Firstly, I agree drugs should be legalised. People should be free to do what they want with their bodies, provided they do not impact on the wellbeing others, including obvious things like stealing and violence, but also less obvious things like using their disability/welfare check to buy drugs or driving up healthcare costs. I abhor addicts, but if you want to ruin your life on drugs, we shouldn't be wasting tax money and police time on stopping you, provided you do not infringe or impact on anyone else.
I also agree with your points about nicotine, caffeine and tobacco. The reason drugs are classified as they are is largely historical. If alcohol was discovered today, it would at least be a Schedule II drug. I would refer you to the following paper: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17382831. The authors ranked a number of drugs on the following nine parameters:
Parameter | ||
Physical harm | One | Acute |
Two | Chronic | |
Three | Intravenous Harm | |
Dependence | Four | Intensity of Pleasure |
Five | Psychological dependence | |
Six | Physical dependence | |
Social harms | Seven | Intoxication |
Eight | Other social harms | |
Nine | Health-care costs |
It produced some interesting results (the A, B and C class is using the British System, roughly equivalent to Schedule I, II and III in the US):
Interesting to see that cannabis, ecstasy and LSD all rank below tobacco and well below alcohol. If you are really interested and can't access the paper, fire me a PM a I can arrange to send you a copy.
In my experience, if someone is interested enough in drugs to seek them out, just telling them "no" is not helpful. It ends the discussion, but it does not end their curiosity. People will continue to use drugs whether allowed to or not - the best thing we can do is it make it as safe as possible for them. It is clear that a lot of the "information" around drugs is scare mongering, which the science (see above) does not support. However, some of the information (opiates will literally ruin you and your families' lives), is accurate, and helping someone to understand the difference is a much safer way of approaching the situation than just a flat refusal. Yes, drugs are dangerous, but cake is dangerous too. Soda is dangerous. Roller coasters are dangerous. Driving a car is dangerous. Crossing the road is dangerous. It's all about calculated risk, and what is an acceptable risk to an individual. If a frank and open conversation helps to reduce that risk, then it's a conversation we should be having.