This move has come after decades of mass manufacture of all sorts of drugs and a general failure to prevent drug dealing, addiction and drug related crime... It has been taken as a collective attribute of the human condition, with it's problems.
Many proponents of legalization state the problems with existing policy and promote the benefits of drug use or the move towards a more tolerant drug taking culture. This has gained popular support of course with the many drug users and addicts in society as well as some victims of drug use and crime who don't see way forward in existing policies and can't think of better alternatives.
This though does not mean better alternatives don't exist, on the macro and the micro level. On a philosophical level, we should ask why so many people in society want to escape their present reality by turning to drugs.
Mass drug abuse points to deeper problems in the culture, ideology and foundations of a society and civilization, it points to problems in the social, economic, educational and cultural norms and systems of a society. On the level of the resultant crime and disorder stemming from drug addiction and other matters it points to political, judicial and law enforcement failings... it doesn't mean necessarily that the concept of prohibiting drug abuse is incorrect.
Once people jump on a bandwagon for a particular trend they will readily propagate a list of benefits... But they should consider all the harms that exist already in association with it, as well as those harms that are likely to arise with further facilitating it.
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