Ok, here's where I'm really going to need some feedback. I'm pretty sure EVERYONE has differing opinions on this, and we won't know the answer unless we try it. The question is: If we legalize (reasonable) things, will the problem go away, or will the problem get worse? I'll give you a couple examples. Everyone always says that, if we legalize the consumption of alcohol and change the limitations to 18+ in age, then the problem of underage drinking will diminish, because it won't be difficult to obtain alcohol for young people who are at the age where they want to drink. The consensus for a lot of people is that, if we did this, people would drink alcohol like it's tea (as some people put it.) Some people say that, when the threats and scandalism of it all go away, kids are not attracted to it. When there's no danger of getting caught, there's no rush to be had, so kids don't care anymore. That seems to be reasonable. I mean it seems like that's the way it is in England, at least. Some of my family lives there, and they say they look at alcohol as being completely normal and not at all taboo. (If you want to read more about my views on this, read my note "Blame It On the A-a-a-a-a-a-alcohol.") This is why I'm inclined to say that, if we got rid of the laws, the problems would go away.
However, here's another example: prostitution. If we let people sell their bodies if they want, (which in prostitutes' defense, their bodies should be theirs to do as they please with,) then people probably would. I actually knew someone who got a prostitution-type offer from someone, and she was so desperate for money that she probably would've taken the offer had prostitution been legal. So I'd say, in some cases maybe the legalization of the law would make the problem worse. I think it's like this in many cases.
Another example: murder. Do you think more people would commit murder if it wasn't against the law? I'm inclined to think people who murder do so because they're sick or evil or whatever. I don't think some people sit around and think "Hmmm, yea, I'd like to murder that guy, but it's illegal, so I better not." No, people who want to murder actually do it. And people who aren't mentally ill in that way don't even think (seriously) about murdering other people. So if we got rid of the law against murder, I don't think we'd see more murders. I think, instead, we'd see the same number of murders, but committed by people sloppily - as in, murderers wouldn't spend time and effort cleaning up after themselves to cover up what they did. They wouldn't need to, because they wouldn't fear going to jail for getting caught. However, getting rid of the law against murder might eventually lead society to accept murder as a proper punishment by common folks, and it might become kind of a norm to kill people when you get really mad at them. I mean, we've seen it in all kinds of cultures and time periods. So, in this way, yes, maybe eventually we would see more murders after decriminalizing murder.
So I guess you just have to pick and choose which laws are necessary in order to keep people from committing those crimes, and which laws are actually encouraging people to commit the crimes. Get rid of the ones that encourage people to commit the crimes (such as, possibly, the drinking age law.) I mean, our whole point of creating and enforcing laws is to get people to do what we want or refrain from doing what we don't want them to do. So sometimes, I think we have to lighten up and get rid of the laws in order to get people to do what we want or refrain from doing what we don't want them to do. In order to be effective, you have to play the game right!
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