system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: All drugs should be legalized and sold like alcohol and tobacco

Despite all laws, people still continue to manufacture, sell and use variously prohibited substances. 

The 1920's Prohibition Era only gave rise to criminal organizations such as Al Capone and so the U.S quickly overturned the 18th Amendment with the 21st (to date, the only Constitutional Amendment to be repealed). 

If all drugs are treated as alcohol and tobacco then the large majority of people who use "heavy" drugs will no longer fear seeking rehabilitative help for their addiction because they will no longer be criminals in the eye of the law- proven by Portugal's rate of addiction dropping by half a decade after it radically changed its drug policy by decriminalizing all drugs. 

A system like alcohol and tobacco will also provide legal, taxable, regulated jobs for law-abiding citizens rather than gangs/cartels which one cannot sue in court, criminal or civil, in such cases as overdosing or products containing impurities just as we have with the FDA. 

While some of these substances are quite harmful to the body so are plenty of things that are perfectly legal. We have daily incidents of drunk driving across the world but alcohol is still legal. If any recreational drug is to be prohibited then which ones and on what basis?
gpt
Portugal decriminalized drugs, they didn't legalize them. Part of the success was that addicts went to clinics focused on weaning people off drugs - which did involve giving them drugs, but not just selling them any amount. They got them help, they didn't just let them use freely. 

I am for decriminalization - which means using isn't illegal, only sale/possession of large enough quantity to assume intent to sell. 

Legalization is another thing entirely because it increases availability of highly addictive substances to the whole population. Heroin IIRC being the most addictive so I'd use that as the best example of a drug that shouldn't be legalized. Especially since it's also one of the drugs where the dose required for the high is close to the dose that can cause death.

While gangs and cartels aren't an insignificant issue, neither are drug epidemics. They can happen even if there are no gangs and cartels, people tend to use what they have easy access to when they're looking for some sort of relief. If heroin were available as easily and then used as much as alcohol there's a possibility for serious consequences especially in places where poverty despair are already a difficult challenge.