Shmoke em if ya got em. Some people can't control their vices, they need help not prison.
The rest of us are fine.

Can't do that - if people are healthy, happy, and successful - how can the government fool them into believing it is needed, along with all that tax revenue it takes?

I agree with the baseline of this argument but for different reasons. As a human being I own my body. The government, by criminalizing drugs, is claiming ownership of my body in the respect that they get to choose what I am and am not allowed to put in it. That to me is fully unacceptable. So long as I do no harm to my fellow man whilst inebriated it is none of their damn business what I decide to ingest, smoke, or snort.

Not even an untried idea. Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2001. Deincentivize criminal behavior. Refocus policing to other crimes. Reinstitutionalize rehabs. Why do I think that this will never happen?

I would definitely consider the decriminalization of all drugs similar to the plan in Portugal. Legalize all is a challenge for me. I believe that weed should be completely declassified and deregulated. I have a hard time seeing opioids in the same way. The following article that I posted on my FB page came to mind: [thestranger.com]

I agree, recreational drugs should be legalized.

Posted earlier on agnostic.com:

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Society desperately needs to learn the difference between vice and crime. Prosecute crime, counsel against vice. Passing a law doesn't change a vice into a crime.

Correct the root cause of the problem. Most overdose deaths are caused by drugs supplied by criminals and lacking quality control. Legalized, available over the counter, quality controlled opioids will end the overdose epidemic. Most users of alcohol, nicotine and caffeine remain productive, well-adjusted law-abiding citizens. Without prohibition, the same would be true of most users of "recreational" pharmaceuticals. There are hundreds of thousands of respectable professionals, politicians and middle class citizens who are regular users, without serious problems (as long as they avoid detection by law enforcement).

Allow addicts to retain some self respect, and give them a fighting chance to kick their addiction. Reduce the prison population and save billions of tax-payer dollars. Remove the revenue stream from the criminals. End drug-related gang violence. Allow law enforcement to focus on their primary function of protecting citizens.

Please, let's end the police state activities.

Decriminalize, not legalize. We should all have the ability to put what ever substance we want into our bodies. As an adult I have earned the right to do with my body what I want as long as I do no harm to others. prohibition is only in place to control the masses and is based on lies.

Confiscating profits will create the same incentives as the current prohibition. There will be little to no change in the market under this policy. It will simply be more lucrative to continue operating within black and grey markets than to join in with this plan.

I agree with legalize and educate but I don't think anything can be done to slow or stop drug use. Even cave paintings show our ancestors using drugs of some sort. There will always be a portion of people who partake in drugs and nothing will change that IMO.

Yes yes and yes. Except kids are stupid and will always experiment with drugs to some proportion

Johann Hari has a book called chasing the scream. It reviews drug policy from all over the world including places where they have instituted similar policies to what you're discussing with glowing results