Drugs should be legalised just to deprive the CIA of sources of ghost money. Legalising or criminalising drugs on its own doesn't really address drug usage itself, especially when the upper class of society continuously fuel the demand for illegal drugs whilst the police selectively enforce the law on lower classes. It also doesn't address that legal drug abuse and powerful recreational drugs companies would transition into things akin to the tobacco and alcohol industries which... Is not a good prospect for its effects on lawmakers and financial institutions. It also wouldn't remove the criminal element of the drug trade either, as dodging taxes is already a powerful enough incentive to keep the organised counterfeit trade of tobacco, alcohol, even cheese alive.
Yet there would be much less of a burden on the police and customs officers, and it would remove the selection pressure rewarding violence amongst gangs. I remember listening to this speech by one police officer who said the war on drugs had been a dismal failure, because all this effort to eliminate drug trafficking gangs did was help eliminate competition between gangs so that the most violent and ruthless one could consolidate vast swathes of business; resulting in a patchy network of young lads being replaced by great criminal enterprises willing to kill and use children as county line smugglers and soldiers. Legalising drugs would not be a silver bullet by any means, but I think everyone could welcome at least young men competing for custom with sterling and dollars rather than knives and bullets.
Also fuck the CIA lol so that's always a plus
I also think the moral and practical basis for criminalising drugs needs some re-examining but that requires more time, and I may post about it later