted to newer forms of drugs available on the market.

Drug users are already treated like patients and many resources are already allocated by governments and charities for drug rehabilitation, food and housing, education, needle exchange etc. Not only should we ensure this support remains but we should step it up a notch to ensure that no-one slips through the cracks when the user makes the difficult decision to kick the habit and actually seek help.

I strongly believe the better path to take with this problem is to look at why people use drugs? What are the root causes and then take appropriate action to combat the problem from the take-up end not just allocate money to the bandaid end of the problem.

You won't reduce drug use by legalisation and you will only add to the problems of an already overburdened underfunded hospital (incl. allied health services) system.

Pelican, Drug users are generally NOT treated like patients. Sure, Australia has a harm minimisation policy in place, but drug users are still charged and tried. Most addicts end up in prison at some point, where it is basically impossible to clean up. They learn more about participating in crime to feed addictions, and they learn more about drug use. Ten per cent of injecting drug users use needles for the first time in prison. (See: http://www.ffdlr.org.au/commentary/Drugs%20in%20perspective.htm )

It's an excellent point about alcohol and tobacco, but do remember that legalising heroin doesn't mean making it available for sale. It generally means giving it to addicts in controlled programs.

We shouldn't fool ourselves that kids start taking drugs because they're messed up. People take drugs, first and foremost, because they feel good. Then they want to take more. I believe the best thing we could do to improve drug-related problems (which will never be completely eradicated) is to educate children about drugs — properly, not have a cop go in to some Year Ten classroom and say speed will make you feel anxious, which half the kids know is untrue and they other half are about to find out — and about addictions. Have addicts talk to the kids.

No one dreams of being a drug addict. It's no one's goal in life. So let's ask those people who ended up there HOW they ended up there and how other people can avoid it.

This is one of those vexed topics that rolls around with monotonous regularity. Clearly, the criminalisation of illicit drugs is about as successful as the prohibition of alcohol was in the USA, with similar unfortunate side effects like the rise of organised crime and the filling of prisons. Any truly rational analysis has to conclude that the whole exercise is a monumental waste of resources and effort, and doesn't work anyway.

A viewing of the current TV Drama "Underbelly" gives some idea of how making drugs illegal spawns all kinds of criminal problems that are ultimately worse than the drugs themselves.

However, as others have pointed out, there are so many vested interests and such a shortage of political balls that it's highly unlikely that rationality will ever win out when it comes to recreational drugs - so lives will continue to be wrecked, crime will continue to flourish, gaols will continue to be full, and the moralists will continue to deny that prohibition of illicit drugs is a complete and utter failure.

Col: "
I know someone who is turning paranoid, largely due to an over ingestion of marijuana. He is destroying every relationship he has and despite the love and care of his mother, has carried on regardless to the point he is about to find her recognition that despite her support, which has cost her in excess of $10,000 in the last year, she is recognizing that all her efforts are only enabling him to maintain a dissolute life of dependency upon her and is, thus about to pull the security blanket out from under him."

What to do then? Shoot his importer, which will mean he takes risks to find another. In the unlikely event shooting his importer has interrupted his supply (the death penalty may make citizens feel better, but doesn't do much to halt supply), he can ramp up his addiction to ice, which is homegrown and much harder to eradicate.

In fact, his mother indeed needs to spend that money not on hand-outs to her son, but on rehab. There's a big myth about rehab, which is that the person should *want* to go. I've seen many people who've have been dragged kicking and screaming to rehab, but it's worked for them.

There are no easy answers. Drugs are horrible but they're also amazing. Human have used them since we discovered them to alter our consciousness and heighten our senses.