On The Legalization Of Recreational Drugs

This shrewd pope made an artful statement on the legalization of recreational drugs: "Let me state this in the clearest terms possible: the problem of drug use is not solved with drugs!" [1]   It sounded good but what was the purpose of identifying the self-evident problem when he did not have a solution for it?  By telling "delegates to a drug-enforcement conference in Rome that even limited attempts to legalize recreational drugs 'are not only highly questionable from a legislative standpoint, but they fail to produce the desired effects,'" [2] he had done nothing except making make drug lords happy in their respective geographic oligopolies.

While I am not a fan or a consumer of recreational drugs, I believe that they, like alcohol and tobacco, ought  not to be restricted but be available to adults to choose with their God-given Free Will to take them or not.  But what about addiction?  Yes, there are drug addicts and there will be new drug addicts, but there are alcoholics and so will there be new alcoholics.  Furthermore, restrictions do nothing to stop consumers from finding the drugs they want; they only protect profits for drug lords, make money for drug dealers [3] and perhaps even those entrusted with enforcing (and advocating [4]) their bans.


[1] http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/06/20/pope-recreational-drugs/11035025/
[2] Ibid.
[3] Gun manufacturers and dealers also benefit secondarily.
[4] "'Those who go down the evil path, as the Mafiosi do, are not in communion with God. They are excommunicated,'" stated the pope.  See http://newsok.com/pope-denounces-mafia-meets-father-of-slain-boy/article/feed/702519  The pope on the one hand spoke against the legalization of recreational drugs, thereby protecting the profits of the drug mafia, and on the other, he condemned those in the mafia who kill.  He even meted out punishment for those going down the evil path by excommunicating them.  See Pope Donounces Mafia.  Maybe the pope should excommunicate drug users for are they not also going down the evil path, albeit a somewhat different evil path, affecting the lives of the drug users themselves and those who care for them, who depend on their care and all those who love them, not to mention those who have died in drug turf wars trying to earn a living by supporting their habits?