The American experience with drugs at the end of the 19th century demonstrated the serious problems that can be caused by the general use of a wide range of legally available drugs. These problems were judged unacceptable by Americans of that day. Prohibition was the result of nonpartisan public outcry over the negative effects of unrestricted drug use. (Trebach 41-44) The most important question in regards to legalization is how it would affect use and abuse in this country. Advocates of legalization such as Steven Duke and Albert Gross argue that those who do not use under prohibition will not use under legalization. Duke is a law professor at Yale University, and Gross is a lawyer from San Diego, California. They are greatly respected advocates for legalization, their greatest fame stemming from their co-authored book, America's Longest War. The key argument made by advocates Duke and Gross is that the major reasons why people desist from smoking and drinking - health, social stigma, morality, aesthetics - are also applicable to the drugs currently labeled 'illegal' (120). Whether Americans choose to avoid recreational drugs in the first place or to quit using or abusing them is linked to the quality of their lives and their perceived prospects for a rewarding life without drug use or abuse. As Duke states, illegal-drug use has been reduced dramatically in the past few years among white middle and upper classes-but hardly or not at all among ethnic minorities, who largely inhabit out inner cities. Many of those users see nothing but a bleak future before them (121). Having little to lose by drug abuse, they feel no regrets about summarily losing it. In sum, the drug market is already saturated with a combination of legal and illegal drugs. Proponents of legalization feel that virtually everyone who now wants to get high already does so, and while legalization may significantly alter market shares among the now legal and illegal drugs, it is unlikely to create a dramatic increase in demand for narcotics.
