Limited decriminalization for drug abusers is a compelling argument, provided they're given the option of treatment over jail. I wouldn't extend decriminalization, however, to the sellers or distributors of contraband.
Sorry Marlo, Avon, and Heisenberg but your ass is going to prison.
In the third season of The Wire "Bunny" Colvin, Baltimore police major, decides to create a legalized zone for the sale and consumption of drugs in the city. His reasoning is that it'll sequester the social pathologies associated with the drug trade in a police-supervised atmosphere. The fictionalized portrayal of "Hamsterdam" looks like a Boschian Hell, but for the most part it works.
My concern would be in how such an area would affect the values of the surrounding community. Would young people mark their calendars until the day they could take a trip to the local Hamsterdam for their first hit?
Cocaine, heroin, and meth are also not experienced in the same way alcohol and marijuana are. Some stimulants are powerful enough to keep you hooked for decades.
The ability to function as a productive member of society takes a huge hit when you're on cocaine, for example. We all have known at least one guy who smokes too much weed, and lives in a rundown apartment with empty pizza boxes on the floor. His priorities may not fall in line with most people but he has a job, maybe as a grocery store security guard, and is still invited to family gathering. You've never known anyone on crack or meth who can hold a job and isn't a source of sorrow for family and their increasingly narrow circle of friends.
The drug war has not been a success but I'm highly skeptical about a favorable outcome resulting from legalization as well.
