there's no doubt in my mind that fully legalizing drugs would lead to a more volatile society
Many hard drugs (including cocaine and heroin) were legal in the United States prior to the 1920s.
To the best of my knowledge, there was no massive social breakdown as a result.
The ultimate irony is that a major motivation for the criminalization of cocaine was, for poor rural whites, a fear that drugged up blacks would start raping white women. [1] Needless to say, this did not materialize and there is no reason it will if we lift the ban.
It certainly was a tumultuous period, but what reliable evidence is there of cocaine being a major causal factor? The USA was plagued by lots of labor-related violence, race rioting and organized crime (peaking during Prohibition, of course), but was cocaine ever anything more than a scapegoat?
Many hard drugs (including cocaine and heroin) were legal in the United States prior to the 1920s.
To the best of my knowledge, there was no massive social breakdown as a result.
The ultimate irony is that a major motivation for the criminalization of cocaine was, for poor rural whites, a fear that drugged up blacks would start raping white women. [1] Needless to say, this did not materialize and there is no reason it will if we lift the ban.
[1] http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/01/why-we-too...