I don't need protected from myself...

As a Libertarian, it is my view that we should be allowed to make these decisions for ourselves. Legalize drugs? Fine, legalize prostitution, and gambling too. Why not let people have their vices? This is the land of the free right?

IMO we prosecute people for all the wrong reasons, and our system of crime and punishment has gone way askew.

If drugs were legal, it doesn't mean that you have to take them. You make your own choices, and face your own consequences. I can see use being restricted to designated places, and private use- what you do in the privacy of your own home is your business. The thing you want to stay away from is some guy free-basing some blow, or smoking a joint on the bus- at that point he would be affecting others, and that is not in the spirit of the legislative agenda.

Laws that are meant to inflict the values of others on the populace are ridiculous. Like a helmet, or a seatbelt law- are you kidding? Why are we trying to protect people from themselves? What ever happened to the theory of Darwin?

The only laws of this nature that I can endorse are those that are meant to protect people from each other like speed laws, DUI, and the laws meant to protect children before they reach what is legally defined as "the age of reason". That age varies from state to state, but tends to fall between 13, and 15. A baby is helpless, and can't decide if it wants to sit in a child seat- but it should sit in a child seat- so that law is OK by me.

It is funny, I have felt this way since I was 9. I remember listening to a talk radio program when I was on the road with my Dad. The host was postulating "an island where everything goes" with regard to vice. The argument was that the island of vice would exist, and if you didn't want to deal with it, just stay off the island. I have spent the 24 years since listening for a reasonable counter argument- and I have never heard one.

Worried about yourself? Don't use drugs, go to prostitutes, or gamble your savings away.
Worried about your kids? Raise kids who won't use drugs, or go to prostitutes, or gamble their lives away.

honestly- Can you think of a reason why not?