Legalise drugs, prostitution and gambling to stimulate the economy?

Before I begin with my normal sweeping statements and opinionated drivel, please ensure you watch every second of this video. Otherwise, just click the X located on the top right of your screen, please. For those of you with ADHD, it's only 2:13.

THE VIDEO

Now that guy had balls. He just asked one of the most powerful men in the world (as much as I hate to admit that an American be one) the most socially unacceptable question the world.

Legalising all drugs, prostitution and gambling - to stimulate the economy.

Now there's a doozy of a question.

We'll just continue this article and pretend that Obama actually addressed the question. Which he didn't. Anyway.

As you expect - I have a concrete... or at least a wet concrete opinion on this matter.

The reason it's a wet concrete opinion on the subject raised by given college student, is because I am very pro some things and very anti some other things.

Unfortunately for me, the things which I support pro-legalisation of, often [wrongly] get assumed to be one in the same [with other things].

Anybody who knows me will know I am talking about cannabis.

But surely if...

So over the past while when I came to educate myself on the facts about cannabis, there's been a few people (to say the least) that have questioned my opinion and my findings.

And that's OK. Because everyone, like me, is entitled to their own opinion (whether their opinion be factually sound is another point - but another time, perhaps).

Aye, so, nothing like a jolly good argument to rouse the senses.

One of the most common stumbling blocks I have often encountered with prohibitionists is the (what they, for some reason, believe to be a valid point) is "But surely if you legalise cannabis, then you'll have to legalise all drugs and gambling and prostitution - they don't hurt anybody - why not legalise them?"

To which I answer - "Well, the thing about cannabis is, uhhhhh, it's not having sex with a stranger every night or the week and uhhh.. it's not quiet heroin and nahhhh it's not quite betting your house on a game of cards either....... it's ya know.... just a plant that chills a few people out..."

But yet, people are adament that because I support the complete legalisation of cannabis that I therefore support the complete legalisation of all drugs, prostitution and gambling.

This is probably the single most stupid prohibitionist argument that I have ever encountered, in my entire life. Those who claim this statement should, to no loss of mankind, be hung.

Firstly, those who compare cannabis to gambling, prostitution and drugs like heroin, are stupid. It's completely different on so many levels (not to mention that cannabis is a drug and prostitution & gambling are not drugs, for a start)

The same way flyers are different to newspapers and porno mags are different to general magazines. They are not comparable.

It's just like saying "well, if we legalise euthanasia, we may as well legalise murder".

This is obviously a completely stupid statement to make as they are both completely different things.

And that's the major problem I encounter with people who hold a cannabis-prohibitionist POV point of view.

They seem to think that the word 'cannabis' means 'all drugs' and the word 'legalise' means 'stuff down the throats of everyone else'.

Let me get this straight;

IT DOESN'T

I have been to Amsterdam twice in my life and only on the second trip did I come to realise what Amsterdam was. It is a heaving cesspool of all that is unsavoury.

While yes, Amsterdam [and the Netherlands] do have the lowest drug usage in all of Europe and yes they may have some of the cleanest people around (IE, low rate of STDs in Dutch people - not including the tourists) and it may ALSO have no known gambling problems - this does not mean that I support legalisation of prostitution and gambling.

Understandably, this leaves me in a difficult situation. Why should I support the legalisation of cannabis - but not other drugs and not prostitution?

To which my answer is simple.

It is, believe it not, possible to be liberal on some things and conservative on others.

As it happens, I'm a conservative.

That's right - I'm one of those bastards who in their spare time, in-between lynching black people and immigrants, likes to launch offensives against gays and lesbians. I am a stark raving conservative. And you know what? There'll be no ankle-showing at my pimms parties on the lawn - because as much as I ridicule the paper for its utter scaremongering, I, am unfortunately, a Daily Mailer.

However, unlike most Daily Mailers, I don't see the legalisation of cannabis as being an equivalence to nuclear holocaust.

I do however, see the legalisation of real drugs (heroin, cocaine, crack, etc) as being a true thorn in the paw of society.

Sure, to legalise all drugs would reduce user harm as exemplified in Switzerland and many other countries worldwide and while yes, Switzerland were able to manage all drugs in a clean, safe fashion - this does not mean that I wish to accept this policy to my own country.

I agree that legalising all drugs would earn the government more money than it costs it to prohibit drugs (evidence supports this - google it - don't come whinging for sources, please, the evidence is there in abundance)

And yes, I agree that legalising prostitution would, to the absolute horror of my fellow Daily Mailers, actually reduce sexually motivated crimes against non-consenting females (see: rape) by a large degree and yes it would reduce the amount of STDs on our streets as the now illlegal (which, to the ill-knowledge of some people, are operating anyway in mass numbers) brothels would become legal and regulated - removing the risk of illegal immigrants being forced to work in brothels and would mean that all workers must be screened for STDs, thus, removing all infected prostitutes from the market - reducing the STD rate (see, again, Amsterdam)

Just because my morals force me to think on the side of the liberal, does not mean I agree with all that the liberal says.

And that's where I think one of the biggest stumbling blocks in my pro-cannabis argument lies.

People think that to legalise cannabis must mean that I want to legalise heroin, gambling and 'that suzie down the street'.

Not by a long stretch.

And the sooner that prohibitionists come to realise that there's a difference between plants, women and money, the better - because I'm sick of hearing the whole "But surely if" argument.

It's stupid - it's not logical - and it's a broad statement to a specific problem.

Legalise cannabis.

Keep prostitution illegal.

Keep all other illegal drugs, illegal.

It is possible - believe it or not.