>But look at China, where they have very little drug usage, due to extremely harsh penalties, and extreme social stigma. Individuals don’t get “mind expanding”

>But look at China, where they have very little drug usage, due to extremely harsh penalties, and extreme social stigma. Individuals don’t get “mind expanding” or therapeutic benefits of drugs, but at least the society is not paying the cost of externalities of drug usage (see San Francisco’s Tenderloin). That's not the case though. China has lots of drugs, probably more than the US. Many of the powder based drugs in the US are made in China. When you go on a business trip there they flaunt all sorts of things from prostitution to drugs. As long as you're rich it's no problem. >Not all who do drugs are rational individuals with full information about what might happen if a chemical dependency is established. This is why in a perfect world we have to take a test to take certain drugs. It could be handled at the dmv. Once you're certified you can buy a specific quantity based on being an informed actor. It's how we handle other dangerous activities.