To the people answering this question- what are drugs?
Are they the cafeine we eat and drink? The St. John's wort we take for depression? The tylenol we take for pain- that acts on endocanabinoid systems? The Prozac we take for anxiety and depression? The alcohol we take for relaxation and as part of a social norm.
The fact that people are saying "drugs are..." shows the problem. There is no clear delineating line.
Some drugs can facilitate problems in a user's life, some are unlikely to.
Morphine is indistinguishable from heroin in its effects. Tylenol stops pain via the same mechanism that Marijuana does, w/ differing efficacy.
You cannot have a bright line rule.
People mess up their lives, drugs don't.
There can be no rational distinction just cuz a doctor prescribes a substance. Morphine vs. Heroin vs. Codeine? All the same irregardless of who recomends the consumption.
People use drugs for the same reason I take prozac and caffeine, to experience the effects. While we might poo poo on the rational, it is not for me to tell someone not to do them, and it is certainly not for you to lock me up if I decide to use them, grow them, or sell them to another adult who's harmed no one.
As for the inevitable arguments that "some folks would hurt people with drugs". Perhaps, but they could be put in jail. And much longer I might add if we didn't have overcrowding from drug dealing and possesion imprisonments. And I certianly wouldn't start using heroin if it were legalized tomorrow, and I doubt you would either. Nevertheless, I coudl get some tonight if I wanted to. The war on drugs effects nothing but increases the profits, price, motivations, and violence of the trade, as folks cannot turn to normal means to resolve disputes in an illegal trade and users who are addicted have to pay 2,000% inflation over the fair market value of the goods due to its illegality, and thus are more likely to need to steal to support their habit.
Drugs are tools, some are more useful than others.
What can't be denied is the 50 billion dollar a year war on drugs hurts families, puts good people in jail, and hurts folks who've neither stolen, assaulted, or been dishonest- and that is wrong.
Let's hope for some rationality.
And if anyone wants to define for me what "drugs" are in the context of this discussion, I'd be interested to hear it.