Comment Re:It's an important thing (Score 1) 709
It's the black market price hike that makes these substances as expensive as they are, not production costs.
Many drugs literally cost more than gold per unit of weight. With a legalized production/distribution system you could sell a kilogram of cocaine for significantly less than the price of a gram on the streets today. That extremely high price is the cause of both the petty theft and the terrorist-organization connections to the drug world. A separate (but related) contributing factor to the drug "problem" is that many people get their first contacts within the black market from purchasing cannabis, thus facilitating access to other illegal substances.
Prohibition-like laws are the cause of some problems and inflate others dramatically, but are ultimately ineffective in their stated purpose as evidenced by the ease of procuring drugs in this country. Fail/Fail policy.