1) Driving drug production and commercial distribution off the street and into a regulated setting is certainly an improved standard.
2) Legal sports betting in LV receives fair competition from offshore bookmakers because they (the offshores) are defacto legal since tens of millions of Americans are conducting business with them while encountering no risk of criminal arrest or prosecution.
3) There are no drugs within the currently legal realm that are competitively dealt by street dealers in the year 2008.
Easily 99.9% (literal number, not euphemistic) of production and commercial sales for the drugs alcohol and tobacco within North America are conducted by legal, regulated operators.
And despite a modicum of a "street" market for Rx pharmaceuticals (notably opiods and tranquilizers), 97% or more of those drugs are also produced and commercially dealt by legal, regulated operators.
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The primary reason that upwards of 3% of Rx opiod and tranquilizer sales are conducted by illicit and unregulated dealers (ranging from family members to neighbors and coworkers usually) is that Rx pharms in the USA are sold in two distinct pricing tiers.
Consumers with medical insurance which includes RxPharm copayments pay between 50-90% less than do consumers who do not have such insurance coverage. It is that secondary tier of consumers who can be viably serviced by illicit sellers who themselves are in the first tier (low prices) and simply pass some or all of their legally obtained pharms to non-insured consumers at a price that falls somewhere between the "insurance copay" price and the no-insurance "full price".
Ending 21st century drug Prohibition is not a response to "the drug problem".
Rather, it is a response to the "drug production and distribution problems" that are a byproduct of giving 100% control of a short list of in-demand drugs to street dealers, criminal gangs and international criminal cartels.
Since we know that drug use is not going away, it is commonly sensible to create and promote a legal, regulated system for production and distribution.
One need not be a user of any currently illicit drug(s) to recognize the simple fact this simple edict.
Clearly, we've recognized it with regard to literally 99.9% of the current drugs which are eagerly sought after and used by American consumers.
But for some unexplained reasoning, prevailing public policy takes a short list (about a dozen for practical purposes) of in-demand drugs and cedes 100% control to the street.
Prohibitionists may be okay with having risky and/or addictive drugs like cocaine, heroin, amphetamines and psychedelics controlled by the street and organized crime. But count me out.
