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My personal view is that government's purpose should be to improve the populace's general quality of life, not to tell them how to go about their lives.
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The original purpose of this government was indeed that improvement of the general populace's life, but in the very specific manner of protecting my rights from being infringed from you, not in protectin me from myself. The change began when we the people forgot that this was a republic where the representatives of the people did not have the power to take away the rights of a person who was not infringing on the rights of other (ie drug users, people who wish to commit suicide, homosexuals, prostitutes, etc.) All of these things may be "bad" or "wrong" in your world view, but theoretically, there should be nothing you can do about it.
If you are concerned about increased violence from drug users, the crime is still violence, not the use of drugs.
The other problem is that people have a tendency to like to vote to give away other people's property. This goes back to the beginning of the republic. There is a great speech given by Congressman Davey Crocket that talks about this exact thing.
http://www.greaterthings.com/supplem...ey_crocket.htm