One thing I've always wondered about drug legalization plans: how do you deal with new drugs? Is it simply assumed that whatever concoction some teenage chemist cooks up and finds a market for can be quickly absorbed by private producers and put in stores? Does it need to go through FDA testing? If it does so and fails, then does it become illegal, creating the same old problems? Is there a patent process, so we'll have scores of researchers trying to create new substances with trippier highs and more addictive qualities? How does the patent process work -- or are recreational drug compounds placed in the public domain?
I am, generally speaking, a friend of regulated legalization, particularly the sort described in Stamper's op-ed. It does seem to me, though, that there exist a fair number of hurdles that aren't well overcome. With alcohol and tobacco already legal, there's no guarantee that legalizing other drugs will reduce the market for newly-discovered, still-illegal substances that offer new experiences, which might end with us trapped in the same old cycle.
