>>It's a shame that making drugs illegal didn't stop the proliferation of them on the streets and the ever-increasing use:
>>http://www.cadca.org/resources/detail/national-study-confirms-teen-drug-use-increasing
>>http://www.samhsa.gov/newsroom/advisories/1109075503.aspx
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>Drugs are difficult to ban because of its high addictive aspects and therefore comparable with smoking and drinking alcohol. There you also must recognise the difference between soft- and harddrugs. Like the ban on alcohol in the 30s of the last century, it only attracts more crime. I'm a forestander of legalizing all drugs (no its not legalized in Holland yet), because it will take it out the criminal scene and the government can collect taxes on it.
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>More focus must be laid on education of our children. Here children at primary school are already informed about the usage of drugs (from alcohol to crack), their short and long term effects, ect. It will not prevent all children from taking drugs, but at the least they are educated on what the effects could be, so they would be more carefull.
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>Drugs are consumables, not tools like guns. Drugs are used for own usage, while with guns its too often to hurt/kill another not having anything to do with the purchase of the gun.

And it's the illegality of the drugs that causes the crime, in several ways. First off, citizens who otherwise don't even get parking tickets are assigned criminal status by just consuming them. Once you imprison them, they mix up with real criminals and some of them take that as school. Once out, they are branded as such, have a harder time finding a job, and some will resort to the skills acquired in that school.

Second, illegal drugs are far more expensive because there's a monopoly and the cost of doing business illegally (including the cost of weapons, shipments lost, bribes, lawsuits etc). Then these drugs are purchased by people who can't really afford them - addicts aren't exactly affluent, so they're desperate, caught between the addiction, empty pockets and the price of a dose. So they'll sell stuff from their own house, from family, steal, rob, do anything - and thus become criminals for real.

Third, the drug peddlers' marketing division is not restrained by any kind of scruples or morals. As their customers die or become unable to pay, they make new ones.