Why all drugs should be legalised

I'd like to preface this post by making an important distinction that should curtail a few immediate objections: saying that drugs should be legal is NOT the same as saying that people should do drugs or that drugs are necessarily a good thing. We need to be able to separate moral or ethical issues from legal issues. And when I say all drugs, I mean all drugs. Yes, even heroin. There are several very persuasive reasons for the legalisation of all drugs, and it will be seen that these reasons are generic and therefore apply to any drug.

First and foremost, there is the issue of safety. A large majority of drug-related deaths are caused by contamination. If drugs were legal, they could be regulated and controlled by the government. This would ensure that there were few if not zero 'bad batches', saving many lives.
There would also be less taboo associated with drugs, so there would be much more information available, and people would be more inclined to seek help if suffering from any drug-related problems or medical conditions.

The government would also be able to make a huge amount of revenue from taxation of legal drugs. This extra revenue could be spent on information campaigns and rehabilitation programmes for those suffering from drug addiction. You may think that a black market would emerge that would undercut the government price. However, if drugs were legal the government would be able to achieve incredible economies of scale by making use of mass-production. This would ensure that they would be able to offer the lowest price and prevent a black market economy from arising. The lower price of drugs would also end a large proportion of criminal acts committed to finance drug use (burglaries etc).

Making drugs legal and allowing the government to control them would also take the money out of the hands of crime gangs. An alarming percentage of profits made from selling drugs are used to help finance criminal and even terrorist organistions. Taking this money away could help to loosen the hold of crime overall (I appreciate that this point may be a tad optimistic - but I hope you can see where I'm coming from). Drugs would be more out in the open and by consequence statistics on drug use/damage/rehabilitation would be more reliable and accessible.

The main objection that people give is that more people would use drugs if they were legalised. I point out that many people who indulge in drugs do so with little or no regard to their illegality - I know cannabis to be illegal but I still smoke it. I have to concede, nonetheless, that this is possible in the case of some drugs, as people may mistakenly conflate legal and logical/personal issues. However, I argue that this would only be the case for the less serious drugs. A drug like heroin for example, is not the kind of drug you would do just because it was legal. The devestating consequences of heroin use are much publicised and so well known that many people revile it, regardless of its illegality. With regard to the drugs whose use may rise due to them becoming legal, I maintain that the harm caused by increased use would be more than outweighed by the benefits of the safety issues mentioned above.

It is for these reasons that I believe all drugs should be made legal. I look forward to reading any comments or questions you might have. Thanks, goodnight.