I was listening to a radio talk show today, and there was a guest speaker who had worked for the Police, or DEA (I can't remember). He made some really valid points for legalizing drugs, and points against prohibition. Some of which I had become familiar with my discussing such topics here on the nexus.
The main stance they seem to take, is... to eliminate prohibition in such a manner that it would take these so called "drug crimes" off the streets. The guest speaker also stated, nobody will ever stop using, its just a matter of control and regulation in such a manner that the drugs aren't in the hands of "mobsters".

A lot of it made sense, but then some of it was a little bit sketchy, but check things out for yourself and see where you stand on the issue.

Check out www.leap.cc

You have two big forces going against legalization of drugs.

1 – corrupt government officials who make billions of dollars by them being illegal by accepting huge donations and under the counter money from the alcohol and tobacco industries to help keep drugs illegal, and some are even actively taking part in the transportation of illegal drugs and are making more money from their corruption than their government job positions pay them.

2 – the huge international alcohol and tobacco industries see drugs as direct competition. Alcohol and tobacco are serious drugs of abuse. These corporate drug dealers want all of us to be using their drugs and not anything else. They know if cannabis sativa or LSD is ever legalized they will dramatically reduce the sales of alcohol and tobacco. They are willing to spend trillions of dollars to keep such drugs illegal so that they don’t interfere with alcohol and tobacco sales. Don’t underestimate their political power. Alcohol and tobacco combined have killed many more people than all the illegal drugs have, and yet they remain legal throughout most of the world maintaining an unfair monopoly.

I don't completely agree on this one. I life in The Netherlands where you are pretty free to smoke cannabis. A lot of people start their smoking career with smoking cannabis and end up being addicted to tobacco. After a while those people stop smoking cannabis but the tobacco addiction stays.

Statistics seems to prove this:
http://www.nationmaster....smo-health-daily-smokers

Compared to our neighboring countries (Belgium and Germany) the percentage of daily smokers is pretty high (Netherlands 32%, Belgium, Germany respectively 27%, 24.3%). Seeing this figures I think the powerful tobacco industry should start lobbying for legalization of cannabis.

I'm not in total favor of the tobacco industry. I dislike what they do, the amount of greed they have. But I also feel as if it would be positive for the industry itself to look at marijuana and the positives it would not only have for them, but also making the general population happier as well.

That, and the industry is so large that it would seem plausible for them to spread out in the cultivation of marijuana and host such a project. With the amount of money and power that they have you would think they would of pressed for it already.

Point being, I think the tobacco industry would globalize in such a way, they would benefit from cannabis, and tobacco sales.

I dont think it works so much like that because if cannabis was legalized, much more users would be happy to plant it than cigarrete smokers think about ever planting tobacco.. Cannabis needs little preparation compared to the process to make industrialized cigarretes that people are addicted to

plus cannabis seems to inspire a more intimate relationship.. So people are more interested in planting it..

The legalizing of pot, would surely implicate growers to the criminal system even more. They harsh the penalties 10 fold, im sure, to keep people smoking the govts low grade over taxed pot.

What a great organisation. So some policemen are thinking for themselves. There's hope for us yet!

Prohibition itself is a huge industry and lobby. It is actually one of the largest industries in America. Multi multi billions dollars a year, on enforcement, lawyers, prison, rehabilitation, drug testing, the list goes on and on. These people are employed by prohibition. However jobs are no excuse for engaging in an atrocity, with hundreds of thousands of victims annually. It is just overlooked because it is "government" and lacks a CEO. It is a billion dollar industry and it is very powerful. They are constantly lobbying even to elementary school kids (although this has shown to be counter productive how convenient...)

While some people would grow their own cannabis, many would purchase it from stores. Look at cali and medical marijuana, it is legal to grow yet most individuals still purchase their cannabis. Thus a large amount of taxs could still be generated. It would be like alcohol where you can produce your own for personal use but to sell it and distribute it you need a license to ensure safety and protect the consumer.