Seventy: Legalize Drugs in New York

In today's Chicago Tribune, there was yet another feature about the debate over legalizing drugs - marijuana, cocaine, heroin. I read most of both sides of the argument. It was pretty predictable. The pro-legalize guy (a liberal Yale law professor) talked about the money which could be raised through taxation, and how removing the profit motive would reduce criminal participation in the drug distribution business. The anti-legalization guy (a former Bush drug war dude) talked about how the war on drugs is succeeding, and how the countries which have easily accessible drugs have been inundated with drug addiction.

Here's an idea. Politicians and academics are always talking about how the the United States is a collection of "fifty laboratories." Okay, so take one state and legalize drugs. Presumably, it would likely, although not necessarily, be a state with a liberal, Democratic bent, such as New York. Let's assume it's NY. Let's see how NY deals with the influx of drug users, drug suppliers, drug treatment facilities and professionals, and of course drug regulators. Let's see how much NY brings in with drug taxation, and how NY uses the proceeds (like states which have legalized gambling to finance schools). Make the chief NY drug dude somebody like Bill Clinton, or Chuck Schumer, or Al Sharpton. Let's see how they do.